WIN copies of the Fantasy Creatures Colouring Book!

To celebrate the launch of the Fantasy Creatures Colouring Book, the Fantasy Creatures Pocket Colouring Book & its companion titles, I'm offering you the chance to win the Fantasy Creatures Colouring Book!

For the first time, this giveaway is open worldwide! The more people who enter, the more copies I will give away, so enter and share – and good luck!

Enter below by midnight on Monday 9 May to win! The Fantasy Creatures Colouring Book & its companion titles will be available from Tuesday 10 May on Amazon.

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Terms: open worldwide. Prizes may be withdrawn if entry numbers are deemed insufficient. Prizes may be added to reflect higher entry numbers. Winners have 48 hours to claim their prize and provide a mailing address, or a prize may be redrawn.

The Exotic Colouring Book is here! The competition winners are... and here's where you can find copies!

The Exotic Colouring Books are here and ready to raise loads of money for global conservation! Remember, £1 from every copy sold of the colouring book and its companion titles is donated to World Land Trust, and every 100 books sold will save an acre of rainforest and everything living within it for future generations.

What's included? Check out each of the illustrations in the video below.

Where can I buy a copy?

The books are widely available on Amazon.

The Exotic Colouring Book

Companion titles:

The A4 Exotic Colouring Notebook

Amazon UK / Amazon USA / Amazon EU

The A5 Exotic Colouring Notebook

Amazon UK / Amazon USA / Amazon EU

The 2016/17 Exotic Colouring Diary (Week Per Page)

Amazon UK / Amazon USA / Amazon EU

The 2016/17 Exotic Colouring Diary (Week Per View)

Amazon UK / Amazon USA / Amazon EU

Competition Winners

I offered three lucky winners the chance to get their hands on a copy of The Exotic Colouring Book or two of its companion titles. I was blown away by how many entries I received. Thanks very much for your interest in this one of a kind colouring book.

Drumroll please... and the winners are!

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Congratulations to Helen, Lynsey and Robyn!

WIN copies of The Exotic Colouring Books!

To celebrate the launch of The Exotic Colouring Book & its companion titles, I'm offering 3 winners the chance to win one of the titles from the series.

Up for grabs is a copy of The Exotic Colouring Book, The Exotic Colouring Notebook (6x9"), and The 2016/17 Exotic Colouring Diary (Week Per Page)!

Enter below by midnight on Monday 22 February to win! The Exotic Colouring Book & its companion titles will be available from Tuesday 23 February on Amazon.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Terms: UK entrants only. Prizes may be withdrawn if entry numbers are deemed insufficient. Prizes may be added to reflect higher entry numbers.

WIN The Calm Colouring Book & Colouring Tips from Colour With Claire!

WIN THE CALM COLOURING BOOK/NOTEBOOK/DIARY!

Hi!

The Calm Colouring Book and its companion books are here!

To celebrate their release, I'm giving away a signed copy of each book.

To be in with a chance to win a copy, enter the giveaway (below)! 

You can grab up to 7 entries into the competition. The competition closes this Friday at midnight. Good luck! (Competition open to UK residents only)

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You can already download 3 free pages from The Calm Colouring Book!

If you'd rather just buy a book to make sure you definitely get one, they're available on Amazon.

COLOURING TIPS FROM COLOUR WITH CLAIRE!

With a new colouring book coming out this week, I spoke to the lovely Claire of Colour With Claire. Here are some of our top tips!

1. What colouring tools would you recommend to a beginner?

Claire says:

When you first start colouring there's no need to buy expensive materials (regardless of whether you can afford it) because you won't know what medium you prefer until you try for yourself!

I recommend Staedtler Triplus Fineliners & Fibre Tips markers and Staedtler Ergosoft coloured pencils. They're fantastic for new colourists as they're inexpensive but give great results. The pens come in 30 different colours, and the pencils are easily blendable if you want to try your hand at shading and gradient techniques. Crayola Twistables are another economical option which lay down vivid colour.

If you don't like the marks pencils leave over large areas, opt for chalk pastels and rub them on with a cotton bud for beautiful and simple soft backgrounds! (Tutorial here)

Gel pens are another great product you might want. For lusciously thick colour I recommend Sakura Gelly Roll pens, which leave an embossed, 3D finish and are excellent for adding detail and making pictures pop. They aren't ideal for larger spaces ( the ink is so dense they will quickly run out), so for that I recommend Artworkz gel pens.

Meg says:

I agree with Claire about not buying expensive materials to begin with!

I recommend Letraset pro markers as an inexpensive market set to begin with. They have 2 nibs and come in a great variety of colours. They lay down intense colours so are fantastic when paired with Letraset marker paper.

For colouring pencils, I'd agree with Claire but also recommend Start watercolour pencils. These are very inexpensive – the colour they lay down isn't as fine a quality (and personally I don't think they blend well as a pencil) however the ability to add water to blend the colours makes them something a bit different!

