Lindy Whitton Studio

Yesterday was one of those days when I had BIG plans. I was going to make my first Youtube video… how hard can it be? Quite hard as it turns out!

I had the plan for a demo of a pastel painting all ready – I’ve done a fair few painting demos in my time so I have a good handle on how to paint and chat about it at the same time. I set up Red Velvet on the tripod and fiddled around till I could see my head and the painting paper in the screen- it took a bit to get them there at the same time.

I needed to set up some extra side lighting so went to get the side lamp from the lounge room. I just needed to get the cord out from under a pot plant stand. A small voice in my head suggested politely that I should empty the stand before I tried to lift it but it’s lazy sidekick shouted – just get on with it ! Forty five minutes later I was still cleaning up the mess from where the pot plants had tipped off leaving about a ton of dirt and a few litres of water ( aka mud) all over the beige carpet and my laptop. But I did get the cord out and finally was ready to start filming. During this forty five minutes The Writer (aka husband) had eaten a delicious lunch by the pool and then had a refreshing swim.

Take one ! Well it “took one” for about 3 minutes and 45 seconds and I was doing a spot on intro when I noticed the record light had gone out. Take two! Things went a bit smoother ( except for the bit when I made the mistake of looking at the LCD screen which I faced to the front – of course it was a mirror image and in my spatially dyslexic way I started pointing to the wrong side and became mesmerised by the way my mouth didn’t match up with the words spewing forth from it). Take three – and I finished the intro.

This is a piece of cake I thought to myself -then in a moment of digression …. maybe I’ll have a piece of cake before I get on with it. Actually , it was only a raw carrot as I’m in the process of shedding 18 Kg before I head off to Italy in May and eat my way through a mountain of fresh pasta and about a thousand scoops of ice cream. Anyway, after the carrot feast I got back to it and did an outstanding first section of the painting demonstrating clearly and articulately how to develop a lively sky and laying in the basis of the sandy beach. I turned to face the camera and started my spiel ” and now we’re ready for the sea and the path- oh bugger! the videos stopped again!”

There was a lot of mucking around this time . I downloaded the instruction manual as it clearly was not enough to take the quick guides exhortation to simply press the start record button to start and then press again when I wanted to stop. There was obviously some vital step missing. I looked for that step for about half an hour before giving up and just having another go.

Things went better – but only after I scrapped the first painting and set up a new one. (Remember there was no actual footage of me painting any sky or beach!) So now I only have to splice all that footage together into a seamless video with a great voice over and some carefully selected sound track. Should be a raw carrot!