Creativity Archives - Page 4 of 8

How Realistically Should you Draw and Paint? | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 57

Hi there, Liron here, and today I want to address an issue I’ve been asked about a lot lately.

How Realistically Should You Paint or Draw?

I seem to be getting a lot of questions like “How realistically should I paint?” or “Should I change what I see or try to stick to the reference?”.

And all of these questions are a “how” types of questions. In order to answer them, we need to move into a higher plain of thought.

We need to answer the WHAT question (and perhaps also the “why” question).

What do You Want?

The bottom line is this – what kind of art do YOU want to make? What kind of artwork inspires you and makes you full of joy?

Whatever that is – go do that (:

That’s my simple answer for you. If you understand what you want, and perhaps why you want that – the “how” will take care of itself. It will merely be a manifestation of what you want.

And with that being said… artist corner!

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Amanda Hyatt.

Amanda’s a fantastic impressionist watercolor painter. She cranks up the impressionism, while – from afar – not losing that beautiful realistic feeling I love so much!

Her style actually reminds me of the classic English OIL painters, despite her working in watercolor, which is quite surprising!

I discovered her through a YouTube video, and highly recommend you check it out, as well as the rest of her work.

YouTube videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ1Q9SP99rE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4jScO-4vvw

Amanda’s website:
https://amandahyatt.com.au/

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

What Makes Art Good? | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 51

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What makes art good?

Hi there, Liron here – and today I wanted to share my insights after listening to Antrese Wood’s podcast episode with Alvaro Castagnet.

In the podcast (The Savvy Painter) episode, they were talking about what makes art… well – art!

Alvaro shared his perspective on what is important when creating, and what separates good art from rare / great art.

Impressed By Castagnet

First off I want to say how impressed I am with Alvaro’s dedication to ART. He seems to be an artist through and through, and not “just” a painter.

I didn’t know he had such a developed outlook and perspective on this topic.

My Main Takeaways – What Makes Art Good

Here are the points I found important here:

1. Creating with innocence. We know how to make beautiful art, but then we learn and internalize a lot of excessive baggage. Unlearning is the key. Children’s paintings are beautiful and fully authentic.

2. Being present while creating. Something I mentioned here many times in the past.

3. Sensitivity to the world. This is something I’ve been talking about, but never phrased this way. Alvaro is a GENIUS. It’s such a good way to put it. Sensitivity. The ability to see more, where others see nothing.

4. Spontaneity. This is especially true with the wild medium of watercolor. At times you have to be able to be flexible and react to what the paint does.

Vision & Techniques Work Together

The above help you develop a clear vision.

What techniques do is help you execute on that vision. This is why techniques are important, but have their place.

A spectacular vision, imagination and perception, together with mediocre technique – can actually do wonders.

Excellent technique with complete lack of vision may produce boring work that has no soul.

And this is it for today. Would love to hear your thoughts on this in a comment below!

And with that being said… Artist corner!

Artist Corner

Today, I’ve featuring Antrese Wood! I mentioned her podcast and wanted to share more information about her.

She actually has an interesting life story, and art played a very significant role within it. She’s a painter, working mainly in oils and watercolor. From what I’ve seen she focuses on the A-la-prima approach (finishing the painting in one go).

She created a body of work called “A Portrait of Argentina”, which I highly recommend you check out. As someone who visited some of these places – she did a FANTASTIC job.

Antrese’s website: http://antrese.com/

Antrese’s podcast episode with Alvaro Castagnet: https://savvypainter.com/podcast/alvaro-castagnet/

A painting by here that I absolutely LOVE: https://shop.antrese.com/original-art/original_art_products/persistence-pmb4gqkh1da

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

Depth in Creation – Detailed Paintings VS Quick Ones | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 48

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Hi there! Today I want to talk to you about depth in creation.

Two Ways to Paint – Different Levels of Depth

After painting for 4+ years, I slowly came to realize that there are two main ways to paint.

This is my personal experience. Yours may be different. But here’s what I noticed.

1. Slow and Detailed.

This is when you really take your time and paint slowly. You may take a break and revisit the painting later. You carefully observe it and make changes, corrections and tweaks.

This approach really improves your ability to create highly polished, finalized pieces.

2. Fast and Spontaneous.

This is a quicker way of creating. It allows you to put emphasis on different aspects, and higher level pillars of good creation.

This approach allows you to work on the basics – composition, arrangement, values, color, edges and so on.

It also allows you to gain experience and insight in these areas fairly quickly, as you can produce many quick and small paintings.

