Teoh, also known as Parka from parkablogs.com is an artist/designer who creates graphics for news publication. In 2009, he started to focus on sketching and watercolor more seriously and now shares his experience and knowledge on his blog and on YouTube.
His Parka Blogs started as a personal blog about random musing. It has since evolved to feature reviews of art books and art products. The art books are mostly related to animation, movies, and comics.
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Get in touch with Teoh
- Website: http://www.parkablogs.com/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/teohyc
Key Takeaways
“You can learn to draw, it’s just the matter of the right technique … you just need the right teacher, or the right book and also the right motivation. The more you draw, the better you become!”
- Most of Teoh’s friends are artists and he spends time with them sketching, drawing and getting better
- “Always be practicing”, applies to every profession, not only arts. Learn from other artists, you can only get that far being self taught. You can learn faster if you have a teacher or a mentor
- Teoh loves sightseeing, observing places and he does lot of urban sketching with watercolors. It’s a very good way to practice. It helps him to capture the scenes he has seen. It’s like a memory for himself and if he is able to bring up that mood to others that’s good enough
- Urban sketching is much more memorable than taking photographs. If you sketch something for hours, you will remember it so well!
Resources mentioned
Art tools
- Watercolors
- Daniel Smith watercolor set
- Winsor & Newton watercolors
- Recommended – Kremer pigments – it has a lot of texture
Product/service
- Google Keep – Notes, ideas, checklists for coming up with ideas
Fav books
- Bert Dodson – Keys to Drawing – for anybody who wants to learn to draw
Special thanks to Teoh for joining me today. See you next time!
All artworks by Teoh YC, used with permission
Episode Transcript
Announcer
Creative, artistic, happy! That’s you. There are endless possibilities for living a creative life. So let’s inspire each other. Art Side of Life interviews with Iva.
Iva Mikles
Hello, everyone and welcome to the next episode of Art Side of Life where it’s all about how you can turn your creative passion into a profession. My name is Iva, and my guest today is an artist and graphic designer from Singapore. He loves books related to art, animation and movies. In the evenings. He works as a graphic designer creating infographics for news publications. And during the day here as a very popular artworks review portal called Baraka blogs. He also has a YouTube channel with the same name, where he features art products and artwork reviews. On his second channel sketch video, he shares urban sketching experiences, tips and techniques with watercolor and fountain pens five times a week, you can follow his vlogs as he travels and sketch around the world. He dreams about traveling everywhere around the world and doing travel sketching every day. So please welcome Teoh better known as Parker from Parker blog.com. And let’s get to the interview. Welcome everyone to the next episode of Art Side of Life. And today my guest is amazing Teoh. So please welcome.
Teoh Yi Chie
Hi, everyone. I’m to from Singapore.
Iva Mikles
Hi, thank you so much for being here and taking time from your busy schedule.
Teoh Yi Chie
Yes, it’s assets. Actually, this is actually the first interview that I’ve done video type of interview. I’ve never done any sort of interview before. So this is my first time.
Iva Mikles
Cool. So a lot of questions are already people have for you as well. So this will be also really great to get to know you more.
Teoh Yi Chie
Christian just fire away.
Iva Mikles
So I would like to start maybe with your background, if you always knew that you would like to be an artist or work with design.
Teoh Yi Chie
Oh, actually, I’m interested in art because as a as a small child, I like to read comics, my favorite comic was Dragon Ball. So I like to draw correct and more stuff. And over the years, I’ve read a lot of comics. So that’s where my interest in art began. And while reading comics, during those early years, I actually went to study something that’s not related to art. So I studied business in university. But during my university years, I have friends who are in graphic design. So I join an extra curriculum activity, which is in graphic design. So I helped school paper, draw graphics and design start off when they went for internship at some company. So I went to hit with the internship with my friends. And that’s how I got into the graphic design or illustration job that I have to do.
Iva Mikles
That’s really cool. I studied also business. So it’s also quite funny. Like who you go the transition from business to design.
