Tag: Artists

Don’t Listen to ANYONE but Yourself! Advice for Ambitious Artists | Liron’s Podcast Episode 77

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In today’s episode we talked about ignoring the noise, and learning who to listen to.

Here’s a summary of the episode, as well as the links mentioned.

What Selling at Fairs Taught Me

First I talk about how I came to think of this topic.

When I just started selling my art at the local fair, several artists made discouraging remarks about selling paintings there.

I then came to realize this happened all throughout my career. People seem to wonder whether there’s money in art, and be quite cynical towards the topic.

The Underlying Limiting Belief

These people basically communicate their own shortcomings and limiting beliefs (unless done maliciously).

They feel insecure about selling their art.

I have a lot of empathy for artists, but I have a strong aversion to the forcing of your own limiting beliefs upon others.

I think it’s important NOT to do that.

Which is why I also don’t think there are many people you should listen to.

Who Should Your Listen To?

I would say two things:

1. People who are actually succeeding at what you want to do.

These are great, and also perhaps more generally people who are positive and have a clear aim and vision for their future.

2. The market.

By the market I mean the whole sum of your potential customers. The average of all of them. Could be millions of people.

The market’s response to you will always speak the truth. If you aren’t successful as many paintings as you’d like – the market is telling you something.

Maybe your art isn’t good enough. Maybe it’s too expensive. Maybe it’s too CHEAP. Maybe it doesn’t fit the venue in which you try and sell it.

The good thing about the “market” is that it really is the average. It may be contentious, but I do believe this is one of the cleanest feedbacks you can get.

If a product fails, there’s a reason for it.

And that feedback is actually very valuable! It will help you sell more works, if you choose to listen to it.

Conclusion

So this is it for this one!

It takes time to learn who to listen to, so be open but stay on your path and believe in your own vision (another topic I have to cover in an upcoming episode.

And now, let us move into the Artist Corner!

Artist Corner – Alex Ross

Today I talked about Alex Ross, an American comic book writer and artist.

He worked with both Marvel and DC, and what really attracted me to his work is the one done in watercolor!

It’s fascinating for me to see watercolor used in a way I’m less used to. You can watch a REALLY AWESOME video of his here: Alex Ross Video

And check out his website here: Alex Ross’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

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

Improve Your Art INSTANTLY With FOCUS | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 64

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Today I’m going to show how to IMMEDIATELY improve your artistic results, without improving your actual skills.

This is aimed at visual artists mainly, and is probably relevant to any type of medium (watercolor, oils, acrylics, pastels, pen and ink – you name it!)

Spontaneity VS Planning

In the past I talked a lot about spontaneity, fun, looseness and allowing your instincts guide you.

To balance this out, today we’ll consider a more deliberate, planned approach.

No one method is the holy grail of anything. Doing BOTH is where the magic happens.

Highly-Detailed Painting

The thing that made me think more about this process, is this painting…

This painting “forced” me to slow down, consider my steps and become more patient.

And it taught me a lot.

I completely outdid myself, and it’s not necessarily thanks to an improvement in my skills, but rather thanks to the process I went through.

So let’s talk about some of the things that will help you improve your results immediately.

Improve Your Art With PLANNING

The first thing I would say is responsible to the improved result is me properly planning the painting.

I did several preparatory sketches in pencil. Some of the entire scene and composition, and others focusing on specific areas and details.

Here are some of those…

The main goal with these sketches is to familiarize myself with the scene, both on a macro level (overall composition), and on a micro level (details).

Focus & Slowing Down

That’s another thing I learned.

You want to deliberately slow down and work patiently. This also involved taking breaks whenever I feel like I’m getting impatient.

As soon as I felt like I was “trying to get to the end result”, rather than enjoy the process and be fully immersed in it – I took a break.

This proved to be very useful, and I kept my energy, motivation and creativity levels high throughout the whole thing.

And by the way, here are some stages from the start of the process until the end of it.

Deliberate Decisions

When painting it’s easy to get into auto-pilot mode.

Doing things on auto-pilot is useful. It’s essentially delegation of some actions to a lower-level element, to save resources.

Muscle memory can play a part in that.

But for some parts of the painting process, you want to be more present and deliberate.

So ask yourself – did I do this brush stroke out of habit and without thought, hoping for the best?

Or am I present to the moment, and doing things in a calculated manner?

If you are always hoping for the best, you may not achieve the result you want.

Last Tip – Scaling

When attempting to create an artwork that’s much LARGER than you are used to, I recommend scaling slowly and gradually.

Larger artworks, especially representational / realistic ones, will require more details as they scale up.

Sometimes it’s hard making the jump from a tiny thumbnail painting to a full sized one (the other way around is also true!).

So do it gradually.

Create a small thumbnail. Then double the size and make a slightly larger painting. Then double it again and do an A4 size. The again, until you are at the scale you are interested in.

This may seem a little redundant, but if you are planning a piece that will take a long time to finish, and you have that time, and you want it to be perfect (let’s say it’s a complex commission work) – this is a very useful process to follow.

And with that – we are ready to look at today’s artist!

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Yuko Nagayama, a Japanese artist.

Here work is so visually pleasing. She uses different subjects to symbolize different ideas and concepts.

She has a lot of florals, and what I especially love about them is that she is using so many colors as well, which reminds me of the way I tend to do portraits.

You can check out a lot of here work here, or by searching google images (;

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

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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