25 Best Art YouTube Video Ideas (Ultimate Guide)
People turn to art YouTube videos as an accessible way to hone their art skills and to be part of a community of creatives looking for inspiration.
If you want to cultivate your own creative community and be eligible to monetize your content, you need to create and upload new videos regularly.
But what happens when you run out of video ideas?
My team and I developed this list of the 25 best art YouTube ideas to help you if you’re stuck. Why listen to me? I’ve got a YouTube channel with over 175,000 subscribers, so I know a thing or two about regularly creating video content.
What Are the Best Art YouTube Video Ideas?
In no particular order, here’s a list of the 25 best art video ideas for your art YouTube channel. I’ve also included some brief descriptions and suggestions for tweaking some ideas to suit your specific channel needs.
1. Art Business Tips
No one says you have to be a starving artist. If you have a successful art business (or a successful art side hustle), share some of your best tips.
Before filming, you can ask your audience what questions they might have about starting their own art business and address them as best you can in the video.
2. Art Career Q&A With a Local Guest Artist
Team up with a local artist in your community and sit down for a cozy Q&A. You can ask them about their career struggles and successes and encourage them to share their advice with your audience.
This video idea would also make for a great series. If the artist has their own YouTube channel, this is also a great way to expose yourself to a wider audience.
3. Mini Art Challenges
No matter your medium (photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.), develop fun, short art challenges for your community. You can film yourself completing the challenge and encourage your viewers to do the same.
4. Technique Demonstration Videos
This video type is another great one for a series. Brainstorm some essential techniques for your medium and film short technique tutorials where your audience can learn from your expertise and tips.
5. Speed Drawing/Painting Sessions
Sit down with your audience and film yourself doing speed sessions using your favorite medium.
If you want to shake things up, choose a medium you are still learning or have never tried to yield some fun results. Encourage your audience to join you.
6. Illustrating a Children’s Book
Film your approach to illustrating a children’s book. Tell your audience about your methods, planning, and the art supplies you use, and show yourself during the illustration process.
7. Ink Drawing Challenge: 100 Days of Ink
For another great series idea, challenge your audience to a 100-day ink drawing challenge.
Plan different themes or techniques to try on different days and encourage your audience to share their progress in video comments. If ink isn’t your medium, create art challenges to fit what is.
8. Building Your Artist’s Toolkit
Chances are, it took you time, trial, and error to fine-tune your artist’s toolkit. Create content that walks your viewers through the art supplies in your kit and how you chose each tool.
9. Step-by-Step Tutorials
Painting flowers, photographing the perfect sunset, creating ceramic vases—create step-by-step tutorials that teach your viewers how to create these beautiful works of art themselves.
10. Art Supplies Haul
People love a good haul video, and the members of the art world are no exception.
You could approach this video idea in a couple of different ways. For instance, you could take your audience with you while you shop at a popular art supplies store, or you could do an unboxing video of art supplies you bought online.
11. Art Supply Review
After you’ve had the chance to use the supplies from your haul, do a follow-up video where you review what you bought.
Art supply reviews show viewers what’s worth investing in and what’s not. You can also let your viewers know the unexpected ways you used certain items.
12. Artistic Meditation: Zen Session
Creating art can be meditative in itself, so why not host a series of art videos that double as meditation sessions?
Use meditative music or create a guided meditation video that your audience can enjoy while they create their art.
13. Art Inspired by Books
Fan art is hugely popular in some circles, so find some popular books and film yourself creating artistic renditions of famous scenes, characters, or landscapes from the books.
14. An Introduction to Digital Art
Art isn’t always tangible. If creating digital art is more your style, film art videos that show how to paint, draw, edit, and more using your chosen tools and software.
15. Finding Your Artistic Medium
Guide your audience through the process of discovering their favorite medium.
You could even share your own experience of discovering yours and include helpful tips and questions to ask that can help them narrow it down.
16. Artistic Collaboration Videos
Team up with other art YouTubers or local artists and have an art session together.
You could have the other artists guide you through their techniques or vice versa, or you could compete in fun art challenges.
17. DIY Art Journal Tutorial
Teach your audience how to create their own art journals.
Talk about the importance of having an art journal and why you keep one, and offer your audience some key considerations for creating theirs.
18. Creating Art with Found Objects
One person’s trash is another person’s art. Use discarded items from around your house or out and about, and challenge yourself to incorporate them into your art.
19. Color Workshop
This can work for a variety of mediums. Whatever yours is, create a workshop that covers how to use color in your chosen medium.
For photography, you could focus on editing; for ceramics, you could talk about glazes; and for oil painting, you could talk about mixing paints.
20. Exploring Street Art
If you like to travel, create videos featuring street art from around the world. If you tend to stay more local, explore and compare the street art from different neighborhoods in nearby cities.
21. Art Studio Tours: Tour a Popular Local Artist’s Studio
Connect with local artists and ask if you can take a tour of their studio. Have the artist share a bit about what they like about the space and tips for artists seeking their own studios.
22. Live Figure Drawing Session
Invite a model to come on your art channel and pose for a fine art or sculpting session.
This is a great way to collaborate with other artists in your community and teach your community how to work with live models.
23. Introduction to Art Mediums
Similar to helping your audience find their medium, this video introduces various popular mediums to their audience to teach when what’s out there.
You can include a brief history of each medium, examples of famous artists who used them, or suggestions for trying them as a beginner.
24. Sketchbook Tour
Another series idea, this one is for travelers. Take your audience on a tour of your travels through sketches.
In each new place, set up in a nice location and sketch what’s around you. You could even have a camera angle showing the thing or place you’re sketching so your audience can draw with you.
25. Behind the Scenes of an Art Show
Take your audience behind the scenes of an art show to give them an inside look at what it’s like.
Show them what you do to prepare for a show, how you collaborate with organizers, and the event space to set up your art and bring them along to the big event.
How To Never Run Out of Video Ideas for Your YouTube Channel
While you have this list to refer to when you need it, it’s always nice to never run out of video ideas in the first place.
Here are three things I recommend keeping in mind while brainstorming new content ideas.
Turning Standalone Videos Into Series
As you likely noticed from the list, many ideas can be turned into a series.
Series are great because they give your audience something to invest in long-term and a reason to keep coming back on a regular basis.
Series that teach viewers certain art skills are extra nice because viewers can look back over time and see how far they’ve come.
So, if you have a popular video on your channel, ask yourself if you can turn it into a series.
Collaborating With Other Artists
Working together with other artists on your YouTube art channel is smart for two reasons.
First, collaboration is a great way to come up with new ideas; you and the other artists can learn from each other. Second, working with other artists exposes you to a whole new audience.
Asking Your Audience
Simple yet effective: ask your audience what they want. You can check out comments or run a poll to learn more about what your audience loves and wants to see more of.
Art YouTube Video Ideas FAQ
What Are Some Tips for Growing a Successful Art YouTube Channel?
Here are my top tips to help your YouTube channel be successful:
- Define your niche
- Create consistent, engaging videos
- Promote your channel
- Engage with your audience
- Optimize your videos (using keywords and good thumbnails)
- Constantly learn and adapt
If you’re just starting your art channel, you can check out my article on starting a YouTube channel for a detailed guide.
What Are Some Popular Art YouTube Channels?
It’s always nice to draw inspiration from what other creators are doing. To give you some more video ideas, check out these successful art channels:
Time To Put Those Ideas To Work
Now that you’ve got some new video ideas, it’s time to get filming. Plan your content, shoot and edit your videos, and stick to a consistent streaming schedule to continue growing your art channel.