Teoh Yi Chie
Yeah, so that’s just my hobby. So even though I do not study, even though I studied business, but I’m doing something totally not related to business, I actually still like business. So you don’t have to be limited by what you saw. You can just do whatever you like.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, exactly. And which were kind of like the biggest decisions you had to do or maybe did you have to do some sacrifices in order to do like art.
Teoh Yi Chie
Actually, for me, I don’t think I have made massive sacrifices because mine is a full time job. So I just just go to the job, there’s not much of sacrifice to say. But on the site, I actually run my website which is pecan blocks.com and also the YouTube channel so to create the website and also the YouTube channel the sacrifice would be time and effort. So those would be the sacrifices but other than that not really major sacrifices it’s just effort and time.
Iva Mikles
So yeah, maybe also like not going partying all the time and just
Teoh Yi Chie
just looking at stuff actually I’d be done. Because most of my friends are actually artists so I go out sketching with them that’s how I hang out my friends test my soul my social life, which was a coincides with my artistic life as well. So it’s a good coincidence. I see. Yeah, it’s
Iva Mikles
really good to have like friends with the same patient.
Teoh Yi Chie
That’s definitely true. And
Iva Mikles
the remain Maybe like the best advice you ever received.
Teoh Yi Chie
Best advice. not think of any. But the true and trite advice would be to always be practicing. I mean, that’s, that applies to every profession, regardless of whether you’re a taxi driver, a bus driver, a musician, or even an artist, a painter, Illustrator, you should always be practicing. So that’s how you improve. I mean, the more you draw, the better you get. And also, the other thing is to learn from artists, because there is a certain limit, where you can self learn to be self taught. But if you want to go beyond that limit, you have to actually learn from others, because there are many people who have way more experience than you who have years of experience. And if you can learn just a bit from those 10 or 20 years of experience that they have, you improve yourself by quite a bit. Those are something that you cannot learn on your own. So you can actually learn a bit faster and some mentor for months.
Iva Mikles
So how do you approach the studying or improving? Do you have a mentor? Or did you have a mentor in past or someone who influenced you,
Teoh Yi Chie
just, I think my mentors are all my friends. So every time when I go out sketching my friends, I will look at their artwork and see how much they have improved. So that will actually motivate me to improve myself as well. And when I see different types of styles, I will try to sort of copy their style, just copy a bit here, copy a bit there, try and see if I can mimic a style. The point is not to mimic that style, but to actually practice on the techniques to replicate that. So if you know the technique to replicate that particular style, from this style, and from that style, you are basically more well known.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And maybe also I try to see what you like, and what fits you better.
Teoh Yi Chie
Yeah, that’s true. And inspired.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And do you also go then outside, I assume, because you also do a lot of urban sketching, right? And do you do also live drawing and where do you practice most?
Teoh Yi Chie
I do mostly urban sketching. Not much of life, boy, because I love architectural I love traveling sightseeing. And when I’m at a certain place, hour, just try it and just walk around and just observe the plays before I draw and draw. Because I can have a more vivid recollection of the place. And also, it’s a very good way to practice your hand eye coordination to draw what you see in the final video. So to practice how you need to create a certainty through lines our true colors.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. So when you are somewhere on like a trip, maybe how many drawings they do per one, you know, like walk or visit? Oh,
Teoh Yi Chie
it really depends on the purpose of the trip. If it’s sketching trip where I am going to a certain place to draw? Well, usually I can draw about two sketches in the morning and two in the afternoon. That if I’m tired, and maybe just three sketches, it also depends on the size of their sketchbook. So if the schedule is smaller than I will be able to draw more because you need less time to draw sketchbooks that are smaller, but if it’s a larger sketchbook like an a4 Sketchbook, you will take me much longer an a4 Sketchbook which opens up to a tree it will give the key will take me around maybe two to three hours to draw that panoramas capsule. It takes a lot of time. So maybe each day, I can only draw two. Yeah. And if I and if I happen to be making videos while I’m sketching them, I will have less time to do sketching as well. So it really depends on my, the objective of the trip itself all this just depends on the object of the trip.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And I was wondering as well, because you do also book reviews still for the parkour blog. So how do you maybe split your time? And you also mentioned that you go to work? And maybe you can also mention what is your work for people? Maybe they don’t know. So how do you design your day and maybe a week?
