Coloricombo is changing in 2025 and I’d love to hear from you: what works and what you would like done differently? Read on to find out about the current formula’s challenges and please get involved by clicking here to take part in a two minute survey.
A New Year: New Plans and a Milestone
Another year of weekly colour prompts is over and I want to extend a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone for being part of the #coloricombo community. Your regular engagement, your messages and of course your creations linked to the prompts all mean a great deal to me
As well as marking a decade of my teaching online art courses, 2025 will be the fourth consecutive year of #coloricombo - a colour palette together with a backstory have been shared every week since January 2022. The community has grown over the last three years, there’s now over 7,000 creatives that receive the prompts by email on Mondays and there’s over 12,000 in the Creative Prompts group on Facebook
In recent months I’ve been thinking about ways to refresh the #coloricombo prompts and themed challenges whilst keeping it’s fundamental link to colour. Ideally I’d like them to be more varied and flexible, whilst still encouraging everyone to embrace their creativity - this is important to me and #coloricombo has been a wonderful conduit for this.
Reality Check…
The long and short of it: putting content together for #coloricombo in it’s current format is really time consuming!
Choosing fresh colours, researching and writing posts and recording videos every week takes a sizeable chunk of time and creative energy. It’s become part of my routine and whilst its been important to keep the basic content free for all, balancing that with sustainability has become challenging.
When we moved Coloricombo across to Substack in January 2024, a “paid for” subscription was added as option, with the hope that it would cover my time and allow me to devote more resources to it. Whilst I appreciate that not everyone is in a position to contribute, #coloricombo is supported by only around 2% of those on the weekly mailing list and the discrepancy is too large to make the current format viable. For those who are part of that 2%, thank you, your support has been invaluable and is deeply appreciated.
I’m excited about these changes. They’ll bring renewed energy and enthusiasm and will still allow me to share inspiring and fresh content with you. The plans will will also create room for more in-depth live sessions and other surprises, read on for more details!
Now that you mention it…
If you’re not a paying subscriber and would like to see #coloricombo continue to thrive, now’s a great time to join. Every contribution helps make this program sustainable.
The basic weekly prompts will remain free with the option of subscribing with a small monthly ($9 USD) or annual ($90 USD) contribution that’ll support this ever evolving labour of love. Click below by 1 January 2025 and take 10% off of annual plans.
Here’s what you’ll get as a contributing subscriber:
Going Forward
“Variety is the spice of life that gives it all its flavour.”
— William Cowper
Moving into 2025, Coloricombo will be delivered in a way that’s more adaptable and better suited to the way my neurodivergent brain works. I’ll be sharing my curiosity about the world and my love of connecting and engaging with others by means of creativity and colour in a variety of ways.
What have I enjoyed most over the last three years of curating prompts? Ranking highest must be the disappearing down metaphorical rabbit holes and delving into my treasured books in the quest to find forgotten and obscure artists from the past.
One thing I come to realise is that I miss the spontaneity of doing live painting sessions! When #coloricombo first started out as an Instagram challenge I regularly did live painting demos on that platform. The problem is that once they’ve been “broadcast”, the recording effectively gets lost in the ether. As the social media landscape continues to change I’d like to schedule online sessions in a suitable way allowing me to offer one-two hour long workshops and masterclasses to be stored and shared afterwards.
Do you like the sound of this? Join the live session priority list.
In Summary
Coloricombo was originally a kind of creative challenge and this will continue!
Colour prompts will still be shared every week. Mixing and painting demos will no longer be posted on a continuing basis - these will happen more sporadically to fit around my work schedule.
Casting the net wider! Coloricombo palettes will be collated from a wider selection of sources. Occasionally colours will still come from a featured artist (still with a focus on more obscure female artists). I’ll also look for colours on all kinds of items ranging from postage stamps, packaging, vintage books and typography to trending colours from interior magazines as well as a ‘Lucky Dips’ where colours will be picked from my own collection of painted samples and swatches created over the years.
Sharing content linked to creativity. Here’s an inkling of what’s planned for 2025.
Colori Story: Colours are a fascinating topic, now and then I’d like to dive a bit deeper and share little stories about colour.
Colori Zen: Glimmers are small moments of joy that arise from appreciating simple things. These micro joys can spark feelings of positivity, encourage mindfulness and I’d like to make them part of this evolving program.
Sketchbooks: Using a sketchbook is a practical way to foster a creative habit. From simple doodles and quick drawings to detailed observations, sketchbooks are invaluable tools and I’ll be dedicating some of 2025’s #coloricombo to show and tell you about ways to expand your creativity.
Colori Create: I mentioned online workshops and masterclasses. There are six live painting sessions planned throughout 2025. They’ll be linked to Coloricombo and will be created around specific topics with a variety of materials and techniques incorporated.
Colori Flori: A special Spring time event will happen linked to colours and flowers to celebrate my tenth year of online teaching.
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