Creative Output
Helping artists create scroll-stopping content and navigate social media. A weekly newsletter from an artist with 9M+ followers making ads for the world's largest brands.
How artists can win on YouTube
Despite having 3.6M subscribers on YouTube, I've always struggled with long form videos. My audience largely comes from my short, magical clips. But! This year, I’m experimenting with a new approach that feels far more natural—and it might help other artists who struggle with long-form content. (Check out the simple 'recipe' at the end to get started.) Present Tense Videos I've often gravitated toward vlog-style videos when documenting projects. Probably because they're relatively easy to...
✨ Let's create a video series (pt. 2)
Last week, we started a new video series. This week, we improve upon it! What I made I created another magical effect, except this time I plainly explain how to teleport an object. The lesson last week was that I needed to better establish context for what's about to happen. To do this, I utilized the comment reply feature in IG, TikTok, and YouTube. I had a friend leave a comment asking, "What's the best way to teleport something?" Then I posted my new video as a reply to that comment. What...
✨ Let's create a video series
Let's get our hands dirty, shall we? I've started a new series of magical videos so that I can share with you the experimentation, evolution, and ultimate success or failure along the way. Lately, I've been getting the sense that 'performing' for the camera largely feels outdated. Gen Z grew up talking to their phones, so they have no sense of a fourth wall between themselves and the camera. That revelation led me to trying a more candid style of video where I'm speaking to the camera before...
✨ My Instagram is finally growing again after a 2-year stall
It's been an open secret for much of this year that Instagram Trial Reels are a powerful growth tool on the platform. If you're not familiar: Trial Reels are posts shown only to non-followers. The idea is that you can test different video variations for engagement, then choose to publish only the high-performers to your main profile. The 'hack' has been to endlessly post Trial Reels with no plan to publish and just fish for a small percentage to go viral with a brand-new audience. All social...
✨ The power of specificity
I saw this interview clip with Phil Rosenthal (creator of Everybody Loves Raymond) and had to share it. Phil briefly touches on a brilliant idea: ✨ The more specific something is, the more relatable it becomes. He’s referring to how his sitcom leaned heavily on the exact details of Ray Romano’s real life while capturing the feeling of having a “crazy family.” That emotional truth is what gave it such broad appeal. It’s a perfect explanation of a term we hear constantly on social media:...
✨ This video gives me hope
With the onslaught of AI-generated content flooding social media, I wanted to celebrate a video that's bursting with human ingenuity (something that may become increasingly more valuable). You can watch it HERE It's an impressive mix of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation from @harrylittle on TikTok. It has everything that I typically shout about: it's ambitious and wildly creative, yet it incorporates a tactile technique in a way that makes it accessible to a general audience. I know how...
✨ What's your theme?
So this week, I snapped. From February through May, I packed up my house, moved, unpacked, and then settled into my new studio. That meant no making videos and a drought of creative output. I couldn't take it anymore. On Monday, I decided I was going to post something. Anything! Magic My instinct was to share a niche detail of my process, like a lighting or rigging detail in my new studio. I'll admit, the pressure of being offline for so long was getting to me. Would the platforms start to...
Has 'the portfolio' changed?
I graduated from art college in 2010. To prepare for my job hunt, I printed behind-the-scenes photos and concept art from my stop-motion film on glossy 8x10s and carefully arranged them in a big, physical portfolio. I'm probably part of the last cohort of students who graduated without social media handles. Instagram introduced video posts in 2013. These days, I've been reflecting on how portfolios have evolved since moving largely online. Physical portfolios were precious (the best of the...
Incremental progress (pt. 2)
🚨 New series alert! It was just over a year ago when I first mentioned making incremental progress. A lot of my value with writing about social media is that I'm a full-time content creator, and that means I can share how I'm constantly improving (however small). This week, I want to highlight a change I've made to the way I'm filming myself speaking to camera: In the old version: Filmed at a distance, using a 50mm lens Computer is closed off Small hand gestures In the new version: Filmed...
My YouTube Obsession is Paying Off
I've previously mentioned that even though my YouTube channel has 1B+ views and 3.6M subscribers, I'm 'bad' at YouTube. All those views and subscribers have largely come from my short clips, meaning that there isn't an eager audience guaranteeing views on my long form videos. But if you've been following my posts, you know that I recently cracked the code: How Artists Can Win on YouTube My Artist YouTube Formula Worked Part of me being 'bad' at YouTube is that with all the impressive numbers,...
There are no rules (pt. 2)
I think we have a new series! Building on my first There Are No Rules post, I'm again featuring work that's successfully doing things differently. Spotlight Today, we're looking at a post from brand designer extraordinaire Cj Cawley. What I find fresh about Cj's videos is how he blends storytelling with design. Instead of just showcasing his artwork, he builds a narrative around the entire process - one that anyone can understand. He's even found a creative way to incorporate client emails!...
Helping artists create scroll-stopping content and navigate social media. A weekly newsletter from an artist with 9M+ followers making ads for the world's largest brands.