Teoh Yi Chie
Oh, okay. my full time job is as my full time job is for graphic artists. So I create infographics for example, if there’s a car accident that happens, I would sort of reconstruct a scene and tell readers what happened during the car accident if there’s a new airplane from Boeing or Airbus and build a 3d model of the category of the plane self explaining the features or sometimes these tests A story that requires a cartoon illustration, then I will draw it. So basically, and I think that’s related to graphics, or newspaper publication, desktop at work, and I do. And because I work in the newspaper industry, the paper comes up in the morning, so I have to work at night. So my shift starts at 5pm, in the evening, all the way to trial midnight or 1am. So because my shift starts at 5pm, I usually have the whole morning and afternoon to myself. And that’s where I can create videos, do my book reviews, product reviews, and also go out sketching with my friends. So that’s where it comes from.
Iva Mikles
Cool. And so when for people wondering, you know, when they want to do art career and kind of turn the passion into profession, how do you split your income? Do you have more income streams? Or do you have one main income? Or how does it work with you?
Teoh Yi Chie
I think this really depends on what type of art career you have. For example, for me, I have a full time career, my website and YouTube channel as my side hobby, they also generate income. If you are a freelance artists, it is best to have multiple sources of income, because sometimes a certain type of work may not get you that type of income for a period, for example, there may be times where you cannot find clients, then you have to rely on if you’re doing affiliate marketing, then some months are not doing well, then you have to go for some client works, or do some freelance work. So for me, my income is mostly from my website, and also the YouTube channel, actually, any freelance work at all? So yeah, so it’s best to have multiple sources canceled? Rely on when one goes?
Iva Mikles
Yeah, exactly. Just to you know, level it up. When you have one, maybe bigger client, then you don’t matter, you have to save up and see how
Teoh Yi Chie
another thing is, when you have multiple sources of income, every little bit adds up. So that’s great, because every little bit, when they add up, it really contributes to a significant chunk, chunk of income. That really helps.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And so can you tell us a bit more about you know, how, why did you start with parkour blogs or what fascinates you, the book reviews, or how did it start it?
Teoh Yi Chie
potlucks actually start in about 2008, or 2009. It started out as a personal blog, where I would just write random stuff about things I experience, or maybe post a few sketches or artworks, or maybe even photographs that I’ve taken during my overseas trip on my blog. Then, over a few months, I started posting some of the book reviews. And I’ve written by book reviews all about Pixar art books. So those book reviews, actually, people actually found them helpful, because there were comments saying that it will help fulfill because of the pictures that I posted. Because oftentimes, when you go to a bookshop, some of the books they ask in rapid plastic, you can open and see what’s inside the book. Or if you’re buying a book online, there’s no way for you to flip through the book to see what’s inside. And art is a very subjective matter if you cannot see what’s inside, you may not know whether or not you like that type of art. So it’s very difficult for people to buy the right type of art book, or you may not know if that’s the right book for you. Because after you buy it, you may not know or may not like if you buy the book, and it turns out that you do not like Fannie Mae have. So because of the comments that people gave me on my blog, that’s why I continue to do all these book reviews.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, and now you also do a lot of how to videos about watercolors as well. Do you have like a favorite tool or something would you would recommend people to use or like if someone wants to do what do you do now?
Teoh Yi Chie
My favorite to be not I draw mostly with pen and ink and watercolor. So those would be my favorite two pen and what color so it doesn’t really matter which pen you choose as long as it’s a patent with waterproof ink. Nowadays, I use the MO sorry, nowadays I usually use on pens with waterproof ink so that I can use watercolor over it. As for watercolor. Again, it doesn’t really matter which brand you choose as long as you choose quality watercolor. There are actually two types of watercolor in my opinion, which is student grade and party screen, you can save money by getting student grid, but you end up using more pins from the student grid. So in the long run, you’re actually spending about the same amount of money. If you were to go straight to artists grid because we artists grid, there are more pigments more paint, you need to use less pin to pin an actual sketch. So in the long run, we actually use less. Okay, so it will work out to see by student art is great. So get serious about art, just go for art in screen straightaway and see if
Iva Mikles
it makes sense, because I also try the two different types and it’s true, the pigmentation is not strong enough, so you end up using much more.