2. What are your favourite colouring tools and why?

Claire says:

My favourite tools to colour with are alcohol markers, because they come in hundreds of different tones and can be seamlessly blended together for professional-looking effects. I use Spectrum Noir and Promarkers mostly, but there are lots of different options. These kinds of pens can be expensive and take practise to get right, but the bright colours and quality of the finished product when you get the hang out of it can be outstanding. 

My favourite pencils are Faber Castell Polychromos. Again they are going to set you back more than the budget options, but they are artist grade quality and make blending and shading a doddle. They come in up to 120 different shades and are long-lasting and have superior pigment laydown compared to other brands.

For backgrounds, I now use PanPastels. Cheaper chalks are great for giving subtle colour, but PanPastels are absolutely LOADED with pigment and create minimal dust. You only need a little to create vibrant colour strokes, and they can be mixed together to develop your range of shades.

Meg says:

Alcohol markers – copic sketch markers in particular – are my favourite! The colour choices are fantastic, and the double tips (especially the brush tip) allow for brilliant coverage and shading.

I also love working with KarismaColor pencils. They are so wonderful for blending and are really rich in colour. Unfortunately these went out of production a number of years ago (I am lucky to have a big stash!), and ultimately became some of the better quality Prismacolor range. I also like Caran d'Ache pencils for their high quality blending. Both these brands are on the more expensive side, but come in a wide range of colours and offer fantastic coverage and blending.

3. What's your favourite colouring/shading method and why? 

Meg says:

For me, it has to be a mix of artist markers and pencils. I lay down a base layer (sometimes including gradients) with my artist markers. I then use colouring crayons to build up mainly shadows but also some highlights over the markers. You can do hard edged shadows and highlights really well with this technique, though I personally prefer softer shading.

Even with high quality colouring pencils, you can still see the paper grain when shading, so this method allows me to produce artwork with a completely solid laydown.

 

Claire says:

I love to experiment blending my alcohol markers as the finish is just so consistent, but I'm no artist by any means and still class myself under low-to-middling as a colourist. I'm always learning!

Pencils are somewhat easier because you can slowly layer up. Another technique I've been trying recently is to colour a hard border around the edges of the pattern before colouring the middle with a light/medium pressure. It looks great on books like The Wild Colouring book that have lots of leaves and foliage for you to practise on.

Thanks very much to Claire for taking the time to share her top tips! You can follow Claire's colouring journey on Facebook, Twitter and sign up to her email list.

The Calm Colouring Book, Notebook and 2016 Diary are available at Amazon UK, USA and EU - claim your free samples at illustration.megcowley.com!

The Wild Colouring Book is here!

Hi, good news this week!
 

The Wild Colouring Book is available to purchase and enjoy TODAY! Here's how to get your hands on one and how to join in with the fun launch events!

 

Where can you buy a copy?
Print copy (unsigned) - Amazon UK / Amazon USA / AMAZON EU
Print your own (PDF) - My online store.


What's happening to celebrate the launch?

Giveaway! Join the giveaway to win copies of The Wild Colouring Book (it runs until 5th June). The more people enter, the more copies I'll give away!
Competition! Send your entries via email, Twitter or Facebook! Prizes will be copies of The Wild Colouring Book!
 

Thank you all for your support during the pre-launch period. I really hope you enjoy The Wild Colouring Book.
I'd also really appreciate a few seconds of your time to share this on social media! The buttons are at the bottom of this post. Thank you. :-)
Happy colouring!

Meg

Mix-it-up-May

Hi,

How do?

I achieved all of my April targets, which is great. The Brooding Crown is now with my editor, and The Wild Colouring Book is finished. I have the first copy in my hands, am waiting on the shipment of preordered signed copies to arrive this week, and everything is set up and ready to go to launch the sales pages online. Yay!

Things are really heating up now we're in May, though! This month is so random... I'm working on a real mix of projects.

The Tainted Crown is undergoing a bit of TLC this month - it needs a few tweaks before I'm happy for it to sit alongside The Brooding Crown. [Sign up to my fiction newsletter to hear release news & updates first!]

The Wild Colouring Book will be released on May 28th (next Thursday), so there's lots to do for the launch of that! I'm really looking forward to the launch party and hope I get lots of entries in the giveaway and colouring competition! [Sign up to my colouring newsletter to hear release news & updates first!]

I'm getting cracking with the Accounting For Authors project after a couple months forced downtime to focus on uni stuff and prioritise The Brooding Crown. I'm lucky to have the very talented Joanna Penn of thecreativepenn.com / jfpenn.com offering me advice & support on this project. This project will become a much greater focus of mine from now. [Sign up to my non-fiction newsletter to hear release news & updates first!]

The Shattered Crown: The Third Book of Caledan is already in the outlining phase so that's going to come onto the to-do list too! But not this month. Revising The Brooding Crown (once I receive it from my editor) comes first!

