It's time for another Chinese Zodiac as a Yin Yang design and we're on animal number
five, the dragon. Hello and welcome back to Jenna Get Creative.
Yes, it's a yin yang video. I asked you last time if you want to see a full process sketch
first, then final ink illustration, then digital cleanup and you said yes, but I don't have
time to edit that this week so we're just doing the final inking and I'll tease you
with a photo from the sketch stage. I promise, I will do a full process version of one of
these before the series is over. Maybe the next video, maybe one or two after, I'm not
sure. As usual in one of these zodiac videos I'm
going to talk about the meanings and fun facts for year of the dragon and its symbols, but
first I have something very important I want to ask you guys about. You're going to hear
me present this dilemma and ask you about it for a few videos in a row coming up, with
the possible exception of tomorrow's Art Addicts Alliance video, haven't decided yet, because
this is an important decision I need to make that will affect my upload schedule and I
really want your input. So if you like watching my videos and you're hearing this, please
keep listening for another minute or two and then comment. Very important, please comment.
I need to hear opinions from my audience. I need to make a change to my upload schedule
between my art content here and my book and writing content on The Westveil Archives and
on the blog. Don't worry! I'm not planning to cut down the content here. I do still plan
to have twice weekly regular uploads with occasional bonuses. That's not going to change!
What is probably going to change is which days I upload, and what might change is where
I upload the book and writing content. Brief explanation of what's going on so this
makes sense: I launched a book and writing channel in late May and I started dabbling
in book blogging at that time as well. I chose Saturday as my upload day on The Westveil
Archives channel because if I picked a weekday it would either overlap with this channel
or require me to always have back-to-back editing and uploading days even on weeks without
bonus content. My Twitter account and my blog for the book stuff have really started to
take off since early September, so I have analytics numbers in those places telling
me that the book audience out there on the internet is not coming to me on the weekends.
The book channel isn't growing as fast as I had hoped and the average views I get on
videos there is absolutely pathetic, and what I'm seeing with audience numbers on Twitter
and on my blog, that might be because I'm uploading on Saturday. So that needs to change.
So change #1, the probable schedule change is that I need to shift which days I upload
my art content so that I can get the book content onto a weekday and not go insane.
I want to be uploading videos, art and book stuff combined, on three weekdays, and it
makes sense for that to be Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I'm leaning toward Monday book and
writing upload and Wednesday and Friday can be the new schedule here for art. That would
mean the monthly Art Addicts Alliance video would become one of my two uploads on those
weeks instead of being a bonus, but other than that I would be putting out the same
amount of content, just shifted a day later in the week for each of the two regular uploads.
Is that cool with everybody? Wednesday and Friday uploads instead of Tuesday and Thursday?
Possible change #2: where I'm uploading the book and writing content. I know YouTube prefers
us creators to keep different genres of content to their own channels, but I'm not sure if
having two channels is worth the work. Should I change the upload schedule first and see
what happens, or should I move the book and writing content with a Monday upload to this
channel? If you're only here for the art would that
drive you away? I wouldn't expect everyone who watches me for art to watch the book videos,
but would you be likely to unsubscribe or start ignoring my channel's notifications
if one notification a week was for a video that isn't art related? Would you be fine
with it? Alternatively, would you actually like to see me come on camera and talk about
books or writing weekly on this channel? Another concern I have if I move it is then
I wouldn't have an active channel called The Westveil Archives and my twitter and Instagram
handles wouldn't make sense anymore. I could tweak them to match the blog name which is
Westveil Publishing, but I would lose the @ tags and I might confuse people. I don't
know! Now is the time to do it if I'm going to do it, but I really don't know!
So, question number one is everybody cool with shifting the uploads here to Wednesday
& Friday, instead of Tuesday & Thursday, and that meaning that the monthly Art Addicts
Alliance videos would no longer be bonus uploads? Question number two, if I merged my two channels
and moved the book and writing content over here on Mondays, would that make you watch
less or unsubscribe? Would it make you watch more? Are you completely neutral on that?
I don't want to move it if it's going to hurt this channel.
Okay, that got long. I need to figure out how to summarize that more for when I bring
it up again in the next few videos. On with the Zodiac talk!
The year of the Dragon is the fifth year and animal on the 12-animal Chinese lunar calendar
year rotation. The majority of 1988, the year I was born, was year of the Dragon, but I'm
actually a rabbit due to when Lunar New Year fell that year. I told that story last time
in the Year of the Rabbit video. Either way, that means the years 2000 and 2012 were also
Year of the Dragon, and the next one will be 2024.
The Year of the Dragon usually sees a dramatic increase in births because babies born in
the Year of the Dragon are considered lucky, so it's very desirable to have a Dragon baby.
Since the number 8 is also lucky in Chinese culture, all of my fellow 1988 babies born
on or after the 17th of February are extra lucky, being 88 Dragons, and those of us born
January 1st to February 16th will forever pretend that Lunar New Year and Gregorian
calendar new year fell on the same day in 1988.
Also, fun useless fact, the local Chinese food restaurant is called Dragon 88 and I've
always wondered how many people realize what they've done there.
The trine group involving Dragons is Dragon, Monkey, and Rat. This means Dragons get along
best with people born in their own year as well as those born in the years of the Monkey
and the Rat. On the flip side, Dragon opposes Dog. I think this is hilarious because based
on my due date I was supposed to be a Dragon, and my sister is a Monkey and until she was
about 16 and I was 20 we did not get along. Of the five elements Dragon is Earth, on the
Yin Yang Dragon is Yang, and Dragon represents the third Lunar month. Lucky numbers for Dragons
are 1, 6 and 7, and their unlucky numbers are 3, 8 and 9. Their lucky colour is yellow
and they should avoid blue and green. Dragons are associated with the season of spring and
the hours of 7-9 in the morning. Men born in the year of the Dragon are responsible,
frugal, and trustworthy. They hold fast to their duties and beliefs and their lives tend
to revolve around their careers. They either marry young or remain lifelong bachelors.
Women born in the year of the Dragon are strong leaders and advocates. They stand for gender
equality, they don't require a spouse to speak for them, and they do not like to be underestimated.
Roosters look up to Dragons, Dragons keep Monkeys in check, and Dragons are attracted
to Rats' humor and reliability. That first bit is particularly adorable to me because
my daughter is a Rooster, and had I not been born early I would have been a Dragon, so
this would have fit perfectly. Dragons work best in teams and prefer jobs
that require quick and complicated thinking. They're great at broad picture planning, but
prefer to leave the details up to someone else. Dragons will fight hard for what they
believe in, but this can also be their downfall, as they don't always know how to pick their
battles. You'll notice in the end here that I'm not
signing this piece, and that's because I realized too late that before I transferred the sketch
I should have flipped it over. In order for the heads to be the round parts of the Yin
Yang and have black in the correct spot, I need to digitally flip horizontally. I'm not
going to add my signature now just to cut it up and mess with it in Photoshop in the
next step. Tomorrow is this month's Art Addicts Alliance
upload and we've got two winning themes that we artists were allowed to pick from. Should
be interesting! If you're looking for more to watch I've got
some suggestions up on the left side of the screen now, or if you'd like to check out
my book channel The Westveil Archives you can go ahead and click on my face on the right.
I upload art content here twice a week at minimum, currently Tuesdays and Thursdays,
and if you like living life creatively, whatever that means to you, I'd love to have you along
for the ride. Bye guys!