Teoh Yi Chie
Yeah, that’s true. And find out I use those students great colors quite fast, much faster compared to those artists. In fact, some of the boxes, some of the artists create watercolor boxes that I have bought a few years ago. I am still using them right now. The peas have not grown up yet. Oh, wow. That’s
Iva Mikles
it, do you have a favorite brand you use?
Teoh Yi Chie
My favorite brand? I’m not sure if I have a favorite brand. But the brand that I use most often nowadays is Daniel Smith. There is Windsor Newton, I start out with Windsor Newton, because that’s the brand that’s easiest to find here in Singapore. After that I performed to try now Daniel Smith, wishing go like gardens and also other different brands. The quality of Smith, we said we shouldn’t go they are quite similar. As long as you choose the right colors they will be more or less the same. So I really do not have a favorite brand and foot our pickup. Yeah, if I would pick up if I will pick a brand that is quite different from other brands. It will be creamy pigments. It’s it’s made by a German company if I’m not wrong pins to painlessly have a lot of granulation Gameloft texture. So when I look at a sketch that is drawn with criminal pigments versus sketches, formerly of Daniel Smith, always I can tell that this sketch, I have drawn it recruitment. So that’s the uniqueness of that particular.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, is what I wanted to ask as well like, because sometimes I go for the specific color, you know, like, Oh, I really like this color or tone. And then I don’t look so much on the brand. And I just go for that tone, because I like it to mix it or use that specific color. Do you do the same?
Teoh Yi Chie
Actually don’t have no, I do not do this. I know some people, they have their favorite colors, I used to have my favorite colors as well. But during a trip, when I went to Bali in Indonesia for sketching trip, I ran out of my favorite color, which was French Ultramarine. So yeah, so I had to switch to using the other blue, which I do not use very often, which is a pale blue. And I found out that I really need to go blue. And that’s also, that’s also the time when I realized that it doesn’t really matter which blue you have, as long as it’s the blue doesn’t really matter which color you have, as long as as long as you have to color. So nowadays, I just use whatever colors that I have. Because I have so many colors that I put this on a box. That’s because of their product reviews. I cannot even remember the names of those peas. So just use whatever is in the box.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And is there something some maybe product or service you bought, which simplifies your life
Teoh Yi Chie
to share your product or service. I use Google Keep Google Keep this note taking service where I can write our shop notes or create checklists. So that’s how I keep track of videos that I want to create. So every time I have an, I have an idea to create for a video or I have an idea for which book I want to buy or just write down on Google Keep. And then I will start a checklist. So when I’m when I run out of ideas, I would just look back at the checklist and I’ll be able to have some ideas. So I think that helps me see sometimes because sometimes when you are thinking of ideas, you’re brainstorming of ideas, like what video should I create today and nothing comes to mind. So if you have a checklist really, you can actually just refer to the checklist and see which one you’d like to create so that
Iva Mikles
you And when you’re talking about also like inspiration and how you kind of collect the ideas, how do you kind of keep yourself motivated? Or where do you get your inspiration from?
Teoh Yi Chie
Oh, keep myself motivated. Looking at other people’s artworks, like there are so many amazing artists out there, so many different styles. And also, some of the artists, they are really prolific their work rate is really insane, because they will create paintings every day. And you can see how they have progress from the first sketch that was done many years ago. And right now, a few years later, you can see how much they improved, and also the volume of work that they have improved. So I’m motivated by the work and rate of other artists. And so of course, the beautiful artworks that hopefully someday I will be able to create something as beautiful as they are.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, for sure. I’m looking forward to see some of your books for the future. Until now, do you have some like favorite books, or maybe something you give as a present to others?
