artist career Archives - Liron Yanconsky

My Childhood Art – What I Created as a Kid | Liron’s Podcast Episode 128

Today’s another story time! I’ll share with you my relationship with art, drawing and painting from the time I was a KID! And all the way up til now.

I share in this episode some things I never shared before, so I really hope you enjoy it! 😊🙏🏼

Let’s Start at Age 5

First memory – Drawing at my grandparents porch, Dr. Seuss book on one side and my piece of paper on the other. I vividly remember drawing the fuzzy elephant as I saw it.

Elementary School – Taking part in an extra-curricular COMICS class! I remember drawing all sorts of characters, and being very impressed with the older kids’ results.

Turns out me and comics go wayyy more back than I even remembered.

Junior High – Barely made any art

High School – Discovered anime (mainly Naruto and Death Note) and started drawing random anime characters.

I was actually able to dig up these drawings I did, never seen before…!

Sasuke from Naruto – If you remember I did draw another version of this one recently. But this one is from around 2005

A character from another manga I read at the time called Yankee Kun to Megane Chan

I spontaneously decided to look for old drawings in my old emails, and was so happy to find that I did have a few!

Military Service – During this time I was barely doing any art. Only in the last 6 months of my service I started moving towards that direction again.

I Could End up NOT an Artist!

That’s the craziest part here.

If you look carefully, you’ll see that from the time I was around 5 years old, all the way up to the military service, over more than a decade – all there was was a steady decline in how much I was creating.

Had the circumstances been even just a little different here and there, I might have not become an artist at all.

In the episode itself I got into a longer rant about the education system, parents and so on haha.

But luckily – I have become one! 😁

My Future Part in the Art World

I also discuss my future part in the art world, and how I want to go beyond my current niche and play a more major role.

More on that in the future, as it unfolds.

Thank YOU So Much

I’m very grateful for you, the listener / viewer / follower. I couldn’t have done any of the things I have without you.

I really appreciate that, and look forward to being able to share and help more and more in the future 😊🙏🏼

Here’s where you can contact me:

Instagram – @LironYanIL

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Twitter – @LironYan

Dealing With Artistic Frustration, The Artist Journey & More Questions | Liron’s Podcast Episode 119

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In today’s episode I want to address some of the questions I got in a recent Instagram live session I did – both SERIOUS and FUN ones!

Getting Over Frustration

The first question I address is regarding getting over feelings of frustration and lack of motivation / inspiration, specifically after returning to it following a break.

The question was phrased in a way that makes me see this in the MACRO – some stages in our lives will be less creative – and this is NORMAL. You may be preoccupied with important commitments, or go through a particular challenge.

It’s important to accept this and avoid judging yourself to harshly.

Additional solutions:

If you haven’t created in a while – set the goalpost to be creating something every day. The result DOES NOT MATTER. Paint / draw / use whatever medium you use every day, regardless of how you feel. Did you create? That’s a win.
Use a different medium / art supply
Create outside if possible
Take a break! If you’re on the other side of this – and you create consistently but don’t like / enjoy what you produce – a BREAK can help.

How to Start Your Art Journey?

This is another question I get often, phrased this way or similarly.

How do I get started as an artist?

How do I become an artist?

Well… Artists make art!

So if you’re making art, you are an artist.

Now comes the question – do you want to go full time? Are you striving to improve? Etc.

Listen to the audio for my full thoughts 😉

What Does Art Mean to Me?

Another interesting one I got.

To me – art is EXPRESSION.

It’s about expression yourself.

It doesn’t matter WHAT you create, your inner most authentic self will be embedded in it.

What If Watercolor Disappeared?

Here’s a VERY interesting “what if?” question I actually got on YouTube.

If watercolor & gouache disappeared from this world – what medium will I use?

My answer is either going ALL-IN on pencil and pen (including digital drawing for that matter), which I ALWAYS loved and enjoyed… OR acrylics! This is another medium I used several times and enjoyed quite a bit.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed hearing my takes on these questions.

