Tag: journal

The 2021 Creative Companion is finally here

December 16, 2020

It’s been a long wait, but the Ruby Charm Colors Creative Companion: 2021 Organizer and Coloring Art Journal is now available on Amazon! Do you need one?

Sometimes it’s helpful to have a planner that has just a little structure and a whole lot of open space to organize what’s important to you—the way you find most useful and can grow organically with you throughout the year. This planner is a cross between a monthly organizer, a bullet journal, and an art journal and is divided into three general sections: calendars, a compendium for making lists, and a creative planner. There is also an index so you can record a title and page number whenever you create your own lists, notes, to-do pages, etc. somewhere in the book. And there’s plenty of art to color if you need to scratch a creative itch. You may also notice that this year’s Creative Companion is a little more compact which makes it easier to stash or toss in a bag.


Calendars
The 2021 yearly calendar and a quick 2022 “look ahead” is followed by monthly calendars (see sample below) with ample room to plan ahead, jot down important dates, track your goals and accomplishments, and do some journaling. Like many, I use the calendar on my phone and iPad to set reminders and such, but when it comes to creative planning and personal notes, I still prefer paper so I can circle dates, color code tasks, and scribble ideas.

Compendium
This section of the book is dedicated to making lists like art supply resources and wish lists, books, techniques, favorite websites, podcasts, and even a place to list your favorite hashtags if you are a social media junkie. There are plenty of blank pages to make custom lists—favorite Instagram accounts, gift-giving ideas, movies to watch, novels to read, email addresses, new flowers to plant in the garden—you get the idea.

Creative Planner
The last part of the book is loosely divided into 8 different 10-page areas (each with its own artwork and a mix of graphed, lined and blank pages) though you can divide these areas up however you like. I use this part of my book to plan my own projects and have found that my planners from 2019 and 2020 are packed with important notes I still go back to today.

The first Creative Companion came out in 2019, and like the 2020 version, was 7.5″ wide by 9.25″ high. The new 2021 Companion is slightly more narrow at just over 6″ across but still 9.25″ high, so it is a little more portable. Below is the “author proof” copy of the book I received in the mail to make sure everything looked okay⏤hence the “Not for Resale” bar across the cover. The pic on the left is a little deceiving⏤the books are the same height.

My own copies of the Creative Companions the past two years have really helped me stay more organized. In the past, I would jot down notes on random scraps of paper in my studio, but I would usually lose them. When I needed to know, for example, what the ISBN number is for my Oceanimaginary book, or how many illustrations are in it, I would have to jump through a few hoops online to find out because of course I could not find that random scrap of paper. Now I have all of that info in the Compendium and Creative Planner sections of my Companion (and I don’t have to be online to find it).

I also have a section of numbers and stats for my little business, a list of new illustration ideas, a list of ideas for new products, pages of technical notes for turning my drawings into PDFs and books, notes and color swatches for paintings (like the Rebel Moth) and notes about how to use certain tools in Procreate, Illustrator and InDesign. I also have some odds and ends that come in really handy like a list of clothing sizes for my family, what I planted in my vegetable garden, and plenty of journal entries.

If you like to knit or embroider, you could include notes about projects you plan to tackle and even tape snippets of yarn, thread or patterns to your pages. If you are a painter, you could sketch out a new idea and include a few swatches or lists of colors you want to incorporate. If you are a gardener, you could map out your beds on a graph and make a list of the plants or seeds you need to find. And of course, if you love to color, you can list your favorite books, keep track of the colorings your are most proud of, or make a wish list of the pencils you are dying to get your hands on. No matter your creative inclinations, you should be able to fill this book up with the things that are important to you.

Because the Companion is loosely structured, you can make the book what you need it to be.

Finally, if you need a little inspiration, there are plenty of designs to color in this book. Just grab a few pencils and tinker when your are bored, feeling anxious, stuck on a long phone call, or while waiting for an appointment. I find that coloring small pieces of art helps me relax, focus, and even inspire new ideas. The Companion is not meant for coloring masterpieces, but more for playing with color and sparking creativity. All of the designs for coloring in this book are brand new to the Ruby Charm Colors collection and were created specifically for this book.

No one has to see what’s in your journal, so take chances, experiment, and get some of your ideas down on paper. You are welcome to copy the designs from the book onto heavier cards stock or watercolor paper if you like, and I will also have most all of these designs available on Etsy as downloadable, printable PDFs. Here are just a few of the brand new designs included in the 2021 Creative Companion:

Looking for a few more tips?