Teoh Yi Chie
Favorite Books and well, for people who want to learn how to draw, I think my favorite book to give them will be this book called Keys to joy by Bert Dotson. It’s a book that any beginners can pick up. Once you go through the lessons, maybe one week later, you will be able to draw by Well, we’ve got pen. So that’s a very good book. Usually for people who say that they cannot draw. That’s the book that I will. Yeah, yeah. Other books not to share. I actually read a lot except I cannot think of any books that come right
Iva Mikles
here because there are so many right you went through so and if you think about like when you’re creating now a lot of art and also going through the books and basically building your carrier, is there something you wish you knew before you started?
Teoh Yi Chie
That’s a difficult question. Thing. Probably to draw. When it comes to art, it’s really about practice. So if I can tell myself how to improve it will be to really is just to draw more practice more than from others. Try to practice the techniques, focus on one specific technique first, get good at it before you move on to the next technique.
Iva Mikles
So to practice before you move on to learn something new.
Teoh Yi Chie
Yeah, that’s that’s okay. Because if you if you do not let’s see if you are practicing or total values and you’re not good at it first and move on to something else like using colors you may not be able to use what you have learned earlier where to what you are learning now so I think people when they just learned a bit here and then it just jumping around Sandy we’re not able to really get the full effect of the techniques
Iva Mikles
Yeah, and if you think about like maybe the the most difficult moment of your art career or like a bad advice did ever happen to you or maybe how did you overcome that? Or what did you learn from it?
Teoh Yi Chie
Bad advice? I’m not too sure. But advice I cannot remember any better advice as far career moves so far I’ve only been in one job which is the newspaper job and my hobby is creating a blog so so far it has been a pretty smooth route for me yeah, so I just added just for Yeah.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, sending you know, because like people go through these like apps and downs and when you are down like how you know to motivate yourself and what do you do learn from like, hard, difficult moment, you know, so some people like to hear also other people’s stories and how they managed to do that.
Teoh Yi Chie
Oh, okay. The thing is that there are always people who have harder lives than mine definitely went to Vietnam once was it Vietnam or Cambodia? No, it’s it was Cambodia. So during during my trip to Cambodia, which was actually a sketching trip, I went to this night market and it with my friends at street side stalls. There were actually children who are just walking around waiting to eat you Left foot. So they give a written hotline. And for me, if I have some thing that is really difficult or hot, or things that are challenging in life, I mean, those will be nothing compared to those children who are finding food industry. It’s, it’s really nothing. So my life cannot be any harder compared to that.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, you’re really thinking about the like, be having like difficult moments because you kind of appreciating what you have now, and then you’re focusing on that.
Teoh Yi Chie
Yeah, that’s true.
Iva Mikles
Okay, so I mean, that’s really great. And if you think about your art and your creations, do you have something like brand or vision, which goes through all of your creations?
Teoh Yi Chie
My creations, oh, this, the art books that I create are mostly urban sketches. painting with watercolor, so I’m not too sure, desert, particular brand or message or thing now to tell the audience, but actually, drawing those sketches is really fun. It’s really one way for me to capture the scenes that I places that I’ve seen, and also the activities and other people that I’ve met, it’s just a memory for me. And if I can bring out that then the the person who’s looking at my artwork can sort of get the mood or atmosphere of the place that I’m drawn to. And I think that’s good enough for
Iva Mikles
Yeah, definitely. Because it’s kind of seeing the world through your eyes when you are there. Can you share maybe some exciting projects you’re working on now or something upcoming, which people can look forward to
Teoh Yi Chie
projects, I any projects and projects that I have would be so called personal projects, because working looking for my work on my website, a lot, my blog a lot, and also the YouTube channel. So maybe an upcoming project that I have in mind would be to draw from the tall buildings here in Singapore recently to Panorama panorama event escapes, cache, all the things that I can see from tabi Nepal. So that’s one way to help me practice my sketching, and also observation skills, and also just treat my patients because nowadays, I realized that I am quite impatient. sketches that I draw, they are quite used. very sketchy. I think I want to get back to drawing a bit slower like painting the colors, we can get the lines drawn a bit more detailed sketch will be on track to achieve a different style, and also to challenge myself to do something different.
Iva Mikles
And when you’re drawing these landscapes or locations, what is your favorite part about it? Is it like layout? Or is it colors? Or are you capturing some stories, maybe with people?
