Just to add to the conversation, I have found a more elegant way to change the color of the box plot by iterating over the dictionary of the object itself
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
def color_box(bp, color):
# Define the elements to color. You can also add medians, fliers and means
elements = ['boxes','caps','whiskers']
# Iterate over each of the elements changing the color
for elem in elements:
[plt.setp(bp[elem][idx], color=color) for idx in xrange(len(bp[elem]))]
return
a = np.random.uniform(0,10,[100,5])
bp = plt.boxplot(a)
color_box(bp, 'red')
Cheers!