Why you should create videos of your process

One of the most interesting things that social media has given us access to, is a peak into artists' studios and processes. You can scroll through your feed and have the opportunity to look at how something is made. And this applies to anything, not only art.
Whatever you're into, you can find a process video and get instantly inspired and/or learn something.

There are three very specific things I love about recording videos of my process, and because they help me a lot, I thought I'd share them with you too.

If you want to know more about my set up click here.

 

Perspective
I started doing this quite recently but it immediately become a favourite technique to check the quality of my artworks because it forces you to detach yourself from the tiny details and allows you to look at the whole artwork.

Just to use an analogy, if you buy an amazing piece of furniture for your home but you don't look at the whole room, you might end up with something that doesn't fit at all.
In the same way, watching what you're doing from your phone/camera (more details on what equipment you can use here) while you paint, can help you stop focusing on the tiny details so you can look at the full picture.

I'm in general a big believer that the details make the project and, if you do have the time to spend on the fine details of your composition, go for it, because it will show.
However as artists, we do have the tendency of loosing ourselves into the tiniest of the details, and sometimes that's not helpful at all.

When I'm feeling stuck, I take a step back, relax my shoulders for a fraction of a second and then look through my camera.
In that way, the minuscule detail I was loosing my patient on gets more perspective with the rest of the composition.

If you don't see the problem anymore from your camera, then there's no problem and you can keep working on your fabulous artwork.
If you can still see it, then you'll contextualise it and you'll be able to see how you can fix it, how to work with it. Is it a problem of balance of the whole artwork or is it the wrong colour? Or maybe you can fix it with a simple brush (or sponge) stroke? You'll know when you see it!

The reality is that when you work on your artwork, you focus on a small section, while when you look at your artwork you absorb the whole picture, which is how other people will experience it as well.

In all honesty, on every artwork I have ever created, while I was painting (and sometimes afterwards as well) I had an annoying detail that made me question the whole composition.
And probably you have experienced the same too. Our inner critic sometimes needs to be simply silenced and ignored.

So, yes, the tiny details are important but, at the end of the day, you have to look at how the whole artwork works together.

 

How it's Made/Inspiration
As I mentioned at the very beginning, whether your preferred social platform is Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok or... anything else, people loooove to watch process videos. It's almost addictive.

Artists (and by artist here I mean anything from expert professional to beginner that never painted before...) love to watch your process video to either learn something new or to understand how you've done something.
Non-artists are always very curious to know how you made that thing, how it come to life.

A video process makes it accessible and comprehensible for who wants to learn, as it breaks down complexity.
In general, as humans, we love to see colour and shapes taking place. While we don't particularly enjoy change itself, we like to observe it. Same reason why we wake up early to watch the sunrise or we think about a romantic sunset. Because, more than in other moments of the day, we notice change. We observe the sky shifting from light to dark, or viceversa.

In those moments of change, we understand how things are made, we experience the process, and we see how colour becomes art. We see brushstrokes taking shape and layers bringing depth.

Whether you are just there to look or you'll let yourself be inspired, a video process is a great way to see magics coming to life.

Extra content
This is the reason why I started recording my process. I wanted to have more content for my Instagram feed, without having to create every day a new artwork (who has time for that?).

If you want to post frequently, a part from artworks and details of your creations, videos are a great way to get people engaged in your content.

As simple as it sounds, when you record what you do, you have more content to show off. Doesn't matter if it's a time-lapse video or a normal paced video. People will engage more.

You might have seen me going Live on Instagram and then posting the same content to my feed, in a condensed version.
The more content you put out there, the more people will want to see.

In my studio, there is only 1 technique I keep private - because it's my little secret ;) , while EVERYTHING else I do is recorded. Even the tests, even the ugly stuff that doesn't make it to social media, even the projects that start and then stop for 6 months.
All of it.

When I put together my Sponge Course I actually had very little recording to do for the course itself, because I already had a ton of material to work with! And that was great.

 

I hope to see your videos on Instagram soon!