Author: Lironyan

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

How I Choose Colors – Watercolor Painting Advice | Liron’s Podcast – Episode 71

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Today I want to teach you how I go about choosing my colors for watercolor painting.

We will talk about both the MACRO and the MICRO.

How I Choose my Colors – Macro

Colors on a macro level means – what colors do I even have on my palette? What colors are my go-to?

Generally speaking, there are a couple of criteria I look into when choosing which colors to purchase. Here are some of them.

Primary colors – I generally work mostly with primary colors. I don’t like convenience mixtures as much, and prefer to mix my own.

So I make sure to always have 1-2 versions of every primary color in my palette – blues, reds and yellows.

Temperatures – I am in the “I care more about the values rather than a specific color” camp (gee, that’s a long name!). But one thing I do pay attention to is temperature.

I find this is important for creating a sense of depth in my works.

Lightfastness – This basically means how much resistant the paint is to light. Lower lightfastness means that with continuous exposure to light, the paint will fade / change over time.

I prefer my paints to stay the same long into the future, so I make sure to use lightfast paints as much as possible, especially when it comes to works made for clients.

Range of Values – This is crucial for me. I tend to create strong contrasts in my works. And I need paints that can mix dark values. This is why I try to use paints that have a large range of values.

This is why I love, for example – Phthalo Blue. It can simply get so dark, which makes it very useful. Another paint in this category is Carbazole violet (and so despite it being a secondary color, I still use it for this specific merit).

Transparency – Lately I’ve come to love transparent watercolors more and more. I find they mix more easily and predictably.

This is a matter of personal taste really, so see what works for you.

These are all guidelines I use for choosing my colors on a macro level.

How I Choose my Colors – Micro

Now I’ll explain how I choose colors while working on a painting.

I get asked about this ALL THE TIME.

INTUITION

People always seem to wonder how I “knew” to use a specific paint somewhere.

The answer is simpler than people think. I developed an intuition for using different colors. This means I don’t know exactly what the end result will look like, but I do have a sense for what will work out.

Minimal Palette – One of my guiding principles are to use as few paints as I can. I find this leads to better color harmony (all mixes stem from the same 3-5 paints). But in addition to harmony, it also simplifies the work process – less decisions to make (;

Temperature – I talked about this earlier. When choosing what color to use, I almost always take temperature into account. Is this a direct warm sunlight? Then I’ll probably use yellow. Is it a mid-value? Perhaps red. A dark shadow? Blue.

These can of course be alternated. I spice up my shadows with warm colors as well. Shadows aren’t monotone.

Exaggeration – Sometimes I’ll simply exaggerate the color bias I see. So if there’s a building wall that’s slightly brown / red – I may paint it using a PURE red. It may seem like too much initially, but I find that I can very easily mute it down by glazing over it with blue, for example.

Most of this really isn’t science. Rather – it’s more of a habit, stylistic choice or trial and error.

See What Colors Work for YOU

The main advice I can give YOU, is to see what works best for you. Don’t worry about my own paints – experiment and see what looks good to your eyes, and how it works with your style.

And with that being said – let’s move onto the Artist Corner.

Artist Corner

Today’s featured artist is Manolo Jimenez. Not to be confused with the football manager of the AEK Athens team, our Manolo is a watercolor painter.

I couldn’t find much information about him, but he is a fantastic painter. His focus, from the works I’ve seen is on larger scale compositions, relative to the focal point. This means the center of focus usually takes up a small part of the painting. So it could be a large corridor in a building, with a tiny single figure, for example.

He is a member of the Association of Watercolors of Andalucia, and exhibits both in Spain and worldwide.

You can see some of his fantastic works here: Manolo Jimenez

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 Future of Art – Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality | Liron’s Podcast – Episode 70

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In this episode I want to talk about the future of art, as well as AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality).

The last couple of decades have brought with them amazing technological advancements. And these seem to accelerate.

This has the potential to change the art world, and provide amazing tools and services for artists.

Art Business Survival 101

In order to survive and thrive as an artist and as an art business owner – you have to be aware of technological & marketing trends.

I’ve been making serious efforts to keep up with technology so far. This means doubling down on LinkedIn marketing, having a podcast, the IGTV platform and many more.

I’ve been following Gary V for a while now, and watching him reminds me on a regular basis to pay attention to what’s going on in the world.

This led to significant success on IGTV (I have videos there with over 700K views). It also led to significant success in selling my courses using FB ads.