The new, slimmer format of the Creative Companion fits more easily in a variety of ring binder covers if you are industrious and want to take it apart by cutting off the spine. You certainly can use the book as is (and many people do!) but I like having the ability to add pages and move things around, so for me, popping all of my pages into a ring-binder makes the most sense. This way, it can grow and change over the course of the year as my needs change. Below is a photo of the Franklin Planner I use (Classic size) with my 2020 Companion stuffed inside. It is a little too wide for the Franklin so I can’t use the strap to secure the binder when it is closed. I am anxious to pop the new one in once 2020 is laid to rest⏤so much so I splurged on a Franklin Classic hole punch this morning! It’s the little things, I know.

If you are interested in deconstructing your book and putting it back together again, please take a look at the Creative Companion Book Binding DIY I put together last year. It shows how to take a spine off a book (with videos) and has a few pointers on using the book, too.

Just for fun

Below are a few designs I played around with in my 2020 Companion. After coloring the seahorse, I wanted to see how the Finnabair clear gesso would work as a protective layer. It buckled the paper a bit and picked up some of my pencil pigments so I probably won’t do that again. Maybe as a base layer to provide tooth on smoother paper, but not as an over coat.

I printed this cat on scrapbook paper (back when I was putting together designs for a Singles for Print pack of PDFs for Etsy) and decided to trim the page to size, punch holes in it and add it to my planner for inspiration.

Here is my heron on the art supply wishlist page. I have most of the Irojitens and Luminance now, and finally all of the Polychromos. A few Holbeins and Lightfast. Someday I will complete those sets (I usually buy just a couple of pencils at a time through Blick, CultPens, or Jackson’s) and I really want to play around with the Mitsubishi Uni pencils though honestly, I am very happy with what I have and don’t need more pencils. It really is an addiction, isn’t it?

The Noctuid Treasureattica Moths (originally designed for my Insectimaginary coloring book) was colored with Lyra pencils, a few Irojitens and a black marker. I had just received the Lyra’s in the mail and was anxious to try them. I never finished this coloring, but that’s fine.

Close-up of a seahorse. As some of you know, I am obsessed with embellishing my colorings with gels pens after burnishing with a Caran d’Ache Blender Bright. This was done on one of those days I had too much work to do and just needed a mental break. I shut off my phone and computer and listened to music so I could refresh and refocus. And all of these colorings (aside from the cat) are on what’s known in the coloring community as the dreaded “Create Space” paper. While it may not be my first choice for artwork that needs to last (like pieces I plan to reproduce, hang in a gallery or sell) I have to admit I do love coloring on this paper and can get beautiful results.

That’s all for now, my friends! As always, stay creative, happy journaling, and enjoy each moment!

Something’s bugging me …

April 6, 2020

It is Monday, right? Is anyone else losing track of time? Are you all staying safe and healthy and practicing isolation? Strange days, indeed. I am so thankful for our coloring community, and though I have not been on social media much, please know I am thinking of you all and am so appreciative of your support through your beautiful colorings of my line art, your social media posts, purchases, and well wishes!

I have been trying to work on new art but find it happens in just bits and pieces these days. More often than not, I fall victim to watching the news or reading stories from my Twitter feed obsessively and that’s not healthy. So, the other night, in an attempt to turn off the Corona noise, I flipped open my 2020 Creative Companion to page 15 and started coloring my crazy Praying mantis. Then I moved on to the Ozara beetle on page 14, then the chubby Behati on page 16. It was a night (and good chunk of the next morning) of coloring bliss, and I enjoyed unplugging and trying something a little new.

Bugs2

Since the inverted art in the 2020 Creative Companion consists of designs with white lines on a black background, I played with watercolors to bring bring those lines to life and add interest. I had, in the back of my mind, a coloring done by Karen Zaback (you may know her as Zucchini Kitty and her You Tube channel has a lovely flip-through of both the Creative Companion and my Oceanimaginary book) in which she colored three fish. Of course I fell in love with her bubbles (so cool), but what really caught my eye was how the colors she used filled in some of the white lines around her fish and gave her coloring a batik look.

KarenZaback

So with Karen for inspiration, I pulled out my set of watercolors from Karen Spencer. You all probably know by now how much I adore her mica watercolors, but her traditional watercolors (also available on Etsy)  are just as lovely and a joy to work with.

