March 2016 Reviews Round-up

Book reviews

It's another slow month for art book reviews. It feels like I'm falling back in terms of schedule, if there ever was a schedule.

At the time this round-up is posted, I have more than 10 artbooks waiting to be featured. In case you're wondering, these are the books on the waiting list:

1. The Complete Drawing Course
2. Rainbow Children: The Art of Camilla d'Errico
3. Principles of Creature Design: creating imaginary animals
4. Science of Creature Design: understanding animal anatomy
5. Tales from the Loop
6. The Art of Atomhawk: Volume 2
7. Drawing Realistic Textures in Pencil
8. Record of Agarest War 2: Heroines Visual Book
9. Colored Pencil Cats & Dogs: Art & Instruction from 80 Colored Pencil Artists
10. DRAW Portraits in Colored Pencil: The Ultimate Step by Step Guide

The books above will all be reviewed in April. Simon Stålenhag's Tales from the Loop in particular is an amazing artbook and I can't wait to feature it.

The list below are all the books featured in March.

1. The Anatomy of Style: Figure Drawing Techniques
2. Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling
3. Drawing Atelier - The Figure: How to Draw in a Classical Style
4. The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye
5. My Journey to Machu Picchu, Peru
6. The Art of Zootopia
7. Nuthin' But Mech Vol. 3
8. Heaven's Hell: The Art of Anthony Jones
9. All the Buildings in London: That I've Drawn So Far
10. Killzone Visual Design
11. SOON Timepiece Phenomena: Adventures in concept watch design
12. Punch Drunk Moustache Round 2: Independently Brewed Visual Storytelling & Development
13. Gardens of Awe and Folly: A Traveler's Journal on the Meaning of Life and Gardening

Video tutorials

These are three Craftsy tutorials that are reviewed this month. Check out the courses from Suhita and Gay Kraeger if you're into sketching.

• Figure Sketching Made Simple by Suhita Shirodkar
• Illustrated Nature Journaling by Gay Kraeger
• Expressive Picture Book Characters by Lynne Chapman

Art products

The list below is a mixture of artist interviews and art product reviews.

1. Paul Raymonde
2. Khadi Papers 210gsm Watercolour Sketchbook (Hardcover)
3. Dell Precision 15-inch 5000 Series (5510)
4. Uniball Air Rollerball Pen
5. Gracjana Zielinska
6. Medibang Paint drawing app
7. Artisul D13 Pen Digitizer Display Sketch Pad

Youtube videos

And these are the Youtube videos I made in March. I'm falling behind schedule as well because my goal was to put out a video each day of the month. I've since changed that to 5 videos a week.

1. Book Review: The Art of Ballpoint by Matt Rota
2. How to Place Human Figures in Sketches
3. Unboxing Artisul D13 Pen Digitizer Display
4. Review: Khadi Papers Watercolour Sketchbook (210gsm)
5. Perak Road Sketch Timelapse (28 Feb 2016)
6. Artist Review: Dell Precision 15-inch 5000 Series (5510)
7. Artist Review: Uniball Air Rollerball Pen
8. Bukit Pasoh Sketch Timelapse (9 Mar 2016)
9. Book Review: Sketch City: Tips & Inspiration for Drawing on Location
10. Lokal Cafe Sketch Tutorial
11. Peter Sheeler (Youtube Channel Feature)
12. Unboxing Dell U2717D Monitor (IPS)
13. Medibang Paint App Review & Walkthrough
14. Tiga Artistry Box Set with Sketchbooks & Notebooks
15. Artist Review: Artisul D13 Pen Digitizer Display Sketch Pad
16. Parkablogs' Patreon Video (2016)
17. Bukit Pasoh Shophouse Sketching Timelapse (16 March 2016)
18. Use Blind Contour Drawing to Improve Hand-Eye Coordination
19. Review: Accurasee Pencil Case (Sketch Caddie)
20. Artist Review: Dell U2717D Monitor
21. Sketchbook Tour - Khadi Papers Part 1/2 (3 Aug 2015 - 9 Mar 2016)
22. The Reading Room Cafe - Timelapse Sketch
23. Artist Review: Best iPad Stylus for Drawing
24. Review: Voyage au Japon, Tome 1: Tokyo (Travelogue Sketchbook)
25. Review: Voyage au Japon - Tome 2: Koyasan (travelogue sketchbook)
26. Get Better At Sketching People - Practice
27. Artist Review: Kaweco AL Sport Fountain Pen
28. Tiong Bahru Bakery Sketch Timelapse (24 Mar 2016)

Social Media stats

From this month onwards, I'm going to record my social media statistics as well. This should be fun to see how each platform grows.

Youtube channel: 11,580 subscribers, up from 9,523
Facebook: 12,712 likes, up 84
Google+: 746
Twitter: 3,324 followers
Instagram: 1,017 followers
Tumblr: 227
Flickr: 166

Do follow me on these pages if you haven't.

Facebook growth is so pathetic it's laughable. I once believed that Facebook is the most promising platform but not anymore. They have become a company so focused on making money that they have removed the feature that people join them for in the first place: to be discovered. And recently with the growth of video, they have been pushing so much video into the feed to entice people to watch. I'm actually cutting down on my use of Facebook. The time would be better spent creating content.

Instagram is growing well. I've only 28 pictures on Instagram and managed to get 1.017 followers. That's just amazing.

My Youtube channel subscribers are growing well too, but I work almost every day to create videos. It's good to see hard work that pays off when people respond to your content.

Patreon

I've updated my Patreon page with more rewards for those who want to learn sketching.

Support me on Patreon to help me continue to do what I do. Any donation amount is very much appreciated!

If I can make a living through Patreon with your support, it will allow me to get back my time to do more interesting art projects, e.g. more art videos and artist collaborations.