Since I added “Twitch” as my next official Patreon Goal, I’ve gotten quite a few emails and messages from you guys asking what is “Twitch” and how does it work, and why they should be excited, lol. So! I thought I’d take a second to fill you in!
Twitch is an online video channel, kind of like YouTube, but it also shows a lot of livestreaming (it focuses on live streaming videos but also archives them to watch after-the-fact too). In the past it has mostly been folks who play video games so people can watch them play games and chat, etc. They have a relatively new part of their website though now called “Twitch Creative” which focuses on artists and craftspeople who have video feeds in their studios.
My next Patreon goal (the $6K one, we’re at $5188 now last time I checked, so we’re not super far……) is to start my own Twitch channel. I am not experienced with the system, and am not set up there yet, but to get a good idea of how it works – check out my friend & fellow artist
Nen Chang’s channel here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/217629844
and my friend & fellow artist Heather Hitchman’s channel here:
https://www.twitch.tv/heatherhitchman/videos/all
(neither are live right this second, at least when I’m posting this, these are videos from earlier this week to just give you a good idea of how the system works). Basically the format is – video camera on the artwork, video camera on the artist, microphone for the artist (and in my case also for Matt) to answer questions and provide dialogue, instruction, humour, news, etc. Then there is a chat room for you (the audience) to ask questions, talk to me and Matt, etc. I want mine to be very interactive.
My plan is to start off doing at least one live show per week, if it turns out to be fun and is enjoyable for all involved, I might do it more often. I want to get professional grade video cameras & audio equipment, broadcasting software, etc. as part of the Patreon Goal. I’m tired of trying to use my ancient iPhone and broken computer to try to do snippy little videos that most people end up saying are too blurry or are too short, lol ;P I want to have a forum that is genuinely interactive, so I feel like I have a social life, and so you can watch me actually paint in real-time, so I can show off new projects personally, might even be useful to other artists, or at the very least Matt & I can catch up with our friends & family who live all over the world.
But, we do need a lot of equipment (my taped-together iPhone 4 is just NOT going to cut it), and I need lighting and infrastructure built around my painting area so that we can have a high quality live video stream hover directly over my artwork, and another one pointed at me so you can see what paints & brushes I’m grabbing and look at me when I’m talking, etc. I think it’s going to be quite an endeavour, but enough of my artist friends (Nen in particular) have finally convinced me to give it a shot.
And of course, I’ll be doing special events for my Patreon patrons and will give you guys advance notice of when I’m popping on, etc. (probably some surprise “Patron parties!” that I don’t tell the general public about too). Twitch is FREE to watch, so there are no additional costs for you required, and the site is very fast and works on pretty much all computers & devices & phones I’ve seen.
It will also be a good place to maybe do some “tell me what to paint!” events, giveaways, fun stuff like that, and a good place to ask me questions or give suggestions in “real time” without having to wait for me to write emails that are weeks late ;P
I’m primarily going to set up the show in my Florida studio, but depending on which equipment we get we might be able to take it on the road for when I’m at my KC or UK studios, or maybe even when we’re doing live events/art shows too…. who knows?
Just thought I’d fill ya in, for those of you who don’t know what Twitch is or why I was excited enough to make a new official Patreon Goal for it! Once we hit the goal, we’ll be snagging all the equipment needed for setup, and it will probably be just a matter of days/weeks after that when I can actually go “live!”
Thank you all so much as always!!!
XO
Jasmine
