What do Ryan Gosling and Benedict Cumberbatch have in common – aside from being genetically blessed in both the looks and acting departments?

The unlikely answer: they are each the subject of an entire adult coloring in book.

The very cool Color Me Good series of coloring books by funky independent label ‘I Love Mel’ feature a range of famous male faces to color in, including:

• Jamie Dornan;
• Eddie Redmayne;
• James Franco;
• Benedict Cumberbatch; and
• Ryan Gosling.

There are also coloring in books of stylish females, for those who prefer to deal in fashionistas, including Taylor Swift, Kate Moss, and Cara Delevingne.

If you cannot commit yourself to just one man, or woman, then one of the Color Me Good collections may be for you.

Color Me Swoon is a single coloring book featuring a huge array of famous men, including Ryan Gosling, Aaron Paul, George Clooney, Ben Affleck, James Franco, Prince Harry, Zac Efron, Bradley Cooper, Javier Bardem, Channing Tatum, David Beckham, Gerard Butler, Jake Gyllenhaal, Pharrell Williams, Tom Hardy, Ryan Reynolds, Christian Bale, Alexander Skarsgard, Patrick Dempsey, Hugh Jackman, Damian Lewis, Brad Pitt, Justin Timberlake, Benedict Cumberbatch, Wentworth Miller, Jared Leto, One Direction, Hugh Grant, Joaquin Poenix, Gary Barlow, Daniel Craig, Henry Cavill, Colin Firth, Usher, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Idris Elba, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Kevin Bacon, Ralph Macchio, John Cusack, Michael J Fox, Tom Selleck, Matt Damon, Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Michael Cera, Afam Driver, Andrew Garfield, Jason Segel, Chris O’Dowd, Jon Hamm, Jim Morrison, Russell Brand, Richard Gere, Jude Law, Will Smith, Michael Fassbender, Nicholas Hoult, Paul Newman, and Steve McQueen (phew!).

With a list like that, I’m reasonably sure that most women will find someone they’d be quite happy to spend a few hours coloring in.

There’s also a Color Me Girl Crush book, featuring female film stars (Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman, Keira Knightley), pop stars (Beyonce, Adele, Lana del Rey), fashion icons (Cara Delevingne, Alexa Chung), a special 90s section (Sherilyn Fenn, Winona Ryder, Naomi Campbell), as well as stars old (Audrey Hepburn) and new (Emma Stone).

On her website, Mel Simone Elliott, the Royal College of Art graduate behind the Color Me Good series of coloring in books, says:

My work has always been influenced by pop culture, celebrity, fame, glossy magazines and the aesthetic perfection that goes hand in hand with all that stuff. The colouring books … were developed when I realised that the things we enjoyed doing as young children, such as cutting out and colouring in, would still be enjoyed by adults, if only the activity books had ‘grown up’ with us.

These books are good fun and likely to make great gifts for colorists everywhere. The quality of the illustrations makes the famous faces instantly recognisable, yet they are not too intricate for beginner ‘color-inners’ (a great term used in these books) to tackle.