Tag: painting

3 Tips for Loose Watercolor Painting (LET GO) | Liron’s Podcast Episode 89

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Today we’ll talk about how to let go, enjoy watercolor, paint loosely and get the results you want!

This episode features audio from my YouTube video on that same topic. You can watch the full vid here:

3 Tips For Loose Watercolor – Summary

1. Small Paper & Large Brush.

This allows you to have more control. A smaller paper is more forgiving, as you don’t need to fill in huge areas and have perfect control over watercolor, and getting an even wash.

On the other hand, the large brush also forces you to give up some of your control, and learn how to PAINT rather than “color” inside the lines.

With that being said, make sure you use a brush with a good tip for those tighter spots.

2. Magic Wand Grip.

Hold the brush at the very back, far from the hairs. This again forces you to give up some control and loosen up, but it also provides you with more control when it comes to the range of motion.

I like to call this the “Magic Wand” grip. I do this whenever possible, and hold the brush closer to the hairs only when I’m working on very fine details.

3. Use Pure Paints.

Instead of mixing and possible over-mixing your paints – try using them purely. This saves you time, and the result is beautiful.

When I got started in watercolor I tended to REALLY over-mix my paint in the palette, so I would always get muted, grayed out paintings.

The cure for this – NOT MIXING at all – turned out to be something I really enjoy doing. And so I’ve been doing that ever since.

I hope you found these tips useful!

Reach Out to Me

Got any questions? Want help with your paintings? Feel free to reach out to me in any of the platforms I’m on, and I’ll be happy to help (:

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Instagram – @LironYanIL

Twitter – @LironYan

How to Sell Your Artwork | Liron’s Podcast 74

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Want to learn how to sell artwork?

I’m starting to sell mine at a local art fair here in Tel Aviv, in the Nachalat Binyamin street.

This is an art fair for hand-crafted art only, so no prints or machine made items. It’s backed by the city’s municipality and has been active for more than 30 years, if I’m not mistaken.

My first time there will be this Friday (17/05/2019), and I’m very excited to get started!

Why I Joined The Fair

I submitted my work for the fair for two main reasons.

1. I wanted to experience selling my artwork, face to face.
2. I wanted to start “getting” rid of the tons of paintings I have here (;

Selling Artwork Mistakes

Today I want to the fair (active every Tuesday and Friday) to do my homework and perhaps gain some insights.

I got to see many of the cliches of artists who aren’t good salespeople. I noticed two main issues:

1. Too pushy – Some booths I simply stopped by and started taking a look. The artist would immediately start talking about their art. This is nice to hear, had I asked a question. But I didn’t.

I’d much rather the salesperson to ask ME how my day is, or just do light chit chat.

I didn’t ask about the type of wood used in the artworks, and frankly didn’t care haha. Not to be mean – but I’m honestly less interested in the particular type of crafts this salesperson had. I’m sure there are many others who would though.

2. Too laid back – this was probably the most common theme of the fair. I’ve seen so many artists simply sitting behind their table, waiting for a client to drop by and make the sale for them.

I don’t think you should jump people who pass by, but some presence needs to be made. I’ve seen several booths (that actually had beautiful artworks in them) that no one stopped by, simply because the salesperson was very passive.

Selling Artwork – What I Hope to Get

What I hope to get out of this is to improve my sales skills. I want to become a better salesperson, especially face to face.

I will definitely keep you updated on how it goes.

Artist Corner – Daniel Marshall 

Today I talked about Daniel Marshall, an American watercolor painter and tattoo artist!

I became familiar with his work thanks to one of my followers on YouTube, directing me to check it out.

If you love the same artists as me, you’ll probably immediately notice how Dan’s work very closely-resembles the work of Joseph Zbukvic.

I may be wrong about this, but I believe he also studied under him, at some point.

I recommend you check out his website and artworks here: Daniel Marshall

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

Art, Self-Development & Life Lessons from Painting | Liron’s Podcast Episode 73

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In today’s episode I want to present you with a new topic I want to introduce into my content and products, and that is… Self-development!

Art & Self-Development

For the longest time self-development, growth and actualization have been a part of my life.

It’s one of my core values to push myself to improve, both as an artist and as a person.

And now, I believe it’s time to introduce more of that into my videos, posts, podcast episodes and courses.

How I Got the Idea

My good friend Alex – A conversation with him made me realize how important this is for me.

I basically complained to him about something, and his reply was something like this: “Why do you insist on becoming a watercolor teacher? What interests you even more is self-development in art.

Hearing that hit me hard, because it’s so darn obvious!!

I ALREADY make this kind of content – Alex also pointed that out for me. Doh! I’m already making so much content revolving around the process, how to become better, habits to help you improve, creating with courage and passion etc.

So I already do this. Now I want to pour more of that into the content I create, as well as the products / courses I sell.

YouTube & Instagram comments – this is another thing that helped me realize this. I started paying attention to what comments I really vibe with.

I noticed something interesting. While I love comments about me helping someone improve their watercolor skills, what I REALLY enjoy is people talking about how I helped motivate them, give them courage to try, or encourage them to try harder.