Teoh Yi Chie
My favorite part about drawing, urban sketching is really capturing a scene remembering the scene. So what’s powerful about drawing on vacation is because you spend so much time sitting at one location just looking at scene, you will be able to remain remember that scene for a very long time. And this is very different from taking a photograph of the same scene. Because years ago, before I started to sketch on occasion, I actually have camera I went to New York once Manhattan. I took a lot of photographs during that trip. But nowadays, I just cannot remember much about my trip from New York. If you were to ask me one of the other places that I visit, I probably probably can tell you the names but I will not be able to remember much. However, for trips that I actually sketch for scenes that I sketch, I can tell people what’s happening in that scene, what’s happening outside of the city, the weather that the type of noise that you can, either how much time I spent sitting down there where people are sketching with me. You can remember a lot more compared to picking up so that’s really me. I like bounce. That’s really cool.
Iva Mikles
Oh, yeah, I mean, it’s really cool. I never tried it. So that sounds amazing. Now I want to do it. You described it so well.
Teoh Yi Chie
Yeah. So because oftentimes when, I mean, when you have a camera, you go to a certain location, just look at the scene, you just press the shutter button, and then you just turn around to another view and just press the shutter button. Some, I mean, for me, when I sometimes when I turn back to the same scene again, I will wonder if I have taken that photograph? I think in the photograph before, I cannot remember. So I have to take it again. But withdrawing, you will always remember because you’ve spent half an hour one hour, three hours, four, so you will definitely it makes the trip actually more memorable?
Iva Mikles
And how do you approach the observing, you know, when you sit down? What is the first thing you kind of think about like, Okay, this is how I will simplify? Or how do you what are kind of your main steps when you do this.
Teoh Yi Chie
When I’m going on vacation, usually our spend some time to walk around to scout for places to draw, and also look for interesting views, basically, to look for interesting compositions that I can from. Now, if you do not walk around there, sometimes you may miss the good seeds. So in Bali, Indonesia, there was one place where a visitor were jealous, I was quite tired that day. So I only walk up to you for a few minutes and spotted a scene, which was quite cool. But if I had walked a bit more work a bit further, there was actually a much more beautiful view, which would be even more beautiful with a skeleton. So walking around Scotland for location, and I think it’s quite often. And when I’m at a certain location, I would usually just sit down and observe for a few minutes just to sit down and really taking all the information and see what’s what’s really good about this view. Sometimes, I mean, when you sit down for a lie may observe things that you can anticipate certain things. For example, if I am sitting in front of a shop, I will just observe to look through things. And maybe I will see a signboard that says that the shop is going to open at certain time. And I shouldn’t care because I will be affected business. Or if I am actually by the boat site, I may actually observe the traffic. So if I’m sketching something that is across the road, I might spend a few minutes to observe the traffic because sometimes cars in stock in front of you. And if I were to observe it, and you know that these are the places where the cars are stopped, so I would move to a certain position. So I think some calculation, just spending a few minutes extra to observe the surroundings really helps.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, and what is your next sketching trip? Where do you plan to go?
Teoh Yi Chie
Or sketching trip maybe? Maybe to Japan again, soccer. I actually came back from Japan last month, I went to Tokyo. I also went to Bangkok a few weeks ago. So that was also I’ve been sketching trips. So maybe the next trip, several months later, we’ll be back to Japan, Japan is a very beautiful country, just cash is very expensive. So I have to save up some money before.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, and are you planning to release more of your drawings as a kind of storytelling of your travels? Like these new trips?
Teoh Yi Chie
Usually, I put out my sketches on my website. Every time I come back from sketching true, I would scan the sketches and post them on my website, I do sort of travel up country where I will just put a sketch there and just write something, a few lines of author places. And also I will do a sketchbook picture of the schedule on my YouTube channel to tell people this can explain to them the places that I’ve been to what are some of the scheduling challenges. That means that are the tools that I use to draw the particular sketch and what I found challenging and all the fun stuff that happened while I was sketching.
Iva Mikles
Yeah, because there I think that would be really cool to even like having this one book later on in the future.
