May & June 2018 Roundup

There wasn't any roundup in May because I felt that there wasn't enough content to warrant one. So this month's roundup includes last month's as well.

Days of the long roundup lists are probably gone because I've to juggle between my job, my blog and Youtube channel and my family and the new baby. Not sure if you have noticed but I've adopted a more casual pace of putting out content. When I look back at what I've done, I'm kinda amazed that I have months where I put out close to 30 book reviews and 30 Youtube videos. Those were crazy days.

You may also notice that the rate at which I'm putting out reviews of new books are also slower. Nowadays, I'm contacting sponsors to get review copies of books which takes time. In the old days, I would just buy straight from Amazon which was why reviews of new books can appear fast, like a week after they were officially released.

You guys may know I'm in the Amazon Associates program. It's basically an affiliate program where you earn some commission for sales that were referred through this blog. In the old days, when Amazon commissions were good, like 8%, I would only need to sell 12.5 times the book I spent money to buy. Each month, I spend a lot of money on buying books to review, unless they are otherwise listed as sponsored books. There was an Amazon commission cut few months ago and the commission rate dropped to 4%. So for each book I buy, I would need to sell 25 copies to cover the cost of the book. And you know me, I feature good and lousy books. So lousy books don't sell as well and I will make a loss from them. Good books sell well but I also make a loss because to sell 25 copies from each book review I put out is difficult. I'm still able to make some money because of the thousands of reviews I've written over the years. So to minimise loss for each book review, I contact sponsors and publishers for books, and that takes time, and that's why reviews for new books are slow to appear.

So if you want to support my blog, before you get stuff from Amazon next time, just head over here to click on any Amazon links before you buy anything there. As long as the link is through my blog, I can earn some commission and I use the money, as you know, to get more stuff to review for you guys.

Books & Craftsy courses

1. Painting With Color: A Contemporary Approach with Joseph Dolderer (Craftsy)
2. Expressive Pages: Journaling the Everyday with Judith Cassel-Mamet (Craftsy)
3. Looking at Pictures by Susan Woodford (Art Essentials Series)
4. Modern Art by Amy Dempsey (Art Essentials Series)
5. EYEYAH! Issue 01
6. The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook - Keep Painting!: A Treasury of Tips to Inspire Your Watercolor Painting Adventure
7. Fantasy Genesis Characters: A creativity game for drawing original people and creatures
8. Creating Stylized Characters
9. 50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful, Ordinary Life: Practical Lessons in Pencil and Paper
10. Book Review: Gallery by Gianluca Mattia
11. All the Buildings in Paris: That I've Drawn So Far
12. Sicily Sketchbook by Fabrice Moireau
13. Tomb Raider: The Art and Making of the Film
14. Gustav Klimt: Drawings and Paintings
15. 野作 (Ink of Wild) Book 1 by Zao Dao
16. 野作 (Ink of Wild) Book 2 by Zao Dao
17. Early Bird: Art of Kelsey Eng

Art products

1. Perylene Red + French Ultramarine + Quinacridone Deep Gold (Limited Palette)
2. Shinhan PWC Extra Fine Artists' Watercolor
3. Silver Black Velvet Brushes
4. Delux Designer Keyboard
5. Spectrum Noir Metallic Markers (Water-based & Archival)
6. How to choose good watercolour paper (Part 1)
7. Beginner's Guide to Art Markers
8. Staedtler Noris Digital, the S Pen Alternative
9. BenQ SW2700PT Monitor (99% Adobe RGB)
10. PAC DOT S Pen, a cheap Surface Pen alternative
11. Retro & Bluetooth, the Rymek Mechanical Keyboard (review)
12. 入夜识 by FLZC (Evening knowledge)
13. Luminous Blue from Briolette collection (BENU fountain pen)
14. Uniball Vision Needle

Youtube

1. Review: Daler Rowney FW Mixed Media Markers
2. What We Did with the Amaravati Sketches
3. Have Fun Drawing with Rainbow Scratch Paper
4. Review: How to Draw Portraits in Charcoal by Nathan Fowkes
5. Sketches from Tiffany's 1st month
6. Review: XP-Pen Deco 03 wireless graphics tablet
7. Cafe Sketching at Glasshouse (CHIJMES)
8. Review: Vision: Color and Composition for Film by Hans Bacher
9. Sketching at Vivocity (24 Dec 2011)
10. A tour of my new (empty) apartment
11. Review: Barcelona Sketchbook: Homage to Catalan Architecture by Graham Byfield
12. ShinHan PWC Extra Fine Watercolor (Review)
13. Review: Silver Black Velvet Brushes
14. Review: Delux Designer Keyboard
15. Beginner's Guide to Art Markers
16. Parblo Mast22 Pen Display Unboxing & First Impression
17. Review: All the Buildings in Paris by James Gulliver Hancock
18. Review: 50 Ways to Draw Your Beautiful, Ordinary Life
19. Colouring that Bukit Batok Skyline Sketch (timelapse)
20. Bluetooth & Retro, the Rymek Mechanical Keyboard (review)
21. How to choose good watercolour paper (Part 1)
22. How I Film My Art Tutorials & What I Use
23. Review: Staedtler Noris Digital (S Pen Alternative)
24. Book Review: Sicily Sketchbook by Fabrice Moireau
25. Review: Spectrum Noir Metallic Markers
26. Can You Draw & Write on the Surface Laptop?
27. Review: Luminous Blue from BENU PEN
28. Smile Create Repeat sent me an art supplies box

How to support Parkablogs

1. If you find my blog useful, do support me on Patreon.
Patreon is a monthly subscription service where you can pledge a certain dollar amount to support the creator you like. You can edit your pledge anytime afterwards.

You're supporting the art community, publishers, artists directly too, because that's what this blog is about.

2. Getting your stuff through affiliate links
When you buy stuff through the Amazon and Book Depository affiliate links, I earn a little commission at no extra cost to you.

Thanks for your support!