Importance of Experimentation in Art – Break Your Own Patterns | Liron’s Podcast Episode 84

In this episode I want to talk about just how important experimentation is in art. This connects to everything – improving, developing a unique style, enjoying the process and more!

What I mean by Experimentation

As this is aimed at visual artists, mainly painters – here are some relevant examples of experimentation:

  • Utilizing different techniques
  • Using new tools
  • Trying out different approaches & work processes
  • Painting subjects you are unfamiliar with
  • Using colors you’re not used to

Why Experimentation is Important

Unique and individual Style – Yes! Experimentation will help you incorporate and implement new elements into your style, that will in turn make it more YOU.

Novelty & Burnout Prevention – Experimentation will help you to continue enjoying your medium in the long run. It will keep things interesting and even less expected!

Preventing Complacency – Constant experimentation and challenging yourself to try out different things will help to prevent settling in your patterns and becoming stale in your growth and development.

Caveat – Focus & Improvement

I think experimentation can become a crutch / escapism , if used to the extreme. If you are only trying new things all the time, you don’t really have to become proficient in anything…

That’s why you want to balance it out with a routine, and with working on the basics of art and your medium.

The answer is always – Both!

Artist Corner – Marc Folly

In this one I feature Marc Folly, an incredible French painter who’s style I find very intriguing.

He has a way of connecting areas and leading the viewer in a very clear way towards points of interest.

He’s a master of wet in wet and negative painting techniques.

You can check out his work on his website: Marc Folly

And here’s where you can find me…

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care, and we’ll talk again really soon,

— Liron

Separate Money From Your Time – Artist Advice | Liron’s Podcast Episode 83

Hi there, Liron here! In today’s episode we’re talking about the real way of increasing your income as an artist over the long haul.

This is one of the ideas I’ve been most fascinated with when I just got started in the art world – Separating your money from your time.

Hitting The Ceiling

If you spend time working for payment, you’ll inevitably reach a ceiling at some point. There are only so many hours you can work a day.

Your per-hour rate may increase, but there’s still a limited number of work hours during the day.

Being a Gatherer VS a Farmer

Gatherers have to actively look for income sources, while farmers build an eco-system for generating income.

Nothing’s easy, or “passive”, but a system works better.

My system is my online courses and books. These products are available online. I don’t have to spend any more time on them (other than marketing, which is an inherent part of what I do anyway).

They are ready to be consumed, there’s an unlimited amount of them and there’s nothing to produce – thus – low overhead.

Creating Systems that Deliver Value

A good system is one that delivers value as automatically as possible, and encourages future value generation.

When someone purchases my Draw Anything course, they are also added to my sales funnel. They are then offered super-relevant products in the future.

These are products that had a lot of thought put into them. It’s what people need. And by giving people what they need you create value (content that helps them improve in their art and craft, in this example).

And when you create said value, you can also get value back from the customer (in the form of payment).

And the most beautiful part of it all? It’s all automatic!

There’s A LOT of setup involved when getting started. A lot of research, testing and experimentation. But once you get going the process becomes much more automatic.

Automation Example – Selling Artwork

A normal process of selling paintings would be to, perhaps, reach out to people who may be interested, and try to sell to them.

But we can automate that too. If you can find, for example, a gallery that will work with you – you give them your artwork and they provide you with potential customers.

You give up some upside, of course, but for many – this is really worth it.

Another way of automating the selling of artwork is by creating prints. That way, a one time investment (a painting) can turn into a continuously value-generating item.

Quick System Examples for Artists

Courses & Books

If you have specialized knowledge in an art field, instead of only providing something like private lessons – you could create a paid digital product. I have multiple books and courses on a wide variety of topics.

Membership Sites

These are websites with exclusive content for your customers. It’s a similar concept to any other product. But in this example, it’s a recurring payment (usually cheaper per-month than a one-time product), and you provide an environment that is updated with new information.

Many news podcasts work with a subscription model. They are perfect for the job, as there’s always new information (NEWS!).

Your Platform VS Others’

As we discussed a moment ago, there are advantages and disadvantages to doing everything on your own, or leveraging other platforms.

Usually, what platforms provide is marketing – audience.

I sell MANY MORE courses on Udemy than on my website, but make a similar amount of income from both sources (as they take a large cut). The marketing prowess of Udemy still makes it worth it to have my courses there though.

On your own platform you have full control, but need to do EVERYTHING on your own.

Generally Speaking, I feel like it’s a MUST having your own platform. That way you’re managing your risks, and aren’t fully dependent on other platforms.

And that’s pretty much everything we talked about in this episode.

Artist Corner – Michal Suffczynski

Today we talked about Michal Suffczynski, a Russian architect and painter. He works in both pencil and watercolor, and his landscape paintings really impress me. You can check out his work here: Michal Suffczynski’s Website

And here’s where you can find me…

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care, and we’ll talk again really soon,

— Liron

Authenticity in Art – Cesar Santos Interview | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 67

In today’s episode I wanted to share with you a snippet of my interview with Cesar Santos.

This was an amazing experience, and Cesar is such a great guy!

You can check out the entire thing here:

Authenticity in Art

In this snippet Cesar shares his insights regarding developing your style, artistic freedom, being true to yourself and learning from others.

If you set aside techniques, master studies and so on… over the long run I find one of the most fun parts of creating is slowly learning more about yourself.