KarenSpencerWatercolor

Knowing what I know about colored pencils and how they have the ability to resist water to a degree, I used my Faber-Castell Polychromos colored pencils to fill in most of the larger areas in the designs. And since I deconstructed my book, I was able to take out the pages and work on them separately on a flat surface.

I use a “Maid for Art” rotating design board which I picked up on sale at Joann Fabric last summer (I LOVE IT) and you can find it here if you are interested.

Bugs3

What I like about the board (mine is 9″ x 11.5″) is that it stays put on my desk because of the little rubbery feet on the bottom, it rotates, of course, I can tape stuff to it, and the surfaces can be cleaned. I use the bottom board to mix and dab watercolors. Sometimes I have to swivel the top board to get to them, but it is super handy.

But back to the coloring. Here is a closer pic of the spaces being filled in with the Polychromos. For the most part, I tried to avoid coloring over the white lines and focused on getting the pencils to adequately cover my shapes to create the “resist” areas. Since the waxy pencils resist water (to a degree) the watercolor should soak into the white lines and resist what’s already been colored.

Bugs4

Bugs1

Unfortunately, I didn’t take a bunch of “process pics” as I was working on these three bugs, so I put together a quick video of what it looks like when I paint the lines using another black page (280 from the Companion).

The finer the brush tip the better (this one is a Marvy waterbrush I picked up at Michaels) and be sure your paint is not too thick. It should be fairly watery but with enough pigment to stain the white paper. You may have to experiment a little to get your best mix.

You can see how the paint resists the colored pencil (for the most part) and gravitates into the bare paper—the white lines. It also helps that during the printing process of the book itself, the black ink coats the paper so it, too, more or less resists the watercolor. If you get a little too much paint on the paper, just use a tissue to quickly blot it dry. Easy.

Note that I used a little mica paint for this video. It tends to stick to the pencil and black ink a little more that traditional watercolor does because of the mica flecks. Pure watercolor resists more readily, but if you have a steady hand, the micas can be a lot of fun, too.

Once the line painting was done, I let my page sit for a bit beneath a little (and pretty darn hot) halogen goose-neck lamp on my desk. It drys things out fairly quickly. I like to embellish with gels pens, but if the paper is damp, gel pens can be a bleeding disaster.

Bugs5

My pages didn’t curl or warp too badly but I did get some of my oily fingerprints on the black paper (thanks chips and brownies). They should fade away eventually, right?

Oh, if you are not into watercolors or simply don’t have them, you can also use markers to add pigment to your white lines. I have a bunch of Staedtler Triplus pens I use to write in my Creative Companion and they seem to work well, but there is a little bleed-through on the back of the page with some of them. Unless the back is black. My guess is that the finer the pen tip the better. Permanent markers probably not so great. But experiment to see what works best for you.

Bugs7

Below is the final Behati beetle complete with gel pen embellishments.  I rather like the look of the colored lines as they don’t seem as harsh as plain white lines, but still provide stylistic definition.

Bugs8

All in all, coloring these bugs was a good stress-break and I enjoyed the process.

If you need a little something to do … a way to track your days, jot down notes, relieve some stress, think about adopting a 2020 Creative Companion and make it your own. Here’s a peek at how my own personal copy (which I use to track all my creative projects) is shaping up so far this year.

In the meantime, happy coloring, painting, and being creative—stay safe and healthy, everyone!

 

Bugs9

 

 

Creative Companion Book Binding DIY

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 Polychromos 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!

2020_books2

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.

2020_bookstabs

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.

2020_booksindex.jpg

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

2020_bookbacktabsx

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..

2020_books

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!

2020_boomotivation

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

 

Oceanimaginary is on Amazon!

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!

OceanTrio_RubyCharmColors

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

One fishy, rainy morning …

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.

RCC_Fish1

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.

RCC_Fish4

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.

RCC_Fish5

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.

RCC_Fish3

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 …

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!

Oceanimaginary_bettywip

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

Notebooks for all your …. notes!

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!

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Lined pages

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

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Line art on publishing info and facing page

 

It’s official! Insectimaginary is here!

May 14, 2019

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For those waiting for the official announcement – Insectimaginary is here and just waiting for you to fill up with color!

And I am SO pleased to share this lovely page-by-page flip through and review of the book by Steph Johnston, also known as Red_tifa Colors on YouTube.  Take a look and give her channel a follow while you are there! Thank you, Steph!

Happy coloring, everyone!