Blog Post #1 - Trends You Want to See More of // Trends you Want to See Less of

A trend I personally like seeing on Youtube is when artists show their speed drawings and their process of using art with either the computer or paint or however. The process of showing this work is very endearing and relaxing to see as sometimes the artist will leave mistakes that they made in the video or livestream it unedited. Often these creators have smaller followings and their videos are structured around a stream of consciousness with softer music playing. I think a majority of artists who go online and post their work are trying to hide their face or keep their identify secret, but maintain a sense of personality with their artwork or their voice over.

One person who has been using this form of showing the duration of her work makes little stories out of it. For the video I’m linking below, the artist’s name is Mary, or Mary Doodles as she is known on Youtube. Her work is mainly with watercolor and India inks, and she was heavily involved with costume design for the popular Youtube video series Epic Rap Battles of History. The video below is called TIME BOMB - music by Boy In A Band & Feint FEAT. Veela in case the link does not work. The work shows Mary’s process of drawing the male figure and going back in time to save her from her doomed fate. The ink’s fluid nature helps illustrate how time passes in a slow manner, and the reversal of showing the ink being picked up is awesome imagery to go with the theme of time travel.

Another artist who really inspires me is Madoka Kinoshita, a Japanese painter who posts her process online. Her pieces are often really large, but also very clean and stylized. I really like her work and how she shows her audience exactly the tools she uses and what it does to a painting, for example, one of her tools is a metal sifter and she uses it to give a star like effect to her works. I think it is super helpful to see how she sketches out ideas before they paint it, it feels less intimating than other artist’s paintings.

I think an interesting form of this trend is TikTok videos. Tiktok’s short videos set to music makes these small art communities more available for young artists, and plays more so on the fun side. I look forward to seeing where this goes in the future.

I guess a trend that I do not like is artist livestreaming on Twitch as much as Youtube. I only feel that way because it feels strange to have a paywall between those who want to watch an artist draw and the artist. It doesn’t feel so much as exploitative, after all artists have trouble earning money, but it’s not very fun to watch, either. Livestreams are a bit of a pet peeve, while they allow for a chatroom to exist in real time, there’s also no cuts in footage so it can be hours long. I can see how this would not be so inclusive, or open to those who want to see art being made or better their own skills. Overall, it is not a bad thing, but it does not interest me as much as other options.