The Coloring Industry Wants You to Spend 200 Dollars
Walk into an art supply store and the message is clear: you need the 150-color pencil set, the premium blending kit, the carrying case, the specialty erasers, the pencil extenders, the work lamp, the magnifying glass…
You don’t need any of that.
A complete, enjoyable coloring setup costs less than $30. Not “starts at $30 and then you add upgrades.” Thirty dollars, total, for everything you need to start coloring and enjoy it.
Here’s the kit. No upsells.
The 30-Dollar Coloring Kit
1. Crayola 50-Count Colored Pencils — $8
(Amazon)
Yes, Crayola. They’re not as smooth or vibrant as Prismacolors, but they’re perfectly functional for starting out. 50 colors gives you enough variety without decision paralysis, and the cores are hard enough that they won’t break constantly in a cheap sharpener.
If you have $15 more to spend, upgrade to Arteza Professional 72-Color — they’re significantly smoother and more vibrant. But for under $30 total, Crayola works.
2. Kum Automatic Long Point Sharpener — $8
(Amazon)
Non-negotiable. Even Crayola pencils break in bad sharpeners. The Kum creates a long, tapered point that’s less prone to snapping, and its two-stage sharpening process is gentler on soft cores than any other manual sharpener at this price. Our sharpener guide explains why this matters.
3. Secret Garden by Johanna Basford — $10
(Amazon)
The best coloring book for beginners. Beautiful designs, good paper, single-sided printing, and enough variety that you’ll find pages you love. This book has sold over 12 million copies for a reason.
4. A kneaded eraser — $2
(Amazon)
Lifts pencil marks without damaging paper. Useful for fixing mistakes, creating highlights, and cleaning up smudges. You don’t need this, but for $2 it’s worth having.
Total: ~$28
That’s it. That’s the whole kit. Everything else is optional.
What You Don’t Need (Yet)
A carrying case. A ziplock bag works. Cases are nice but not necessary until you have 72+ pencils that need organizing.
A blending pencil. The Prismacolor Colorless Blender (Amazon) is great, but layering works fine without it. Add this when you’re ready to level up your technique.
Pencil extenders. Useful when you’ve worn your pencils down to nubs, but not needed until then. (Amazon)
Specialty erasers. A kneaded eraser covers 95% of erasing needs. The other 5% you can handle by coloring over mistakes.
Marker sets. Markers are fun but they bleed through most book pages and cost significantly more than pencils. Start with pencils. Add markers later if you want them. (Our markers vs pencils guide explains when markers are worth it.)
A light pad. For tracing or transferring designs. Nice to have, not at all necessary for coloring.
An electric sharpener. Manual sharpeners give you more control and break fewer colored pencil cores. See why in our sharpener guide.
If You Have 50 Dollars: The Upgrade Path
Already have the $30 kit and want to improve it? Here’s the order of upgrades, ranked by impact:
1. Better pencils ($15-35) — The single biggest quality jump. Moving from Crayola to Prismacolor Premier 72-Color transforms the coloring experience. Softer, more vibrant, blends like butter. If you only upgrade one thing, make it this.
2. A better book ($8-15) — Add Enchanted Forest or World of Flowers to your rotation. Different design styles keep things fresh. Our mood-based book guide helps you pick.
3. A colorless blender ($4) — Prismacolor’s blender pencil takes your layering from “good” to “wow.” It’s a small investment for a big technique upgr#ade
4. Pencil extenders ($7) — When your good pencils get short, extenders let you use every last bit. Wastes less, saves money over time. (Amazon)
5. A second book ($8-15) — Because having only one book gets boring. Tropical World is the best complement to Secret Garden — simpler designs for when you want something less demanding.
Budget Tips That Actually Work
Buy pencil sets, not individual pencils. Individual pencils from art supply stores cost $1.50-3.00 each. A 72-color Prismacolor set costs about $0.50 per pencil. The per-unit price of sets is dramatically lower.
Use one book at a time. Buying five books and starting a page in each is how you end up with five unfinished books and no sense of progress. Pick one, commit to finishing it, then buy another.
Start with Crayola and upgrade later. There’s no shame in Crayola. They color. They blend (with patience). They’re available everywhere. Upgrade when you can feel the difference — not before.
Sharpen properly. A $8 Kum sharpener saves you more in broken pencils than it costs. Bad sharpeners waste core material every time you use them. More on why this matters.
Share with a friend. Split a pencil set and a book. You each get 36 colors and half a book (tear out the pages). It’s half the cost and twice the fun.
What About Free Resources?
If $30 is still too much:
– Free coloring pages: Search “free adult coloring pages” on any search engine. There are thousands of printable PDFs available. Print them on standard paper — it’s thin, but it works with pencils.
– Library books: Many libraries now carry adult coloring books. You can’t color in them directly, but you can trace or photocopy the designs.
– Digital coloring: Apps like Pigment and Recolor offer free tiers. It’s not the same tactile experience, but it’s $0.
The Bottom Line
You can spend $200 on coloring supplies. Many people do. But you don’t need to, and starting with expensive supplies can actually make the experience worse — you’re too worried about “wasting” the good pencils to actually enjoy coloring.
Start with the $30 kit. Color 20-30 pages. When you can feel the difference between good and bad pencils (and you will), upgr#ade Until then, enjoy the process.
The best supplies are the ones you actually use. Not the ones that look impressive in a case.
For the full breakdown of budget options, our supplies under $25 guide covers more options at every price point.