ruby charm colors

Some of my favorite coloring tools

Ruby Charm Colors March 4, 2020

I’ve had a few people ask about essential coloring tools recently, and since I just put together a new case of said tools, I thought I would share them with you.

I have a decent mix of colored pencils (not nearly as many as some of my colorist pals, but decent) and I like to organize them by color instead of brand and store them in zippered cases which are much more protective and convenient to use in my humble opinion. Organizing by color works well for me, though I know others prefer organizing by brand and keeping their pencils in the original containers. There’s no right or wrong way, of course—do what works best for you—though that may change over time as your needs and habits change.

Most of my colored pencils are a mix of Caran d’Ache Luminance, Caran d’Ache Pablo, Faber-Castell Polychromos, Derwent Lightfast, Derwent Coloursoft, Derwent Procolour, Tombow Irojiten, Holbein, and Prismacolor Premier. I don’t have full sets of any of them, though the Polychromos are very close. I have a few other brands but rarely use them. I like to order pencils individually (as opposed to full sets) through Blick open stock to see if I like the way they work for me, and I only buy the colors I need or want to try. I also rarely have the money to purchase full sets and am currently saving up for my next big, desperately needed ticket item, a new computer. This puts a crimp in my pencil and art supply obsession, but so it goes.

I’ve been working with my Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils quite a bit the past few months, so I ordered a pencil case especially for them and for the tools I seem to use most often. I find the Polychromos work very well on the somewhat toothy paper my Amazon coloring books and 2020 Creative Companion (which I use daily) are printed on.

The Polychromos pencils are a solid, must-have in my collection. They are versatile, hold a great point, blend well and have a decent light-fast rating, yet are not as expensive as the Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils (which many of you know I really love working with, too).

Polychromos rainbow coyotes in the 2020 Creative Companion

I normally keep all my colored pencils in cases organized by color family and keep them up on a shelf above my work space. Since I have to stand up from my chair each time I need to grab a case of colors (and since I don’t have a ton of desk space to work on) I thought it might be smart to finally put the stuff I use on a daily basis in one “workhorse” case that can live on my desk.

: Greens; browns; purples; reds, yellows and oranges; blues; gel pens; and two cases of watercolor pencils on the shelf above my desk area

The case I ordered through Amazon, a grey RiLiKar with 184 slots, turned out to be the perfect size for my most-used tools, flips open and has “pages” like a book, and has a carrying handle which is a nice touch. My other pencil cases are made by Soucolor and BTKSY (also found on Amazon) and so far, with heavy use, they have been holding up quite well.

The first “page” of my workhorse case holds my brush (essential for getting rid of pencil dust and crumbles and is much better than wiping with your hands); a Sakura Sumo Grip eraser (love it); and fine and extra small, black Faber-Castell Pitt pens. I also keep a metal dental tool in my case. It is perfect for so many things like digging broken tips out of pencil sharpeners, scraping paint splatters off my desk, prying watercolor pans out of their tins, etc.. I’ve even used it to tighten the itty-bitty screws that hold my eyeglasses together. Pretty sure I’ve had it since the 80s.

Next is a pencil extender (the only one I have and it really hurts my fingers after a while, but it’s okay in a pinch), then my Tombow Mono Zero eraser and tube of refills. Really great for tiny spaces. Next to the triangular architect ruler is my Rotring Tikky mechanical pencil, and then an odd “picker” tool I’ve had forever but have no idea where it came from or what it’s technically called. Basically, it’s a wood handle with a long needle jammed into it. Next is a Derwent Academy sketching pencil, and then a collection of Sakura Pigma Sensei pens.

Pages one and two

Page two holds a white Uniball Signo pen, several Prismacolor Colourless Blender pencils, and a Lyra Splender blender which I just got and have not have much of a chance to work with yet. Not sure if the Splender blender will stay in the case. A few Sakura Souffle gel pens (I seem to use the white, turquoise and blue the most), a few coveted Caran d’Ache Blender Bright sticks (I use these for burnishing all the time), an Artist’s Loft blender (that probably won’t stay because it is useless), a Papermate “Tuff Stuff” eraser, a few Gellyroll sparkle pens and a Ubrands sparkle pen, then two more Pitt pens.