New series - no spoilers! I have outlined 13 books in a completely new series (detailed plotting for the first installment is completed) - I just need time to fit them in! I need to write The Shattered Crown first though, but ohhhhh I *really* want to start writing this new series! ;-)

Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself now! So the rest of May will be busy, and the year will be running along at full pelt much as it is now. It's so exciting to finally be in the middle of managing all these different writing projects after having planned out my 2015 schedule back in January.

Well, no time like the present. The books don't write themselves if I'm blogging! Bye for now, don't forget to let me know what creative projects you have on the go in the comments/on social media! :-)

Meg

The Wild Colouring Book - Release Events & Where To Find It!

Hi!

 

The Wild Colouring Book is so very nearly here - Thursday 28th May - and the first copy has landed! I thought I'd blog to let you know how to get your hands on one and how to join in with the fun launch events!

Where can you buy a copy?
Print copy (unsigned) - Will be available on Amazon for £4.99/€5.99/$7.99 Print copy (signed) - Will be available through me, just hit reply if you're interested. £4.99/€5.99/$7.99 + postage.
Print your own (PDF) - Available at my PayHip store for £3.99.

(Links to follow on release day!)

  

What's happening to celebrate the launch?
Launch party! There'll be an online launch party, hurrah! This will be operating between 8 and 9pm GMT*. You can join in on Twitter using the hashtag #TWCB (I thought #TheWildColouringBook would be a bit longwinded!). [*3-4pm EDT, 12-1pm PDT, 9pm-10pm CEST. None of these your timezone? Calculate the time here.]
Giveaway! There'll be a giveaway to win print and digital copies of The Wild Colouring Book. The more people enter, the more copies I'll give away! (Link to follow on release day!)
Competition! What better way to celebrate the release of The Wild Colouring Book than to have a colouring competition? I'll be accepting entries from now until Sunday 31st May. To enter, colour one of the free images in my download pack and send me your best attempt via email, Twitter or Facebook! Prizes will be copies of The Wild Colouring Book.

On launch day, I'll share links to all the places you can purchase The Wild Colouring Book, a link to enter the giveaway, and of course a reminder to join in the fun at the launch party!
In the meantime, why not hop over to my Pinterest account. I have a 'Colouring Books and Pages' board full of lovely colouring pages by other people that I hope you'll enjoy whilst you're waiting for The Wild Colouring Book's release.
Happy colouring!

Meg

The Wild Colouring Book release date announced!

Super excited. Today, the proof copy of The Wild Colouring Book arrived!

Suffice to say, I got rather giddy! Today I've spent some time testing it with felt tip pens, artist markers and various colouring crayons. It's performing really well!

The paper is not bleeding at all for the felt tips, which is brilliant, and the colouring pencils are laying down a fantastic, vibrant layer of colour. It's really easy to shade. Happy days! I so hope that people enjoy colouring it. :D

I'm happy to announce that it will be published on Thursday 28th May 2015!

 

Int he meantime, you can grab some FREE colouring pages from the book exclusively from my website at illustration.megcowley.co.uk!

 

Happy colouring!

- Meg

Mad March Roundup & Arty April To Do List!

One of the images for my adult colouring book.

Yikes. I can't believe March is over already. It was such a busy month! If you follow me on twitter, you'll notice I even dropped off the face of the earth for a bit. You know you're busy when you don't even tweet!

I was ill, but also really productive. Totally finished my dissertation (aka 13,200 words of 'kill me now'!), the final essay of my degree (YAY!) and more importantly to me, editing The Brooding Crown and outlining my new series. I am *almost* done with uni stuff (finishing mid-May) to focus solely on writing. Feel the anticipation!

The Brooding Crown is now in the hands of my lovely writer friends to critique before it goes to my also lovely editor Sophie next month, and my new series, which will be written as a serial, has been plotted to the tune of 3 series and the first installment outlined. Woohoo! Not sure when I'll have time to start writing it, mind.... I'm hoping to fit it in later this year, but there's lots of other stuff to do too!

One of the images for my adult colouring book.

My surprise project of March was an adult colouring book - finally, I seem to have found the output for my art that is most appropriate for other people to enjoy too! :-) I've not released title/cover yet, but it's coming soon. That's already one third complete - I've been a busy bee! - and is on track to be finished by the end of April and published by the end of May. More details to follow on that. :-)

One of the images for my adult colouring book.

So, seeing as most of my writing stuff is wrapped up for now, my April to do list is much more arty! That's great - I've missed drawing. I should have stumbled on this adult colouring book idea sooner!

Here's what I'm up to this month:

• Finishing all illustrations (about 30) for my adult colouring book.
• Cover design and interior file creation for the colouring book.
• Creating a sub-section of my website for the colouring book and a separate mailing list (I have one for fiction, non fiction and will have a third for this).
• Cover design & back-cover blurb for The Brooding Crown.
• Nervously await feedback from my critiquers on The Brooding Crown!
• Being a guest for my local scout group, who have invited me along to interview so they can get their writer badges! Very excited to hopefully inspire some young writers. :-)

What are you up to this April? Do let me know in the comments/on twitter/facebook.

Bye for now!

Meg