700th Youtube Video Milestone

I just reached the 700th video milestone on Youtube a few days ago. That's 100 more videos that I've added since I last wrote about my 50,000 subscriber milestone in early May.

Anyway, I'm writing about milestones because I want to keep a record of my journey on Youtube. I almost wanted to to say my journey as a Youtuber but I don't really see myself as one yet. *laughs* I hate labels. I'm just someone with a Youtube channel.

A lot of work goes behind making each video. I try to keep my videos simple to make. I don't have any special effects, transitions, end screens, openings or even music. Adding the extras requires time, so I keep things simple. Each video you watch probably needs 3-5 times the amount of time to make. Sometimes even more when it's a bad day with lots of retakes. The satisfaction of seeing people responding to the videos motivates me in some way to keep going.

To be able to build something and watch it grow because of the effort you put it can be quite addictive.

Each day, I would wake up excited thinking about what videos I'm going to make. Would it be a sketching video, a book review, or maybe a vlog. I've reached the stage where I would actually feel dejected if I can't make any video. For example, today, I was stuck at home on a rainy day with my neighbour drilling the whole day. I can't record at home, and neither can I go outside to record. Background noise that you can't block off is the worst enemy of any video creator. And that enemy comes in different forms. Today, it's the !@#$ drill. Tomorrow it could be the plane, or the ice-cream truck, or dump truck. Any day with noise is a good day, a productive day.

On good days I make more videos. On bad days like this, I just write instead of making videos to make the best use of time. And I visited the library today to borrow more artbooks to feature. So it's not really an unproductive day.

I make an average of around 20-25 video each month. It took me 2 years to reach this 700th video milestone. I hope I can make another 700 more. I can only imagine what it will be like when I reach the 1500th video milestone. How would I feel about this post as I refer to it in the future. And that's why I'm writing this post today, to document the journey.

So what are the learning points since my last milestone on Youtube.

I guess it's this: Determination and discipline beats inspiration and motivation anytime.

Sometimes I may be inspired but still can't get things done. And I didn't know how to explain it until I recently read a story by a fighter pilot talking about discipline and motivation. Stephen Silver also talked about it today on his Youtube video although he did not use the word discipline.

I've been planning to create an urban sketching course on my Gumroad page to sell for the longest time but haven't got around to do much about it yet. I've only recorded one video out of the 7 I've planned. I could probably finish recording in a week or two at most. I'm inspired but not disciplined enough to do it. Because right now, I'm just so focused on creating videos for my Youtube channel. It's difficult to break out of a habit. I hope by writing about it, I will put the gears into motion.

So that's the learning point. You need discipline to get things done. Of course if what you're doing is something you don't like, you need even more discipline. It's like going to a day job you don't like, but it pays the bills, so you have to have that discipline to get to work each day. It's just different levels of discipline and different forms of discipline.

So the next time you feel inspired, turn that into discipline and do something, create something, write something. Have something that you can look back at in the future and feel proud about.

I guess I shall end here with an updated list of artists on Youtubers that I've been tracking:

