Where it started
The Paper Riot Store came out of a simple frustration. At the height of the adult coloring craze, every page seemed to be a microscopic mandala or a dizzying landscape. Instead of feeling relaxed, people were getting eye strain, hand cramps, and the low-level stress of trying to stay inside hair-thin lines.
So I stripped the complexity away. Thick, dark outlines. Large, open shapes. One design per page. The result is a shelf of "bold and easy" books that give you the good part of coloring, the quiet part, without the squinting.
Who the books are for
The format turned out to matter most to people that bigger publishers tend to overlook:
- Seniors and anyone with low vision, who finally had a large-print option they could see clearly.
- People with arthritis or a shaky hand, who appreciate generous spaces that ask for less precision.
- Busy adults who want twenty calm minutes, not a multi-day project.
- Care homes and families, where a page and a memory prompt can start a conversation.
Two styles, labeled honestly
Not every book on the shelf is bold and easy, and I would rather say so than let you find out at the kitchen table. The main shelf is: thick outlines, open shapes, one design per page. The four Brown Sugar books and Mara at Home are drawn in more detail, with fuller scenes, patterned fabric and natural hair drawn strand by strand. They take longer and reward it. Every book page says which style it is, and every book stays large print and single-sided.
Starting in autumn 2026 the shelf also has activity books: large-print word searches, sudoku, conversation starters and finish-the-saying pages, made for the same tired eyes and for sitting down together.
The Brown Sugar and Afrohemian collections
As the shelf grew, one gap became impossible to ignore: the adult coloring space had very little that reflected Black women, families and culture. The Brown Sugar Collection was the answer, celebrating soul food, kin, self-care and music. The Afrohemian Collection followed, drawn in African patterns with natural hair, locs and braids left as open shapes, so nothing is decided for you.
How the books are made
I want to be straightforward about my process, because I think you should know how the thing you are coloring came to be.
Every book begins with me: the idea, the subject list, the mood, and the composition of each page. I use AI image tools as a drafting step to get a first version of the line art onto the page. Then the real work starts. I redraw and simplify shapes, thicken and clean every outline, take out anything fiddly, fix hands and faces and patterns, and check each page at print size to be sure it colors well with a marker. I lay out the book, write every word in it, and test-print before anything goes on sale.
So the honest description is this: designed and edited by hand, with AI-assisted drafting. Nothing is published straight out of a generator, and every page has had my hands on it. I disclose the same thing in my Etsy and Amazon listings. If you have questions about how a particular book was made, ask me and I will tell you.
What you can count on
Each title is printed single-sided with a solid backing page, so markers stay where you put them. Every book has free sample pages you can print before buying anything. Printable editions are sold through our Etsy shop, and paperbacks through Amazon. If a page ever prints badly or a file gives you trouble, write to me and I will make it right.