Page three has a mix of some of the non-Polychromos pencils I use a lot or want to keep handy for the current project I am working on. There’s something I love about the Pumpkin Orange Prismacolor and it seems to sneak into a lot of my work. Same with the Aquamarine and Light Aqua Prismacolors. The short dark pencil next to the Pumpkin Orange is my coveted Rexel Cumberland Derwent Studio Burnt Carmine 65 pencil. It is getting smaller. I have had it forever and cannot seem to find an exact replacement which is a shame. The color is so deep and rich I’d really love to find another one. The longer dark pencil next to it is a Derwent Studio Burnt Carmine 65 and it’s just not the same. I keep a few Irojitens on hand for detail work, and also a few of the Caran d’Ache Buff Titanium pencils which I love for blending over the small designs and patterns I often draw over colored shapes in my work. There is something magical about the ingredients that make up this particular pencil—there is nothing quite like the feel and blending ability of 801 Buff Titanium. Another Pitt pen (I use them a lot) and a white General’s Pastel Chalk pencil which is useful for lightly sketching on black paper.

Pages three and four

Page four is the start of my Polychromos collection. I just ordered the last missing pencils from my set from Blick, so in a few days it will be complete. Almost. I didn’t order the Gold or Silver because (sorry Faber-Castell) I don’t like the metallic copper pencil at all. I want to like it (copper is one of my favorite colors) but it just doesn’t work for me—too hard? Not enough pigment? I also didn’t order the Cadmium Yellow Lemon by mistake.

Pages five and six (above) and seven and eight (below) fit the rest of my Polychromos collection. And yes, I number them myself since I have a hard time seeing the tiny gold lettering on the barrels. I just wrap a piece of washi tape around the top, write the number with a Pitt pen, then wrap that with a piece of clear tape. I’ve also numbered a few with a white Signo pen.

Aside from being a handy way to keep these heavily-used tools close and organized on my desk, it’s easy to zip up the case and bring it along to wherever I want to work for the day.

Polychromos pencil chart_RubyCharmColors

Polychromos color chart from the 2019 Creative Companion

Finally, since I am using my 2020 Creative Companion to keep track of all my art projects, books, and other important tasks, I took the Polychromos color chart out of my 2019 Creative Companion and plan to trim it down and laminate it (back to back) so I can keep a color chart in my workhorse case as a quick reference.

Last, but certainly not least, my treasured handmade watercolors by Karen Spencer: these I keep in special tins inside a metal tray inside a plastic box near my workspace. I pull them out almost every time I start a new piece because not only are they beautiful to work with, but I find the colors so incredibly inspiring. The ceramic-coated tray is super handy because I can mix colors directly on it, and my extra half-pans with magnets on the bottoms stick to the tray, too. Why do I keep paints and pans in yet another box? Dog hair and parakeet feathers. Remember that little picker tool I mentioned above? Perfect for picking junk out of paints and brushes. 😉

Karen Spencer handmade mica watercolors_RubyCharmColors

Some of my treasured handmade mica and watercolor paints by Karen Spencer

Creative Companion Book Binding DIY

Ruby Charm Colors November 23, 2019

I just received my personal copy of the 2020 Creative Companion in the mail and am pretty excited to get it ready for the new year ahead. My 2019 Creative Companion (which will disappear from Amazon at the end of the year) turned out to be quite valuable to me and I used it to plan out all of my projects, keep track of my art supplies, and more.

Though the book was originally designed with coloring book enthusiasts in mind, there are many ways you can customize this journal to fit your own creative needs whether you are a coloring book fanatic or not. If you like to sew, for example, you can use the book to save instructions and even fabric swatches. Jot down your ideas for projects and tape pics you grab from magazines to the pages. You can even stick yarn or embroidery thread samples to the charts in the back of the book. Although there are several pre-designed charts for colored pencils, there are plenty of blank charts, too. Use them however you like!

Check out the flip-through review by Paula Stone Leach to learn how she plans to use to book for her projects – very helpful!

