When I first started teaching myself how to draw, I thought I might as well start a YouTube channel to go along with it, as painting my drawings was free, original content. I had some experience creating videos thanks to a crafting channel I used to have, so I wasn’t intimidated by recording and editing content. But during the course of drawing, painting, and recording video I slowly began to realize I actually don’t enjoy making YouTube videos.
There are a number of reasons for this. For one, I always find myself extremely nervous when recording, and I also make more mistakes than I normally do when painting off camera. Then there is the constant worry about sound quality. For this reason I record at night, mostly to minimize noise and interruptions from my daughter, but also to reduce the chances of noise from other sources. But living in a tiny condo, external noise always seem to creep in from other places, particularly from my neighbors – heavy footfalls, falling objects, washing machines, the list goes on.
There there is the torture of putting the various video clips together, followed by editing, finding music on YouTube Studio, and creating thumbnails. How I HATED making thumbnails!
And let’s not forget writing titles and descriptions and choosing tags and all the other 50-11 things you’re supposed to do to make a successful video.
These tasks took a lot of time to do and each time I found myself editing a video I kept wishing I could be drawing instead. Truth is I’m just not willing to put in the work necessary to be a successful YouTuber. My time is already limited. I get around 1 hour a day on weekdays to work on my art. Even less on the weekends since I’m busy with housework, childcare, and activities. Also, I enjoy painting more when I’m not recording. I’m more relaxed and I get to do other things like watch videos and listen to music.
As I created my own videos, I began to realize that the successful channels I see on YouTube were created by people who are dedicated to being successful on YouTube. They put in the work to make their channels successful because that’s their goal. But it isn’t my goal. My goal is to be a good artist and YouTube is just an afterthought, a mere companion piece to my journey. For this reason I realized there was no reason for me to continue making painting videos. Spending so much time making videos for a platform I wasn’t serious about just didn’t make sense.
Instead I’ve decided to shift my social media sharing to Instagram. I’m still working out the details of how I will share my work since I’m leery of Meta’s AI stance in regards to user content, but since I spend time on Instagram following artists I like, it makes sense that I should have an account of my own. Most of what I post will be images of my art, but occasionally I will share 1-2 minute videos of me painting. This feels far more manageable than creating long form videos on YouTube and no, I am not interested in creating Shorts. They are boring to watch.
I will keep up the few videos I did create for anyone who stumbles across my older posts referencing them, but I’m glad to be moving on.
So farewell YouTube! I learned a lot from creating videos, but ultimately I learned that being an art YouTuber is not for me!
Leave a Reply