That’s what REALLY makes me feel good. And producing content that will help people more and more with THAT, is something I’m very curious about trying more of.

Life Lessons Learned from Watercolor Painting

I recently posted a vid on this topic on YouTube, as a first dip into this new territory. For this podcast episode I cut out the audio and added it here.

If you want to watch the actual video, you can do that too.

In the video I cover the four major insights I gained in the last couple of years, from painting. Those are (1) Letting Go (2) Trusting the Process (3) Patience (4) Speed & Spontaneity.

I hope you enjoy this very first attempt, as well as future ones to come.

And I also hope to create some courses around my experience in this area too.

And with that being said, time for today’s Artist Corner!

Artist Corner

Today we’re looking at Harold B Herbert. He was an Australian painter who lived from 1892-1945.

His life story is fascinating, and his watercolor skills are VERY impressive.

I highly recommend you check out his:

Work – Harold B Herbert Paintings & Sketches
Quick Bios – 1 – Quicker / 2 – More Details

I will also review him in the upcoming episode of Painting Masters (31), that’ll be out on Thursday, May 9th, 17:00 EST.

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

The Value of REPETITION in PAINTING – Improve Fast & Efficiently | Liron’s Podcast Episode 72

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In this episode I’m talking about repetition – a valuable exercise for improving your drawing and painting skills FAST and EFFICIENTLY.

Table of Contents

1. Repetition in Painting and Drawing
2. Worse 2nd Attempt
3. Internalize
4. Loosen Up
5. Recognizing Recurring Mistakes
6. Conclusion

1. Repetition in Painting and Drawing

Repetition is a great tool for improving. It involves painting or drawing the same subject several times.

This allows for more focused learning, and unlocks some obvious (and less obvious) benefits.

2. Worse 2nd Attempt

Surprisingly enough, you may find that in your repeated efforts you actually do worse.

That’s to be expected.

The 2nd time around, working on the same subject, you lack that same spontaneity that characterized the first version.

You may also have some “arrogance” (very natural, not blaming you (;), and a feeling you “already know” the subject.

Don’t let that deter you from doing this. Even when you don’t notice, you are learning and improving.

3. Internalize

Drawing the same subject / scene several times, allows you to internalize a part of the process, and focus on a different one.

As mentioned, you may find some of your result to be worse, but other aspects may be better.

So take the good with the bad. 

Whenever you try an “extreme” technique, it tends to be accompanied by some growing pains.

Whenever I have a streak of great paintings – I am happy, but also weary of the fact it means I may not be growing.

4. Loosen Up

One side-effect of repetition, that is barely discussed, is how it sets you free and helps you loosen up.

Doing something a second time, and DELIBERATELY at that, makes you less worried about the end result. You can just paint yet ANOTHER version!

This freedom helps you loosen up without you even noticing. And it will show in some of the later attempts.

That’s especially true if you are as impatient as I am. The fear of boredom in the 2nd and 3rd iterations actually motivates me to try something different!

5. Recognizing Recurring Mistakes

That’s really the gist of this exercise. Doing repetitions of the same subject will bring to surface recurring mistakes that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

And that’s probably the biggest benefit of doing this.

6. Conclusion

I hope this episode encourages you to give this exercise a try.

And by the way, creating a small preparatory painting for a larger piece, or even just a preparatory sketch – are also a form of repetition.

It’s up to you to decide just “how much” repetition you are interested in doing.

And with that, let’s move onto the artist corner!

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Samuel Colman, an English painter. He lived from 1780-1845, and painted mostly portraits and landscapes.

His landscapes are what really grabbed me about his art. It’s rooted in realism, with an added layer of surrealistic atmosphere

You can check out some of his works here: Samuel Colman. I also recommend doing a Google Images search.

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

Let Vision Lead Your Technique

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In today’s episode I want to share with you a concept I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and that is of vision.

Vision is how we see the world. Every artist (and person for that matter) probably has a different vision of what they see.

That is why different artists create in different ways and notice different things.

Vision Leading Technique

My premise here is that there’s a way to create very clearly. To make the gap between your vision and your result as small as possible.

That is – to allow your vision lead the painting process rather then technique.

When you let technique lead the way, you may approach every painting the same way.

But every painting is different, and every scene is different.

So if you allow VISION to lead instead, you may end up with a better result.

Unique & Highly Personalized Art Style

The coolest part is this – it will probably also be more unique. Because you effectively “cleaned” your representation of reality.

This applies, by the way, to abstract art too! The reality I’m referring to can be a real physical scene, or the vision you have in your head.

I hope you found this helpful. The next time you create, try forgetting about technique, or the “correct” way of doing something. Instead – try to represent what  you see as clearly as you wish, regardless of process.

And let me know how it goes!

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Wendy Artin. I was recommended by a follower to check her work out. And I must say – it’s incredible!

She does lots of figurative work, and has some very unique processes and approach.

I actually covered her in my Painting Masters series. You can check that episode out here (:

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