Speaking of colored pencils … even if you are not a coloring book fanatic, grab a set of colored pencils anyway. Faber-Castell Polychromo s work beautifully for me on the paper in these books, though any colored pencil brand is perfectly fine. I find that coloring the small pieces of art helps me not only relax, but also encourages new ideas. The Creative Companion is less for coloring masterpieces than for playing with colors and sparking creativity. No one has to see what’s in your journal, so take chances, experiment, and get your wild ideas down on paper.

You can, of course, use the 2020 Creative Companion as it is in simple book form. But you also have the option of deconstructing it for use in a binder or binding system. Once the spine is cut off the book, you can either have it bound at your local office supply store, or punch holes in the pages and insert them into a ring binder of your choice. You could also use a “discbound” system which uses a series of discs to keep the pages bound together. If you are not familiar with this system (which is super customizable) check out this article for a great overview. And check out the Cira disc-bound notebook system, too.

Why bother cutting up a book and putting it back together? I like flexibility! I like being able to add and subtract and move things around as needed and for me, using a ring-binder is ideal. Most of the time, the binder lives on my desk flipped open to my current project notes. But I also like being able to flip to my calendars and to my color charts easily while working on art. And I like that I can toss the whole thing in a bag and take it on the road. It holds my most important numbers, information about all my books, ideas for future projects, etc.. It’s where all my essentials live.

Since I am looking forward to filling up my 2020 Creative Companion, I thought it would be a good idea to show you how I deconstruct it and put it all back together in case you wish to try this DIY binding yourself at home.

I recorded a bunch of steps off-the-cuff to give you an overall feel for how this will work and I ramble a bit, of course. I am not a professional videographer and don’t aspire to being one so pardon my skills in that department. But do give each of the steps a watch before you start cutting up your own book!

Step 1: Before you start:

Consider having your local office supply do it for you!
Ask them about your CUTTING / binding options (i.e. spiral-bound, ring-bound, etc.)
Make sure they cut as close to the spine as possible

Step 2: Bind at Home – Tools Needed:

Consider the size of the folder / binder you wish to use.
The Creative Companion measures 7.5 inches wide by 9.25 inches tall by about 3/4 ” thick
Make sure you have the basic tools needed:
Metal ruler
Paper hole punch
X-acto or other sharp metal blade
Cutting matt (I use an Omnigrid (from JoAnn Fabric)

Step 3: What Type of Binder?

Large or small?
Bigger = more room for stuff (depending on ring size), better edge protection
Smaller = more portable
Determine ring number and placement (i.e. 3-ring, 4-ring, 7-ring, etc.)
What type of paper punch will you need to put holes in your pages?
Consider ring size: This is the diameter of the rings themselves. A 1.5″ to (better yet) 2″ ring is ideal for the 2020 CC which has 333 pages.
My new binder has a 1.25″ ring diameter – okay but not ideal. I highly suggest going a little bigger so you can more easily insert additional pages and pockets.

Step 4: Assessing the new binder

My new binder (a 7.5″ x 9.5 x 2″ deep Franklin Planner) uses 7 rings. I don’t have a 7-ring paper punch so I’ll need to use my single-hole paper punch! In this video, you can see my 2019 CC inserted into my new binder to check the fit.

Step 5: Time to make the cuts!

Pay attention to the natural fold line:
Not too close to the very edge because of the glue in the spine.
Make sure you are cutting on a surface you are not worried about scratching.
Line up ruler along the fold line.
Press down on the ruler firmly and keep fingers and thumb out of the way.
Pull blade firmly down edge of ruler a few times.
Pull loose cover and first few pages off book.
Set pages aside and pay attention to page order.

Step 6: Keep cutting!

Use new cut edge as your guide.
Take your time.
Keep pages in order.

Step 7: Still cutting …

Tip: stay as tight to the edge as possible.

Step 8: Still cutting …

Tip: trim off little slivers of paper that may get in the way so you can keep a straight edge.

Step 9: Final cuts!

Bend back spine to give you a little more space.
Be sure you firmly hold book so it doesn’t slide around while cutting.
Consider trimming the inside edge of your book if you like.

Step 10: Making a hole punch guide

Use heavy card stock or plastic and cut to size of book cover.
Line up guide in your binder to figure out where the holes should go. Center to the top and bottom of your binder and make sure the holes will all fit on the page.
Mark the holes.
If you don’t have a plastic pocket or folder that already fits your binder, draw a line 1/4″ from the inside edge of your page. Each hole should be punched 1/4″ from the edge of the paper.

