The Extraordinary Tourist YouTube Channel Gets a Mini Make-Over

Following on from my previous post, Peter McKinnon, and Learning to Love Creating Video Again, I spent some time giving my YouTube Channel page a minor makeover to better reflect what my channel is about (art and skateboarding) and what my video release schedule is (aiming for a new video every Tuesday and Saturday).

Most of that is reflected in my channel art based upon tips for designing your YouTube channel that I got through being subscribed to Roberto Blake's channel. If you're trying to start, and/or grow a YouTube channel, or just trying to find a way to earn money online using the skills you already have, Roberto gives plenty of useful free advice, as well as linking you to resources to help you out.

Roberto will tell you that good channel graphics and thumbnails are vital to a successful YouTube channel and even has graphics packs you can buy if your design skills leave a lot to be desired.

Alternatively I've started using Canva to create all my channel graphics, thumbnails, and other social media graphics. Canva is free, cloud based, and includes many beautiful templates that you can modify to suit your needs.

So far I've posted two new videos that I tried my best to film quickly and stick to my release schedule of Tuesday and Saturday. Unfortunately my Saturday video was a little late, being uploaded on Sunday, but it was worth it because I think I've found a style I want to develop for my videos that no one else is really doing.

If you study the way both videos were made you'll notice I like using overlays/inserts of video on top of the main video. If you look at the second video I've also broken the screen up into panels each with different video running in them - almost like a comic book page.

I'm thinking about developing that approach even further to turn my videos into something of a modern motion comic but not specifically making them look exactly like comic books. By doing this I can put a lot of information into each scene and keep my videos to a shorter length, as I can communicate my ideas in a more non-linear format.

At the same time, doing this is helping to make the editing process more interesting for me, as I now have the challenge of developing this style further.

I will be posting videos to this blog as I create them which may mean I post more than once a week (because I don't want this blog to be just posts accompanying my videos).

It's still a bit of a struggle to get motivated to film and edit videos but it's only been a week of the new schedule. It's just a matter of making sure I give myself enough time, and try to streamline my new style so it doesn't take as long to edit as my last video did (3 days).

So, if you watched the two videos above and found one or both of them were of interest to you, why not consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel. I could really use the company and I'd love to have you as part of my community.

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Guest Post: MY SOOPER DOOPER NEW CONSERVATORY/ART STUDIO!

Today's guest post is by Artist, Writer, and Mental Health Advocate, Jo B Creative who writes for her blog, Creating My Oddessey.

You should see our (almost) brand new conservatory, half of which is my art studio. 'Lucky me!' I think to myself. Not every creative bod can boast that. It's HUGE! Like a giant greenhouse.

We first moved to our pleasant cul-de-sac house - great for raising kids - when our son, who's on the cusp of thirty-one, was four. One of the main reasons that we wanted it was that, apart from its location on the fringes of a historic market town in rural Hampshire, UK, it had a sizable conservatory looking onto the back garden. It was brown wood framed and had a corrugated transparent roof sloping down from downstairs ceiling height. On the face of it, it doesn't sound that glamourous, but we loved the idea of a conservatory. Luxury! I even liked the red brick walls which it was built against - the original exterior of the house - and the light …

Revive Skateboards, Design a Lifeline Competition - My Pizza Monkeys Entry Submission

About a month ago Revive Skateboards launched their #DesignALifeline competition where entrants had to purchase a specific Lifeline template skateboard deck, draw their design on it, and then post a photo of their finished board to Instagram with the hashtag #designalifeline.

With only 200 template boards being made available, I liked those odds, and bought a deck within an hour of seeing the competition announcement video on the day it was posted. The deck cost me US$40.00 and about that again to have it mailed to Australia. It's the most expensive competition entry I've paid for to date.

The winner gets to have their design released as an official deck as part of Revive's Spring 2020 product release. As well they get three copies of their deck along with a sponsor pack (which typically consists of a number of decks, clothes, wheels etc. from Revive's range). Four runners up will get a sponsor package only.

If you're thinking you might like to enter, unfortunatel…

Book Review: Skateboarding Made Simple Vol. 1 by Aaron Kyro

It's been almost a year since I last wrote about my not so successful attempts at getting back to something that resembles my peak skateboarding abilities of the mid 1990's. I can say I've improved a bit but my confidence level is still pretty low.

However my confidence has started to improve since I purchased Skateboarding Made Simple Vol 1: Master the basics of Skateboarding by Aaron Kyro.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of the Onesie #Sadbatman

Although we haven't seen it clearly for sure, film director Kevin Smith (who has seen a well lit, color photo of the suit), says Ben Affleck's Bat costume is pretty much identical to the Frank Miller, Dark Knight Returns suit. If that's true then Ben's world weary Batman will be going 'old school' and be wearing his underpants on the outside (as he should).

getpaidtodraw.com - Your Questions Answered.

Is it a scam? Is the sales message too good to be true? Can you really sit back, relax and get paid thousands of dollars in residual payments?

If you've discovered the site getpaidtodraw.com and have been looking for someone who has bought this product before taking that leap then this review will peel back the glossy sales message and give you the answers. Prior to buying this product I came across much distrust and misinformation about getpaidtodraw.com by people who hadn't purchased it. There was a real need for information so I decided to take the leap and make the purchase specifically so I could write this informed review. Note that I am not, in any way, a getpaidtodraw.com affiliate.

For this review I will be focusing on the getpaidtodraw system which includes; the ebook, instructional videos and database along with access to the systems author Jules Camber (who replies to emails as 'Jamie, President of Champ Entertainment, Inc and Beats365, LLC'). I'll touch …

Cy Twombly. Art you can love...or not?

The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Agnes Tricoire, presents to the court a reproduction of the kiss mark on a painting by artist American Cy Twombly.
Photo: MSNBC

In researching this post I'm happy to say that American artist, Cy Twombly's all white artwork, 'Untitled', is an exception to his art rather than the norm. Perhaps that is why the artwork is valued at just over 2.8 million dollars and lays some credibility on my rationale in pricing my own blank canvas in my video guide to Pricing your artwork for sale.

Regular readers will know my distaste for blank canvas artworks so I could not pass up this opportunity to comment on Rindy Sam, a 30 year old, female French artist, who loved Twombly's blank artwork enough to kiss it with fully, lipstick loaded, lips.

The incident happened on July 19, 2007, where the painting was part of a traveling exhibition on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art in the southern French city of Avignon. The kiss was described as an 'a…

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured).

At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop, Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self. As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside.

Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme, was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2, because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below.

My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went nowhere on the char…

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

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