A couple of months ago Youtube has sucked me in so deeply that I was watching the screen day and night. Not that I hadn’t used this amazing platform before, but the time had finally come when I wasn’t looking for videos according to topic, but according to creators.

This is how I met the expression ‘illustuber’, which is quite simply an illustrator, who runs a youtube channel. These fantastic artists share their experiences, tell about both the bright and dark sides of their profession, show their favourite art supplies, or just chat about their pets. No surprise, I became quite addicted for a while. It is interesting that in many cases I am not drawn to the artist’s style so much as his/her professional knowledge, and I’m ever so grateful for the amount of information I learned from these guys.

I’m still in the process of exploring new faces but there are a few favourites, whose videos I always watch when they upload something. They are the ones I’m going to introduce today.

Holly Exley

I have already talked about Holly in my post about favourite illustrators. Holly lives in Britain with her boyfriend and two doggies, works with watercolours, and her videos show a really intimate insight into the life of an illustrator. Since I have a bit of a soft spot for the UK, the shots about country England are just as exciting for me as the professional experiences, but the greatest source of inspiration is the cozy, honest atmosphere of these videos. I often turn to this Youtube channel when I have to work but for some reason I can’t. Holly convinces me that it is natural to sometimes feel uninspired in this profession and there is no reason to panic (while she apparently works they and night).

https://youtu.be/0j6gHQNQeGw

Frannerd

Fran is a true role model – not only as an illustrator but also as a freelancer. Fran comes from Chile but she has lived in both Berlin and London, and now she broadcasts from Hastings, UK. Her advice is invaluable, I feel super-motivated after watching her videos. Fran works with different mediums, but to me, her most interesting pieces are the marker-drawings. Before seeing Fran work with them, I had never thought you can reach such interesting results with copic markers and even though I haven’t tried them yet, I am now planning to.

Minnie Small

Filling a sketchbook is not an easy business. I found Minnie’s channel when I asked the question from Youtube: ‘how to fill a sketchbook?’. Minnie has made an entire series on this subject, but – for me – the real jewels are her portraits. You can learn a lot from Minnie about how to draw characters, different techniques, but she has even vlogged about how to make time for art while having a day job.

Kendyll Hillegas

Kendyll is mainly known for her amazing food and botanical illustration. I started watching her time-lapse painting videos, because Kendyll uses a lot of different mediums to reach her beautiful results. She often uses colour pencils – something I am absolutely unable to do (and also hate), so it fills me with great admiration to see someone create such exquisite quality work with them.

Holly Dunn Design

Strictly speaking, Holly is not a classic illustrator, she has already specialized in book cover illustration. This channel (currently broadcasting from New Zealand) is a fairly new find, where I’ve found amazing information on hand-lettering and calligraphy. Apart from this – as an occupational hazard – Holly talks a lot about books, which is very exciting for bookworms like me, but her interviews with other designers are also real treats. It was exceptionally interesting to watch Holly do an art challenge in July: every day she designed a book cover for a book coming from the Harry Potter series.

So these are currently my favourite youtubers – illustubers – but I’m always interested in new ones. If you follow any other artists on Youtube, please share them in the comments below, so I can check them out!