Step 11: Punch your guide holes

Match up to guide/template to book and binder again to be sure everything lines up properly.
NOTE: Once you are happy with the template, write “TOP FRONT” on the side of the template that will face you – the holes should be on the left (the inside edge). You may have a little more (or less) space between the top hole and top edge of your guide depending on how you lined everything up. Be sure you punch all pages using the guide from the same side. See Step 13 for how I messed this up! 😉

Step 12: Keep punching and keep your pages in order!

Pay attention!

Step 13: Keep punching

Step 14: Punching and trimming excess paper

Yep, my hands are getting a little stiff but not bad…

Step 15: Final punches!

Step 16: Putting the pages in the binder

I mistakenly said my rings were 1.5″ – they are 1.25″ so I ended up having to take a few pages out. You’ll see, at the end of the video, I popped my rings open because I had too many pages in the binder.

Come to find out, once I enlarged my punch holes a little bit, I could fit those pages back in. Necessity is the mother of invention, yes? Since the single-hole punch I used has a rather small circle, the first holes I punched didn’t allow my pages to flip freely enough. Enlarging my holes seemed to greatly help and I could even add in my November and December pages from my 2019 CC to finish off this year. Bonus!

Old 2019 CC at top in black binder, new 2020 CC in blue binder

Tabs: I love tabs! I pick them up on sale at places like Target and love them because they make it easier to find things in books, and many of them are removable so you can move them around as needed.

I used one on my Index page and started a list of the books I have published so far, plus a list of simple notebooks I’d like to make soon.

I like to use pencil in my Index so I can more easily make adjustments if needed. I tried to keep a lot of open spaces in the Index of the CC so you have room to add whatever entries you need to stay organized.

The back of my planner has pockets for my sticky tabs – yay!

Here’s how my books pages turned out. I like having a quick reference to my ISBN numbers, publication dates, sizes, how many pages are in each book, etc..

By the way, it wasn’t until I finished taping little thumbnails of my books to these pages that I realized I have illustrated and published 9 books in 14 months! Of course, 3 of them are simple notebooks, but still. I used the whale on page 89 to write myself a little motivational reminder to help keep me moving forward with my goals to eventually be able to support myself doing what I love to do.

Life is short – enjoy each and every day!

And use your planner to keep track of those days however best works for you!

Links that can help get you thinking …

2020 Creative Companion Flip-through and Review by Paula Stone Leach

How to use the 2019 Creative Companion

2019 Creative Companion Flip-through and review

RECENT POSTS

Oceanimaginary Flip-through!

Ruby Charm Colors October 18, 2019

Calling all coloring enthusiasts and creatives! I am so excited to share this wonderful page by page flip-through of the newest Ruby Charm Colors adult coloring art journal, Oceanimaginary.

A sincere thank you to Paula Stone Leach (pstonecolors on Instagram) for taking the time to put this together so everyone can all see what Oceanimaginary has in store for their coloring adventures—enjoy!

Oceanimaginary is on Amazon!

Ruby Charm Colors October 15, 2019

Very happy to announce that my newest adult coloring book, Oceanimaginary, is now available on Amazon! It’s been a long road drawing all the images and working on the art journal style book layout, but it is finally done and ready to be filled with your own colors. There are 34 full plates in the book plus over 100 smaller bits and pieces of my illustrations you can use for color palette experimentation, or just to fiddle around with when you don’t have a lot of time to color but have the itch pick up your pencils and play. As with my other art journal coloring books like Insectimaginary, there’s also plenty of room to jot down notes, and there are 10 plates that allow you to push your creativity by coloring on black!

No time for a break—I’ve got to get cracking on finishing up the layout for the 2020 Creative Companion in addition to another special book I hope to release before the holidays! Oh, and more Black Magics on the way!

But before I go, a big thanks to Lora King, Betty Hung and Paula Stone Leach for testing out the illustrations in this book and allowing me to use their colored samples on the back cover of the book! You ladies are the best!