Teoh Yi Chie
Yeah, so, I have a post dedicated to each trip. So in the future when I need to refer to my earlier trips, I can very easily come back to refer to either sketches. Things that are written down, as compared to photographs if I take photographs, there may be You feel hundreds of photographs. So it’s a bit difficult to actually go look back at old photographs because they are just so many of them. But if I’m going, if I just came back from a sketching trip, maybe I would just have one sketch book or sketches is really very easy to just refer back to them.
Iva Mikles
So last questions I want to ask you, it’s about the future. And if you think about the your kind of dream scenario in five to 10 years, maybe something which you would imagine, what would you be doing? Or maybe where are you
Teoh Yi Chie
five to 10 years. Because right now, I’m concentrating on creating videos for my YouTube channel. So maybe, hopefully, in five years time, I mean, I can earn a full time income from YouTube and go to the trouble of sketching things. So I can create trouble sketching videos, and also in some money on YouTube at the same time, that would be fantastic. I know that there are travel, travel bloggers on YouTube, they actually earn a full time income from their YouTube channel. So if they can do it for their travel crew, sure, I can do it for travel sketching as well. It’s just a matter of time and also takes time to view audience. So it’s just a matter of time and effort that we put. Yeah,
Iva Mikles
for sure. And maybe would you be teaching some watercolors or taking more people to your sketch trips? Maybe some people can observe that? Would that be something would you be interested in or you’d rather sketch alone,
Teoh Yi Chie
I ended up I actually enjoy sketching with my friends. So sketching alone or scheduling my friends, it’s not really a big difference to me. But when it comes to teaching, while teaching is I prefer to just teach through the YouTube channel that I have, instead of taking on a class, because that’s really a bit. You need to create a certain schedule and teach a class that you have to be prepared a schedule, prepared a date and a time and also arrange for the location, the logistics, all those things are things that I do not enjoy doing. So what I enjoy really is the moment I feel like sketching, I will just go out and sketch if my friends are sketching at a certain place, they post Facebook updates, that they are going to a different location tomorrow. If I’m free, then I can just join that it’s very easy. But when you’re teaching other people you actually need more preparation. That is something that customer Yeah, did not enjoy it and logistic part of teaching.
Iva Mikles
Yeah. And if you kind of think about like total distant future, what would you like to be remembered for in 100 years or so?
Teoh Yi Chie
While that’s as per 300 years, just Yes, I would like people to remember me as the person who’s captured a lot to travel and scheduled, that will be quite cool. Or the person who has the most dangerous block. Because I do get complaints of people who visit my website. And they always complain that they spend too much money after reading the product.
Iva Mikles
And so thank you so much for being here. And if you have like maybe a last piece of advice for people joining before we say goodbye.
Teoh Yi Chie
Last piece of advice. I’m not sure who’s the target audience of this video. But if you are a beginner who wants to learn how to draw, you have no experience with drawing, you actually can draw, it’s just a matter of learning. Right? So you can draw later, you just need the right teacher or the right book and also the right motivation. And the more you draw, the better. It’s really no different from any other profession. So yeah, so that’s my advice to Yes.
Iva Mikles
Perfect. Thank you so much again for being here. And thanks everyone for joining today. Thank you hope you guys enjoy this interview. You can find all the resources mentioned in this episode at artsideoflife.com. Just type a guest name in the search bar. There is also a little freebie waiting for you so go check it out. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on iTunes, hopefully five stars So I can read and inspire more people like you. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to Art Side of Life podcast, because I post new interview every single workday. If you want to watch the interviews, head over to artsideoflife.com/youtube. Thank you so much for listening. Don’t forget to inspire each other. And I will talk to you guys in the next episode. Bye.
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Hi, I am Iva (rhymes with “viva”). I am a full-time self-taught artist behind Art Side of Life® and a Top Teacher on Skillshare. I have 15 years of experience in the creative field as a concept designer, illustrator, art director, and now freelance artist, content creator, and art instructor. My goal is to help you get your creative groove on with Procreate and make awesome art through practical classes, tutorials, Procreate brushes, and guides on art tools, supplies and resources. About me »
