Are coloring trends worth the extra effort, or are they just overhyped? Welcome back to Coco’s Creations! Today, I’m putting four viral coloring techniques to the test to see which ones are actually worth trying.

From 90s nostalgia to completely rule-breaking scribble art, I learned a lot of tips, made a few mistakes, and rated each trend based on difficulty and the final result. One of these completely surprised me and stole the show!

Here is how it all went down.

1. The Lisa Frank Technique 🐆🌈

If you were a 90s kid, this one is for you. Inspired by a video from Rose Requin Crafts, this trend is all about colorful, chaotic perfection.

The Process: Using Creative Paula’s It’s The Little Things, I started by coloring the main elements in a random rainbow order with alcohol markers. The trick here is to work from the outside in, making sure no two elements start with the same color. To really get that Lisa Frank vibe, I added acrylic marker blobs over the base colors and outlined them loosely to create rainbow leopard and cheetah spots. I even added zebra and tiger stripes to the background!

• Difficulty: 2/5
• Final Result: 5/5
• Takeaway: The more chaotic, the better. Don’t sweat the small mistakes; the animal prints completely tie it all together in the end!

2. Comic Book Style 💥

This style was highly requested! Beyond just figuring out the colors, the secret to a great comic book page is telling a story from panel to panel.

The Process: I used a page that already had a comic strip layout and created a story about a sad dog who thought everyone forgot his birthday, only to be surprised by his best friend with balloons and a magic show! I outlined the sections in black and used a different bright background for each panel. By adding staggered dots and diagonal stripes in the backgrounds, the page instantly transformed into a vintage comic strip. (Note to Past Coco: I definitely should have used acrylic markers for the background to hide the original lines better!).

• Difficulty: 3/5 (Time-consuming!)
• Final Result: 5/5
• Takeaway: Use your backgrounds to help sell the story, and have fun plotting out a little narrative before you start coloring.

3. Dopamine Coloring 🎨

Coined by the amazing Sarah Renae Clark, Dopamine Coloring is similar to “chaos coloring” but with slightly more of a plan. I originally wanted my daughter to help me scribble the background, but she wasn’t interested, so I tackled it myself!

The Process: Using a page from Coco Wyo’s Girl Moments, I grabbed a specific color palette and started scribbling lightly on the background without worrying about the lines. Next, I went in with darker shades for intentional (but still messy) shadows. Finally, I layered acrylic markers on top to define the objects and added white gel pen for highlights and glare. As a Type-A person, coloring outside the lines felt a little illegal at first! But once I got into a flow state, it was incredibly freeing.

• Difficulty: 2/5 (Mostly just getting into the right mindset!)
• Final Result: 5/5
• Takeaway: This was my absolute favorite technique of the day. It’s a fantastic, low-pressure way to use up drying markers and let go of perfectionism.

4. Transparent Ghost Technique 👻

This is the easiest trend on the list, so I challenged myself by drawing a complicated mountain and cloud background first.

The Process: I struggled a bit with blending the clouds and getting the mountain texture right, but the ghost itself is foolproof! You simply draw an outline of a little ghost right over your background, fill the inside with a white colored pencil to give it a semi-transparent look, and then define the edges with a white gel pen. I added a ton of gel pen snow dots to finish the snowy night sky look.

• Difficulty: 1/5
• Final Result: 3/5
• Takeaway: White colored pencils are the star of the show here! You don’t have to plan ahead—you can just pop a transparent ghost onto any busy background you want.

Which is your favorite?

I went into this expecting the Lisa Frank style to be my favorite, but Dopamine Coloring absolutely stole my heart.

Which of these four trends is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below! If you want to see the full chaotic process, the struggles, and the final reveals, you can watch the full video!