Thanks for being along for the ride and supporting the Ruby Charm Colors project!

One fishy, rainy morning …

Ruby Charm Colors September 22, 2019

I fully intended to sleep in this morning but woke up at 7 to the sound of rain. And for some reason, when it’s raining, I get the urge to pick up my paints and pencils and do something creative. Maybe splash some color around to brighten a dull sky? Negative ions in the air? Who knows. But I’ve got this fish design that’s going into my upcoming Oceanimaginary book and I’ve been dying to test it out with a little color. I printed the lighter grey-line version of this design (which I always include with my downloadable PDFs on Etsy) on Neenah Bright White 65 lb. card stock.

I find I enjoy coloring over the grey lines more than I do black lines. It allows me to use different colors (like reds, browns, blues and greens) over the grey to add more depth and line interest, plus there is less of a chance the black ink (I have an old Epson Inkjet printer) will smudge when I am using paints and lighter colored pencils.

The first thing I did was paint the fish’s body with a mix of Karen Spencer’s mica paints. I really like using waterbrushes (the kind with the reservoir you fill for continued use). I typically have a few ready to go and use a different one for each of the general colors I am working with so it’s easier to switch while blending. In this piece for example, I had a brush for gold, one for orange and one for my reds—including a gorgeous red Karen named Ruby Charm! Be still my heart! Once the micas dried, I used Caran d’Ache Luminance pencils to blend in more yellow, orange and red. This can take away a little of the shimmer, but not much. The flower petals on the fish were colored with Pablo Orange Yellow and then burnished with the Blender Bright. Next, I used my harder Irojiten pencils (Crimson, Plum and Black) to carve in some outlines around the petals, swirls around the face, and fins.

As many of you who use mica and pearlescent paints know, it can be tricky to capture those stunning shimmers in a photograph, but wow do they look gorgeous in person.

I also used Sakura Gellyroll Glitter, Moonlight, and Sakura Souffle gel pens to add embellishments … usually dots to add interest to different areas of the coloring.

For the flowering anemone, I used Caran d’Ache Luminance, Pablo, Irojiten, Prismacolor, and Derwent Lightfast pencils. If you are not familiar with the Lightfast pencils but love the Lumis, give them a try. I bought a few through Blick and am now a huge fan. They feel a lot like the Lumis but require even less pressure to lay down color, and they sharpen beautifully, AND they are not as expensive which is a big plus for me.

I usually use the Luminance pencils as my first layers (and now the Lightfast) because I love the way they blend. I also find that the Prismacolors blend fairly well with them, too. There are a few colors in the Prismacolor Premier set that I can’t seem to find in other colored pencils sets—the Aquamarine for instance. It just has a beautiful hue and gorgeous saturation. I used it where the flowers (and buds) join the stems of the anemone and blended down (with a Prismacolor colorless blender pencil) with Lightfast Mallard, then Luminance Moss and Dark Sap, and then Lightfast Forest for the darkest areas.

For the flowers, I used my Luminance White and Buff Titanium pencils to blend my blues. I intentionally left a little oval of white paper at the base of each petal and colored a layer of Middle Cobalt Blue and Light Blue (Luminance) around the edges. The White and Buff blended them together and carried a tiny bit of pigment into the “naked” area of each petal. I used Irojiten Teal to outline/define the petals, then I used a blue Gellyroll glitter pen along with yellow Sakura Souffle dots for the centers. And a tiny dot of Gellyroll orange in each center once the Souffle dried. Sometimes it takes a while (especially when it’s humid like today) so to help hurry along the process, I either pull out my heat gun, or just set my art under my halogen desk lamp (which gets really stinkin’ hot) and that does the trick.

This is as far as I got for the day … time to get back to layout work for the pages for Oceanimaginary! The book is coming along nicely, and I’ll be hard at it for the next week or so until I send it off for publication. Once that is off my plate, I’ll be loading all the designs from the book into my Etsy shop, and I’ll be working on the 2020 Creative Companion and a few other surprises as well as we head toward the holidays and wrap up the year.

Thanks for being along for the ride—cheers to creativity and happy coloring, everyone!

I’d like to be under the sea …

Ruby Charm Colors July 31, 2019

The rumors are true! A new ocean-themed coloring book is officially in the works and Oceanimaginary will be be published in / November (final date TBD)!