Name Subscribers Videos Total video views
Mark Crilley 2,818,439 641 349,097,828
Draw with Jazza 1,907,898 738 187,865,147
Fun2draw 1,595,604 751 268,847,378
Heather Rooney 1,218,302 229 111,060,925
Marcello Barenghi 1,129,393 361 124,311,418
Baylee Jae 829,145 281 92,423,120
Proko 735,138 216 36,583,930
Cartooning 4 Kids 683,316 1204 150,025,321
Draw So Cute 671,027 465 128,194,994
Pic Candle 488,668 95 26,376,091
Mayara Rodrigues 465,888 410 45,895,571
Yair Sasson Art 459,730 238 66,287,803
Peter Draws 451,833 551 40,927,441
Mary Doodles 421,680 295 34,532,837
Vexx 420,708 95 17,912,808
AmandaRachLee 394,021 186 15,226,736
LethalChris 382,887 409 22,380,130
Ross Draws 365,306 90 10,978,467
Drawholic 359,084 232 28,168,703
Alphonso Dunn 356,416 262 20,020,287
Jay Lee Watercolor 354,808 165 18,771,879
thefrugalcrafter 348,291 1711 45,397,387
HariSaysMeh 279,110 62 17,048,706
Cubebrush 256,032 210 13,320,441
Doodles by Sarah 253,210 128 9,602,195
PearFleur 249,755 97 12,136,286
kelogsloops 249,160 25 4,506,344
FZDSchool 243,139 202 15,830,646
Emmy Kalia 238,687 98 14,499,898
Cartoonblock 237,876 316 24,300,453
Xabio Arts 231,513 31 5,418,580
Echo Gillette 230,393 116 17,158,437
JacquelinDeleon 223,676 79 6,022,600
SuperRaedizzle 214,731 98 13,398,575
Will Terrell 213,574 172 8,529,565
Kelly Eddington 207,987 73 12,363,370
Koizu 207,865 47 9,131,374
Minnie Small 196,661 131 7,467,679
Tillith 194,076 164 8,280,625
Happy D Artist 191,863 141 6,835,796
Robin Clonts 186,416 75 6,651,113
Jasmina Susak 182,794 232 23,922,953
Doodle Date 177,589 148 18,168,069
Shoo Rayner 171,833 938 26,317,462
Xia Taptara 165,042 342 15,972,847
Lachri Fine Art 166,057 788 13,596,033
Iraville 162,404 53 3,493,295
Juicy Ink 153,064 121 6,078,908
Scott Robertson 149,654 67 4,587,986
Audra Auclair 185,497 83 5,984,642
DrawingWiffWaffles 179,420 222 11,919,551
H.C. Brown 175,859 139 7,644,795
Sara Tepes 162,347 92 5,101,345
Fran Meneses 159,365 193 7,759,276
Ahmed Aldoori 152,292 116 5,754,994
Danica Sills 138,920 281 4,655,935
Tina Yu 135,557 28 4,117,910
Whyt Manga 135,138 237 7,091,322
Vicky Papaioannou 129,855 524 12,767,239
Draw Kids Draw 125,294 267 23,474,007
Bobby Chiu 114,960 537 5,778,923
Mind of Watercolor 106,145 143 5,305,086
Ashiyaart 100,247 55 2,397,689
REIQ 85,415 103 7,070,184
Love Teacup Kisses 81,791 121 3,396,423
LevelUp 78,005 85 2,151,185
ArtGerm 73,913 51 1,570,999
Aaron Rutten 75,952 1001 10,006,026
Jake Parker 73,422 99 2,344,030
David Dias Arts 70,644 39 8,649,629
James Gurney 69,667 205 4,227,450
Graeme Stevenson 68,897 280 9,070,398
Me 68,000 703 9,941,174
Kim Jung Gi 66,205 40 6,355,446
Stephen Ward 65,002 50 5,146,792
Peter Sheeler 63,733 129 3,894,617
Sketchy Trav 63,208 122 2,760,367
Katie Jobling 61,867 92 2,382,581
Watercolor Misfit 59,473 121 2,135,376
Alisa Draws 57,749 20 1,024,813
VZA 56,444 308 5,922,141
Zoe Hong 53,572 193 2,199,308
Mira Byler 45,105 182 3,242,057
Kesh 42,060 74 2,492,330
Will Terry 37,944 211 2,410,701
Mateusz Urbanowicz 37,362 78 1,001,618
TheBoxOfficeArtist 34,421 376 1,711,473
KiraKiraDoodle 31,838 89 1,189,417
Stephen Silver 30,272 257 1,400,680
Alan Owen 28,247 355 3,555,606
Jason Morgan Wildlife Art 28,208 253 2,210,471
Umberto Rossini 27,988 122 2,346,261
Tim Wilmot 24,881 30 1,549,140
Owings Art 22,635 268 2,569,245
Pure Watercolour Patrick Ley-Greaves 21,532 115 2,691,512
Holly Exley 17,301 104 836,025
Nitin Singh 15,164 55 899,626
One Fantastic Week 14,829 215 1,400,233
Jason Brubaker 12,670 188 536,243
Liron Yanconsky 7,858 275 540,395
Naomi VanDoren 433 42 1,001,618
Alvin Mark Studio ? 451 19,303

Comments

Wow -- congrats, Parka! That's an amazing achievement and milestone. It's so awesome that you wake up excited each day about the next video you're going to do. (Many people go through their whole lives never experiencing that.) Looking forward to the next 700!

- Tina

Congrats you are doing a great work!! I am always inspired after reading your articles. Thanks!