Alternating the Depth

One of the things that helped me the most when it comes to improving over the long haul, is alternating between those two methods.

I would argue that this helped me to improve FASTER as well.

Here’s what I would do.

I would create a few very detailed paintings. These may take several days.

Then I would feel artistically exhausted. I finally figured out the solution was to switch gears and do the quicker sketches.

So I did a bit of those. Until the next day I felt like doing another detailed painting.

And so on (:

Conclusion

I think it’s beneficial to recognize YOUR OWN cycle, and do the things that will allow you to continuously move forward in your creation.

What do you think? Let me know in a comment below.

And with that, we can move on to the artist corner.

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Trevor Chamberlain, an English painter who works in both oils and watercolor.

He had no formal education in art. He got started in oils, and then taught himself watercolor in one year. In his own words, he did that through sheer perseverance and learning from previous masters.

He currently serves on the Council of both the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.

Here is a gallery with some of his FANTASTIC works – Trevor Chamberlain

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

Painting in the Studio VS Painting Outside | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 44

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Hi there, Liron here! And today I want to talk to you about how I’m recently spending more time painting inside my new studio, rather than outside.

Painting Outside VS Painting Inside / In the Studio

I’ve already talked about this several times in the past. Both of these have advantages and disadvantages.

I find that for me, the ideal way is to alternate between the two, and find the balance that satisfies me. And that balance keeps changing with time.

My Journey & With Painting Outside

When I just got started in watercolor, and still had no idea what I was doing, I painted inside only.

That’s how I learned how watercolor works, the basic techniques and several approaches.

I then started experimenting with painting outside, but nothing too serious. I always made a big deal out of it, like not knowing what to paint, or how to have a proper setup to help me make it easier.

Then, around late 2017 I started becoming MUCH more serious about painting outside, after hearing about the importance of this practice, from multiple sources.

I spent most of that and 2018 creating mainly outside. I also lived in a tiny apartment, and painting outside was actually EASIER (:

But I then started lacking in accuracy, and in the ability to properly finalize my art.

It was time to go back to working more inside.

My New Studio

As I recently moved to a new apartment, and now finally have a dedicated studio, I find myself painting inside most of the time.

I recently started feeling like it was time for a change.

So I decided (like I did in the past), that I’d spend x number of days a week working outside. Right now, my balance is once a week.

For now this feels great, and I’m slowly getting back to the joy of seeing a beautiful view in front of your very eyes, and painting it.

Will keep you updated on any interesting developments (:

Artist Corner

Today I featured Gonzalo Carcamo, a Brazilian artist who works mainly in watercolor.

He has a fantastic sense of light and shadow, and he keeps his color scheme VERY simple. Yet his work is a beautiful and REALISTIC impression of what he sees.

I highly recommend you check out his work on Instagram: Gonzalo Carcamo

And here’s where you can find me

You can support me on Patreon

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

Authentic Visual Creation – Painting YOUR WAY | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 41

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Hi there, Liron here! And today we’ll talk about authentic visual and artistic creation!

Authentic Creation

This is an idea I’ve been thinking about for a long time now.

Authentic creation, in the visual / painting context, refers to painting / representing things the way YOU truly see them.

It means really observing what you are painting, and interpreting it your way.

Second-Hand Visual Representation

This refers to gimmicks. Painting people the way Alvaro Castagnet does, for example.

Now – if this really is your authentic visual interpretation – go for it! My point here is to encourage you to listen to your own artistic voice.

There’s a reason why the best of the best artists tend to have very unique styles.

This is Something I am Working On

It’s important for me to give you the right context for this episode. This is something I’m still dealing with.

I’ll sometimes notice myself going into “auto-pilot” mode, but not in a positive way. I’ll see a tree, and instead of painting it AS I SEE IT, I’ll paint it the way I know a tree is, or the way I saw someone else paint it.

So if you’re dealing with this – we’re on the same boat!

Conclusion

This is what I wanted to discuss today. I’m curious to hear your thoughts and experiences with this. Is this something you think about / deal with too?

Let me know in a comment below / on YouTube / Instagram messages!

Artist Corner

Today we’re looking at Ian Ramsay!

He is a very impressive painter, with a style I love – impressionistic realism, with lots of colors and atmosphere.

I highly recommend you check out his works and website:
https://ianramsay.blogspot.com/

And here’s where you can find me (:

You can support me on Patreon

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

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

And this is it. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I’ll talk to you again real soon!

– Liron