I recently received a massive box of products I ordered from Awesome Merchandise. If you haven’t heard of them they’re a great resource for getting your artwork printed on pretty much anything you can think of.

I wanted to order some more products for my Etsy shop. I also have a Redbubble and a Society6, but they’re something more personal about packing and posting orders out yourself.

I’m also going to have a table at the Ink Paper + Print fair in Margate on Sunday 28th October. If you’re local to Kent stop by and say hello :)

Check out my video to see the products I ordered, and how I take my photos. If you’re wondering what on earth I’m wearing on my face in the thumbnail, you’ll have to watch to find out!

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been learning some new skills, getting to grips with Adobe Premiere, filming and editing because…I’ve started a YouTube channel! In fact, so far I’ve uploaded three videos.

I’ve been following other creatives on YouTube for a few years, in a bit of a lurky way. In fact when I was going through a dry spell with my art, it really helped inspire me to see what others in the field were up to, seeing their artistic process and snippets from their life.

I decided I wanted to give it a shot. If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen that I’ve been testing talking to the camera for a while on Instagram stories. This felt like a safe way of filming myself, as stories generally feel a bit more informal. You don’t have to worry about editing, they only last 15 seconds, and they disappear in 24 hours.

Still it felt a bit unnatural when I set up to record my first video. At the moment my set up is just my iphone and a small tripod. I tried my best to look at the camera and not the screen, which I think I managed for most of it. I did a few takes and managed to edit it into something I’m pretty proud of.

Emma Carpenter 30 illustrationphotos10 desk.jpg

I decided to do a timelapse of one of my drawings for my #30illustratedphotos project. I’ve always loved looking through old family photographs. There’s something so magical about photos, how they capture a moment in time. You can relive moments from your childhood, or imagine what your ancestors were like. The photo I drew in the video is of my Grandma on her first day of school. I love seeing photos of my relatives at different ages and doing things that I can relate to.

I hope you enjoy my first video. I’m going to aim to post a new video every 2 weeks, so subscribe to follow my illustration journey!

Lastly, I just wanted to say, if you’re thinking about starting YouTube, or some other “scary” project, go for it! Too many of us (me included) feel like we have to wait for everything to be perfect, and then we never start.