being a (semi)successful art streamer on twitch

Allow me to tell you everything I know about being semi-successful on Twitch as a creative streamer. Shockingly (or not) almost all the advice is the same as what you'd find as a game streamer. 

Firstly, the best advice I've ever read for general streaming tips and tricks already exists from a partnered streamer named Twiggie. Which can be summarized as follows:

1. Find out what you want to achieve with your stream.
2. First impressions are key. 
3. Consistency, consistency, consistency.
4. It’s OK to take a break! 
5. Watch your own VODs! 
6. Practice talking, all the time! 
7. You know the viewer count? Hide it. 
8. Networking. 
9. Have fun!

And by summarized, I mean all those bold section headers you were going to scroll around for without reading, anyway. (Seriously, though. Check out the article and read the meat of these points.)

Aside from that there are the obvious issues with streaming you can run across, primarily technical issues and making sure your program settings are on point. Which can usually be solved with some creative googling and youtube searching. Or pestering the tech support channel of your favorite discord server. 

First, I highly recommend watching other art streamers of your preferred medium. Start by getting to know the community, see what you like about their layouts and overlays. Pay attention to how they interact with their chat and audience, too. 

Try and decide what your intentions behind streaming are. If your intentions are to just meet new artists and grow yourself as an artist you will do great and have a lot of fun meeting many amazing people. However if your intention is just to make money or get partnered, caveat emptor, its very hard to partner on Twitch and is a long and difficult journey.

On a positive note, streaming can be a great way to get more public visibility as a commission-able artist! The difficult part is deciding if you'll spend your time working on them on stream or not. 

Using a webcam and mic will put you ahead of the game in the creative side of Twitch. Countless art streamers are either only showing their digital art (with music in the background) or their drawing and are averaging 5 to 10 viewers effortlessly. In these cases, it's their talent bringing people to the stage. A combination of talent and interactivity with your chat via mic and camera can increase your chances and the speed with which you grow on Twitch. 

My final note is on brand consistency. Make sure when someone sees your brand somewhere else (i.e. your twitter where you boast you're open for commissions) it's obvious what Twitch channel is associated with that. As much as possible keep imagery and "brand" names across platforms so you really set yourself up in the mind of your audience. It can be really confusing and forgetful if you use a different name on every website. 

Good luck! 

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