Hi there! I’m Rānbō. I’m the artist responsible for all the artwork in all the O-do-roki surprise coloring and craft books. I am a mostly self-trained but well-trained artist. I found ways of getting a terrific classical art education through the years which I draw upon every moment of the day as I work. I am a home schooler and have made many books for my children with my graphic art skills and I’ve also made my fair share of logos and websites too; but, I really wanted to illustrate children’s books. I’ve been developing stories to illustrate myself for some time and figured starting that part of my work with coloring books might be a good way to start publishing.

So I invented O-do-roki, which is the singular and plural form of a coloring page that you fold to make a surprise. The idea for it sprang up one day, seemingly out of nowhere on its own, and proceeded to commandeer my time and energy to forge a pathway into the 3D world through my artistic imagination which it now lives in rent free.

It all started when I found some shorts on youtube one morning back in 2024. Someone made what is known as an “exquisite corpse” - a drawing that revealed itself in a few sections. It was first created by a group of surrealists as a parlor game, rather like a visual version of Consequences in which a sentence is started by one player then finished by two others. That was the idea - one player would begin by drawing an image, fold the paper and give it to the next player, then he would do the same and give it to a third. The results were interesting, sometimes grotesque but nothing I’d ever call exquisite.

I loved the idea but hated the name and the Tim Burtonesque results. I wanted to make a nicer version, one that wouldn’t give children nightmares (or me, to be honest). I liked the idea of opening a folded paper with an animal or kuwaii monster drawn on it and finding a little unified world inside - something whimsical, fanciful, imagination-inspiring and very non-threatening.

I made a few for my kids and they loved them. I was happy for a while creating little worlds but put them aside to start some coloring book illustrations. I was working on a vignette of some kind when my daughter popped into my studio, saw what I was working on and asked me why I didn’t make the folding animal worlds instead. I didn’t have an answer except I wasn’t sure anyone would want a coloring book like this would have to be (detaching the page and folding it) and I didn’t think I could make as many monsters and worlds as were needed.

But…

Once I started, there was no stopping the little monsters from coming into our world. They’re everywhere now - all over my desk, the dining room table, inside the car. They’re like tribbles. (I’ve just dated myself with an obscure Star Trek reference.) This is all I do now.

But could all these little trouble makers be the work of one person alone? Oh no! Absolutely not! I have a staff of remarkably smart and able people who keep these little critters in line - literally, that is - by making sure they all fold correctly, besides doing 100 other things that make these books truly exquisite. These o-do-roki are all engineered to fold perfectly and designed to be beautiful and kid-friendly, inspiring their imaginations to keep growing to power little worlds of their own. We hope you enjoy coloring and making your o-do-roki as much as we do.

We have three in a series of O-do-roki surprise coloring books in their baby monster form, now available to buy on Amazon, and more on the way;. And not just monsters…uh-oh! Better not say. You’ll see. More surprises are coming. Be sure to tune in - same O-do-roki time, same O-do-roki channel. (Oops! I did it again.)

OH! Almost forgot!

O-do-roki is a hyphenated version of the word odoroki - 驚き,the japanese for “surprise”. Isn’t that surprising? or isn’t that fantastic?