And now I spend a lot of time thinking about what’s next in store for us as business owners and artists.

Augmented Reality for Artist

This is the ability to show imaginary objects in real life. The best example for this would be Snapchat’s and Instagram’s filters.

You can use them to change the look of your face, or to add different elements around you (like the sunshine effect, the clouds and much MUCH more).

This can grant amazing capabilities for artists. Two things come to mind as I think of this.

1. Guidance and assistance for creation purposes.

I see many apps that use augmented reality to scan an area (a wall or a paper), and “project” on screen drawing guidelines. So when you look at the paper through your phone you can tell where to draw each line.

Kind of like a digital projector.

2. Idea generating tool.

If you can see anything as if it’s really there in real life, this is potentially an incredible tool for generating ideas for artwork, as well as inspiration!

Virtual Reality for Artists

This is the real deal.

VR will allow us to basically be anywhere we want, and feel almost like we are really there. To what degree is unclear, some say it will be 95% convincing (which is insanely high).

Having the ability to visit anywhere and everywhere without actually moving may significantly impact the travel industry too.

But in any case – imagine you can step into a virtual version of the world and see any place you want. And actually feel like you are there.

Imagine stepping into IMAGINARY worlds, film-based universes and the likes. That’s incredible.

Now imagine you can control the time of day, light and shadow conditions of the scene, mood, atmosphere etc.

We’re talking endless opportunities and endless inspiration for artists.

Hell, we could even create VR art and VR museums.

The Possibilities are Endless

Gary V says we are about 20 years away from that, so there’s still time. But I want to make sure I’m on top of it once it’s here.

This also means, by the way, that tons of new jobs may open in the fields of 3D art, sound and perhaps even touch / sensory fields.

So plenty of things to look forward to (;

But with that being said, let’s go back to our time, and look at today’s artist.

Artist Corner

Today’s artist is Ron Ranson. He was a British watercolor painter, who painted in what I see as the classic British style.

I love his colorful portrayal of nature in his landscapes.

Ron Ranson actually passed away at in 2016 at the age of 92. It seems like he left a serious legacy after him, and lots of students and artists praising his contribution to the watercolor world.

Here’s a nice tribute article written for him: Ron Ranson Tribute

And here’s a YouTube vid to check out, to see his painting process.

Also, an artist that paints in a very similar style (and was probably influenced by Ron Ranson’s work) is Steven Cronin. You can check out his work here: Steven Cronin

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

Post Surgery Update – Septoplasty (Deviated Septum Correction)

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Today I wanted to provide you with a quick update about my septoplasty surgery.

This episode is not really art-related, but rather a personal update. Feel free to skip if you are uninterested.

Background to the Septoplasty Surgery

I have had a deviated septum for pretty much as long as I can remember. To be more accurate – I’m not sure I always had it, or it’s a condition that worsened with time.

The deviated septum made it so that my right nostril is mostly blocked. My instinct tells me I had about 20% airflow in it.

In the 10 years or so, I started feeling the effect of this. I couldn’t sleep on my left side properly (would only be able to breath through my mouth).

I also have some allergies, and this worsened them feeling of tickling and stuffiness. My nose was generally annoying haha.

After deciding to get the surgery done, it took about 6 months of preparations, exams and meetings. Most of this was due to the hospital schedule (these surgeries always take time to schedule here).

The Septoplasty Surgery Itself

I got to the hospital very early, signed on and started the prep and anesthesia process.

The surgery was quite short, about 45 minutes long. Out of that I think the doctor was working for about 30 minutes.

It was a funny experience, as I was under local anesthesia. So I felt the doctor pulling stuff, cutting stuff, hitting with a hammer. But at the same time I was really groggy, and luckily felt no pain at all thanks to the anesthetic-soaked pads stuffed into the nostrils at the start of the procedure.

After the surgery I stayed the night at the hospital, and left the next day.

The doctor said the surgery went well, and I should expect too rough of a recovery.

If you want to see some pics from the hospital (nothing graphic haha), check out this IG post: Septoplasty Update on IG

Recovery

I’ve taken a week of “forced vacation” haha. From last wednesday (03/04) till today (10/04) I’ve been sleeping, resting, painting a little and playing on my Switch.

I hope to start gradually going back to work tomorrow.

You can expect new YouTube videos for Thursday and Saturday.

And that’s it for this one. As mentioned, no Artist Corner this time, but we’ll be back to the usual routine 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