I’ll do another Instagram live session next week, so make sure you follow here: @LironYanIL 😁

And here are the rest of the places where you can find me online:

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Twitter – @LironYan

Making More Time for Creation – April 2020 Recap | Liron’s Podcast Episode 117

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Hi there! In this episode I’m recapping my April 2020, and talking about taking more time to create “quietly” 😉

Let’s get to it!

Creating Over Sharing

I’m an artist who naturally gravitates towards sharing my art, processes tips and techniques. It’s very easy for me to fall into the “trap” of sharing at the detriment of creation (aka instead of focusing FULLY on the artwork, I’ll take breaks to take pics and share).

In addition, lately I’ve been feeling the potential and the long way I have to grow as an artist, compared to where I’m currently at.

This gap annoyed me and I decided to close it.

All of the above led to me taking more time for pure creation, drawing, painting, practicing etc. – As opposed to sharing.

This meant a slight decrease in posts in many channels.

I’m NOT Going Anywhere Though

Some channels I’m adamant about, and have kept very consistent on:

– YouTube
– IGTV
– Weekly Podcasts
– Weekly emails

And, I believe I will go back to the more regular consistency of content pretty soon, once I feel like I gained what I needed (:

What I’ve Been Creating

Here are some of the skills I’ve been practicing in quiet:

– Watercolor
– Anatomy
– Gesture drawing
– Manga
– Digital drawing &painting
– Storyboarding

Videos I Posted / Am Working On

I recently posted a video I think you’ll love, about 3 unique watercolor painting exercises.

You can check it out here:

In addition, I’ll post a vid on Saturday on DRAWING, showing a quicker VS slower approach.

PencilKings.com – Interview with Mitch Bowler

About a week ago I was interviewed by Mitch Bowler from PencilKings.com (which is an excellent resource for concept and drawing, I highly recommend you check them out). We talked about the artistic career, creative growth and much more.

The episode should be out in a few weeks, and I’ll keep you updated on that one. I had a fun time and Mitch is a great guy!

And this is it for today! If you want to reach out – you know where to find me 😉

Take care, and stay safe!

– Liron

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Instagram – @LironYanIL

Twitter – @LironYan

Progress on My Manga (Skills)! | Liron’s Podcast Episode 109

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In this episode I want to share with you my MANGA creation journey, the progress I’ve made so far and where I’m headed.

So let’s jump into it!

Some Background on My Manga Project

A few months back I rekindled my manga fire, and in particular a desire rose for me to create one.

I’ve been reading manga for many years now, and love this genre. I grew up on many anime series too, before even knowing what manga was.

So inevitably, manga raises strong emotions of nostalgia with me, as well as a strong creative desire.

And so I decided that now is a good time to start planning out creating my own manga.

Jumping head-First Into Manga

I got started by writing a few quick stories, then taking one of them and starting to draw a draft for it (what you call a “name”).

In the process, I realized just how much more I have to learn, and decided to take a step back, and work on some other things.

Digital Manga Tools & Techniques

I plan on doing this entire project digitally, as it makes SO MUCH more sense. I also recently bought the Huion Kamvas Pro 16, and planned on using it for that purpose.

As I was working on my first story, I slowly realized how I have SO MUCH to learn when it comes to the DIGITAL tools, with the main one being Clip Studio.

This software is AMAZING for making manga, comics and illustrations.

So I started doing studies of mangas and illustrations I love and admire, to get the ropes of clip studio – drawing with different tools, screen-tones, effects and so on.

The newest project I created was translating a scene from The Witcher TV series into a manga page. You can see some of the result at the top of the page, but here’s the full page (read from right to left like a traditional manga).

I’m especially proud of the 2nd panel, which is the result of my researching what an old crossbow’s trigger looks like, and my hand used as reference.