The book will feature creatures from the ocean and will be structured similarly to Insectimaginary and the other Ruby Charm Colors Art Journals with plenty of room to chart out your colors and experiment till your heart is content.All Ruby Charm Colors books are designed for adult coloring fans, but they are also terrific for younger coloring enthusiasts as well.

Give RubyCharmColors a follow on Instagram, and if you are a coloring addict and want to join the private RCC coloring community, come find us on Facebook and join! Meet our fabulous Coloring Team members including Paula Stone Leach (who color-tested the octopus above), Stephanie Johnston, and Lora King and Betty Hung (who colored the octopuses below), keep up-to-date on the latest RCC news, talk about art supplies and coloring techniques, see gorgeous colorings from our community for inspiration, and even pick up a few freebies to color now and then!

An octopus WIP (work in progress) by Coloring Team member Betty Hung

Chiquitita and the Chicken Trio

Ruby Charm Colors July 24, 2019

Sometimes inspiration comes from things in our own backyard and the trio of designs for this coloring bundle was no exception. Our last hen to survive a fox massacre about a month or so ago has decided that she prefers hanging out on our back patio near me, my daughter, and our dogs. She still wanders the yard looking for bugs, but seems to like the protection of the trees and roof over part of the patio, and even sleeps on a small table close to the house at night. Chickens are notoriously pea-brained, but Chiquitita might be an exception. This is her coming around to see if I have any snacks:

Isn’t the real Chiquitita a lovely model?

Like the rooster and the baby chick designs, I sketched Chiquitita (and the beet leaves behind her) on my iPad, then used a new layer to create a clean black line drawing. Each design took about 8 hours from sketch to final line art, and then I had to convert them into vector files and then into PDFs. It is a process, but one I truly enjoy. A little worried about running out of space on my computer though … still chugging along on an old laptop with my fingers crossed it won’t lock up.

After the designs were done, I sent them along to my coloring team and was so excited to see what Lora King did with the rooster using Holbein, Irojiten and a mix of vintage pencils she found online. Lora typically sticks to softer colors, but she went bold with the roster and he’s gorgeous! Betty Hung colored Chiquitita with assorted colored pencils plus Stabilo Carbothello pastel pencils for the soft beet leaves in the background. Stunning, yes?

Lora King’s rooster and Betty Hung’s Chiquitita

Now that the chicken bundle is on Etsy and I’ve had a chance to do a little color-testing of the designs, too, I thought I would share a few tips.

My original thought was to stick with only Caran d’Ache Museum watercolor pencils, but as I progressed and became obsessed with the possibility of finishing Chiquitita, I broke out the micas. Yes, the micas! If you have not seen Karen Spencer’s watercolors on Etsy yet, check them out—worth every cent as they are gorgeous, fun to work with, and they really seem to last a long time. I use mine a lot but have barely put a dent in the pans!

My first step was to color a base layer with the Museum pencils (Brown Ochre and Plum for the neck feathers, and Violet and Sepia) for the body. I do like using a watercolor base layer when I have time because it makes a really nice surface for my colored pencils. I try to apply medium pressure with the pencils and overlap the colors a bit so that when I grab my waterbrush, they are a bit easier to blend. I do not use a lot of water and just keep the brush moving while focusing on the smaller spaces. I also pay attention to where I pull the brush tip up because that usually leaves a little blop of pigment. Good for areas I want a little darker.

Remember to try different color combinations on a scrap piece of paper. It may not seem like Brown Ochre and Plum would go together, for example, but they create an unusual and striking blend. For those in the Ruby Charm Colors Facebook group (to join, just find us off the main RubyCharmColors page), you can print out the freebie I included in our Files folder to experiment with the feathers. And there’s a cute chick in a nest with eggs for coloring, too!

Sometimes experimenting does not always turn out the way we imagine but there is usually a fix. I used the wrong yellow (too harsh and bright, wrong tone) for the petal-feathers above Chiquitita’s face (yuck!) but later went back and painted over them with a mix of red and violet mica paints (below). I also used the micas to paint the edges of the feathers and started filling in more feathers with the Museum watercolor pencils.

