Comic Witchery

I love to invite folks to WATCH ME DRAW! Even more, I like watching other folks draw. Have you thought of hosting a drawing session, but don’t know where to start? Well, you need a few things: a streaming video program, a host to stream the video to your friends and fans, and a microphone (because you can’t type and draw, you have to speak to your visitors).

For a Streaming Video program, I use a program called WebCamMax. I sprung the $50 for a lifetime license to use the program, but you can try it out for free (it will put a “watermark” over your video).  Lots of other programs are available, though.  Here are Lifehacker.com’s Five Best Screencasting Tools. (Be sure to read the comments for other suggestions, too!) You can stream your webcam or your computer screen through these programs.

For hosting my video stream, I use uStream.tv.  Once I got it set up, it was really easy to use. Another host that I’ve seen comickers and artists use is Justin.tv.

For sound, I just use a nice microphone. I also play music in the background while I’m drawing, but I don’t pipe it through the computer because that cuts off the mic. I put the mic where it can pick up the speakers. And of course, I just turn down the music to speak.  If  you want to pipe your music AND your voice through the computer, you will need a sound mixer program.

WARNING! Having a video capture program, your art program, your browser and your music playing through your computer may slow things down a LOT! Especially if you have lots of folks in your chatroom watching!