Drawing Manga People

The next challenge I encountered, that also made me want to take a step back is drawing people.

The challenge here is twofold – there’s the aspect of drawing relatively accurate (and often detailed) anatomy, and then there’s translating it into the manga style.

This is why you saw me sketching LOADS of figures recently. I’ve been turning real people into manga characters, but more often reconstructing and drawing manga characters with the anatomical knowledge I gained (so instead of just drawing what I see, I actually built the anatomy of the character, layer by layer, and only then add clothings.

Here are some examples of figures & manga figures.

As you can see, Naruto and Bleach had a serious impact on me 😉

Writing a Story is HARD

THIS. It’s the biggest challenge I’ve had so far. I’m so new to creating a setting, plot, characters, dialog etc.

It’s simply hard for me to imagine my characters coming to life, and acting on their own.

But I assume that’s just how it is when getting started, and I’m pretty sure it will improve with practice.

I already dove really deep on one or two stories, fleshing out the world, plot overview and characters, but I sometimes feel like it’s TOO MUCH for the point I’m at, lacking any experience in actually drawing and creating a manga!

Which brings me to my next point…

Where I’m At Now With Manga

My goal for the next 2 months is to come up with many short / quick stories, and create few pages of them. I mean really short – 1-2 page long stories, scenes and scenarios.

I want to practice the entire process, and drop the perfectionism of writing down EVERY single detail of the story.

I want to get accustomed to creating simple characters, drawing facial expressions, working on panel arrangements and so on.

I think it will be a very useful step, as a preparation for writing a slightly longer and more serious story.

And I hope this process will interest you too! As I will share some of it.

Thank you for tuning in! 😊🙏🏼

And as always, here’s where to find me online:

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Instagram – @LironYanIL

Twitter – @LironYan

— Liron

STORY TIME – How I Became an Artist | Liron’s Art & Creativity Show

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Today I want to share with you how I became an artist, as well as my history in the art world from childhood, and finally – what works financially for my art business.

Let’s get to it!

My Childhood & Art

I’ve been drawing and sketching ever since I can remember myself. My very first memory is of sitting at my grandparents’ porch and copying an illustration from a Dr. Seuss book.

I’ve been doodling on the side all through elementary, middle and high-school, and have once sold a sketch of a pokemon 😂 (for 5 shekels, the equivalent of about 1.2 USD back then.

I do want to mention that painting and working in color is something I got to much later in life.

Young Adulthood & Art

During my military service I quit art almost completely. I spent so much time working and barely had any life.

However, in my 6 months of service I started figuring out what I want to try to do in life. And that’s when I got back to art.

I started a blog with drawing lessons, and later published my books, started my YouTube channel, Instagram, courses and so on.

From Existing Platforms to MY OWN Platforms

I got started selling stuff mostly on Amazon and Udemy.

Amazon is where I independently published and sold my books, and Udemy was where I created my courses.

But where I really started seeing some success was when building my own platform.

This is when I started to build my own website, marketing and sales funnel and courses.

This meant no one was taking a serious cut from my earnings, and I have to do the marketing.

Art Business Revenue Streams & What Works Today

With time, additional avenues started popping up.

Among them is selling my paintings (through the local art fair, galleries and directly). Another one is selling the foreign language rights of my books to various publishing houses. And others are Patreon / donations, YouTube ads revenue and more.

Here’s what works for me today…

The numbers are fairly inaccurate, but do give some kind of a picture as to what the main income sources of my art business are.

About a third-half of my income comes from my various how-to-draw books.
Another third comes from the courses
The rest is divides fairly equally between the other sources I described.

Conclusion

So this is where I’m at right now.

I have a long way to go still, when it comes to pretty much everything – Improving my artistic skills, business development, personal growth.

Perhaps in another decade I’ll create a similar post and we’ll see where I’m at 😉

And if you want to reach out, you know where to find me…!

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Instagram – @LironYanIL

Twitter – @LironYan