Because I don’t use a lot of water while working, the watercolors dry fairly quickly. I usually bounce back and forth between areas during the whole process, too. For example, while the belly feathers were drying, I started coloring the section of yellowish-green feathers near the tail. Then the blue feathers, then the tail feathers, all the time keeping my colors fairly muted. Fun fact about the mica paints: once your brush has a little mica in it, even while using plain water to blend watercolor pencils, a subtle, lovely shimmer will show up in your coloring.

I used metallic gel pens for some of the embellishments on the feathers, then sharp Irojiten pencils to add some of the sharper lines. Instead of black, I often pick dark reds, blues and greens to give the lines a little more color interest.

I may go back over parts of the hen to add more detail and shading with my pencils and gel pens, but this is where I have left off with Chiquitita for now.

Since the rooster is part of the trio, I decided to use the same pencils and paints on him, too, though a little brighter colors and I added Inktense and Albrecht Durer watercolor pencils.

Once the watercolors dried, I used a mix of regular colored pencils to work in more shading and detail. It takes me forever to complete a piece because I can’t help working it—adding more layers and details until I get it where I want it. But I do enjoy the process so even if I don’t finish a coloring (I have stacks and stacks of them) it still feels good.

Another note about mica paints … sometimes it is difficult to capture the shimmer in photos! You;ll notice in the Chiquitita photos above that some show the shimmer, others do not. You need to get the angle just right if you want to micas to show up in photos. You can also try different lighting situations as well. Goose-neck style lights work pretty well because you can adjust the angle of the light.

Rooster with touches of gold and pale silver-blue mica feather tips

The final design in the trio bundle, baby chicks, is a bit challenging because of the wheel in the background. Even drawing the lines was a little tough (time-consuming) due to all the overlapping shapes. I did a fairly quick coloring of this one in hopes of helping colorists see how the design works, though there’s nothing wrong with coloring it any way one likes when it comes to the wood, metal bits, and open spaces.

Last pic of the day before I get going on my next project—I just stepped outside for a break from the computer and said hello to Chiquitita who is hanging out in the crate we set up for her on the patio next to the house. I have a feeling she’s going to start laying her eggs here instead of random places in the grass. Thanks for the inspiration, my pretty friend!

Chiquitita, tell me what’s wrong … oh, Mamma Mia!

Chicken Trio Coloring Pages

This black & white adult coloring line art bundle includes 3 designs, each with a bonus grey line version. PDF will be emailed to you upon payment acceptance.

$6.00

Notebooks for all your …. notes!

Ruby Charm Colors June 28, 2019

It’s official—the Ruby Charm Colors project now includes simple arty notebooks in its collection of products! While there are plans for a total of 12 different cover designs in the 8.5 x 11″ format, I’ll also be adding smaller-sized notebooks as well as square books in the coming months.

For now, the 8.5 x 11″ notebooks featuring the Insectimaginary, Little Bird and Flying Pig artwork are available on Amazon. Each book is 118 pages and has a velvety soft, full-color front and back cover. There is room along the spine to write in your own title (if you would like) and in addition to lined pages, there are also a few blank pages to help divide up the notebook and give you room to sketch or map things out.

Each book includes a little Ruby Charm Colors line art that coincides with the theme of the cover that you could color if you wish. The Insectimaginary design was inspired by my Insectimaginary coloring book and was completed with a mix of mica watercolors, colored pencils and gel pens. Little Bird was colored on black card stock with pencils and a few gel pen embellishments. And Flying Pig, inspired by the Chinese New Year and 2019, the Year of the Pig, was also colored on tinted card stock using a mix of watercolors, pencils and pens. The next design to arrive on Amazon, book four, will be Spring Rabbit (March Hare).

These notebooks are handy for all sorts of things including journaling, planning trips or projects, keeping track of what’s growing in your garden, lists, exercise routines, creative writing, brainstorming … whatever you need. I’ve already started filling one up with technical notes about using some of my design software and another will turn into a trip and travel notebook.

Pretty and practical, these notebooks make fun gifts, too!

Lined pages

Full page of line art as a decorative first page (and you can color it if you like!)

Line art on publishing info and facing page