With time, and doing the right work, you become more and more like yourself, and less of an imitation of others.

I always aspire to learn from others, but at the same time preserve my authenticity, which is why this topic is so close to me!

Artist Corner

Today’s artist is obviously Cesar Santos.

He is a highly renowned classically trained painter and creator. He works in many drawing mediums, and mainly in oils.

His work is exhibited in galleries in the US and around the world. His series of paintings called “Syncretism” has been one of his major works, and he is always striving to teach, learn and improve.

You can check out his EXCELLENT YouTube channel here: Cesar Santos on YouTube

And his beautiful works on Instagram here: Cesar on Instagram

And Here’s where you can find me

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care, and we’ll talk again really soon,

– Liron

How to Develop a Personal Art Style – Basics & Experimentation | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 63

Hi there, Liron here! In today’s episode I’m teaching you how you can develop your own personal art style.

Many artists strive to grow and develop their own style, but there are many myths about what it takes, and the truth is much simpler than some may think!

We’ll take a bit of a philosophical approach, but embed a lot of practicality to it!

Personal Art Style

Probably every artist you admire has their own unique art styles. Artists who work hard and attain higher and higher levels of creation, tend to also have a uniqueness to their work.

There is something very charming around a distinct art style. This leads many beginner and aspiring artists to worry about developing their own style.

Which brings me to my next point…

Unique Art Style – Don’t Assume you Don’t Have One

This is extremely important.

I want you to understand that with enough practice, repetition and experimentation, everyone develops a unique art style.

It’s inevitable.

So instead of worrying about that, let’s focus on what we can do to ensure you develop successfully as an artist (:

Fundamentals & Experimentation

The way I see it, there are two elements to improving continuously.

Working on the fundamentals / basics – This involved doing the exercises and learning the techniques that are relevant to multiple art mediums.

An example for this would be composition, color harmony, matching values (in case you are doing realistic / representational / naturalistic art) and so on.

Experimentation – This involves breaking our own patterns, using work processes that are foreign to us, trying to work in a different style, using colors we aren’t used to and so on. 

Using these two together ensures your skills will grow, and your style will develop.

Remember that every experiment you do, every technique you play around with – these all add up and become a part of your style. By experimenting frequently, you widen your style’s possible spectrum of expression.

And with repeated work on the basics, you’ll ensure that your technical skills won’t deteriorate while you experiment.

This works very nicely with my concept of Inspiration & Isolation which you can read about here.

Everyone ELSE Will Recognize Your Style

I want to mention something I find amusing. Ironically, you will be the last person to recognize the uniqueness of your style.

That’s just how it goes for most people (unless it’s really unique and out there).

People started telling me about a year ago, that they could tell my paintings apart from others very easily.

I was very surprised to hear, but wasn’t able to see that myself.

Now I can better understand what they mean. There are many nuances. It’s in how you treat the edges, how your brush marks look. There are a lot of signature properties it’s hard to put in words, but easy to tell when they’re there.

Conclusion

I hope this all makes sense. Let me know if you have any questions and I’d be happy to expand on whatever you want me to (:

And with that being said, let’s move on  to the Artist Corner.

Artist Corner

In today’s episode I talk about Oliver Pyle, an English watercolor painter.

Oliver specializes in natural landscapes and rural scapes. His works convey serenity and calmness that I find very relaxing.

His work also taught me a lot about conveying your message with simplicity.

And Here’s where you can find me

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care, and we’ll talk again really soon,

– Liron

Drawing Fundamentals – Shape, Volume & Mass | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 61

Liron here! And today I want to tell you about me going back to the drawing fundamentals, and sharpening my pencil-related skills (pun intended).

Why Fundamentals

I’ve known for a long while now that what makes a piece of art really communicate with the viewer on a deeper level – is usually not the glitz and glamour.

Usually it’s good mastery of the fundamentals of art. Those would be composition, form, value, colors and so on.

Artists Teaching the Fundamentals

I recently also started exposing myself to artists and teachers that focus on the fundamentals.

This really awakened something in me that wants to revisit this ideas, strengthen my understanding and control of them, and incorporate them in my artwork (mainly watercolor painting).

If I really want to become the best I can, this is an integral part of the deal.

What Fundamentals I’ll Focus on

Here are some of the main fundamental principles / techniques I plan on working on: Pencil and line control, shading, volume and mass, simplification, working from direct observation, creating a sense of depth and more.

I’ve been doing this for about 2 weeks, and am already very excited about the results. I feel like this is the right decision for now.

Scheduling Fundamentals Practice

This is going to be the real challenge. I need to somehow carve up more time for pure practice and working on my skills.

This is already a challenge as it is, but I’ll get it to work. It’s at least as important for me to work on the quality of my art, as the rest of my daily tasks.

And by the way, I plan on continuing with the normal routine on YouTube. However, I may share new insights as I learn them. Especially if I feel like something is significant enough.

And with that being said, let’s move onto the Artist Corner!

Artist Corner

In this episode I talked about Marcos Beccari, an extremely skilled watercolor painter based in Brazil. 

He paints what I would call hyper-realistic watercolors. His subjects are mainly the female figure and water.

It’s incredible and I highly recommend you check him out. Here’s his Instagram to get you started: @marcosbeccari

Here’s where you can find me

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

I hope you enjoyed this one. Take care, and we’ll talk again really soon,

– Liron