Tag: creativity

Plein-air After a Long Break | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 54

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Hi there! Today I wanted to share my experience of painting plein-air after a relatively long break!

Plein-Air Painting

So there’s been about a 1-2 months period when I barely got to paint outside.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you probably know just how important I think plein-air and painting on location is.

In my opinion, it’s a crucial ingredient in turning your paintings from good to amazing. Nothing can beat that spontaneity and full visual perception of being outside, in front of your scene.

After doing it for a while, photos start to feel a little flat and boring.

But Then I Took a Small Break From Plein-Air

So as I mentioned – I took a small break. And the result fascinated me.

In the beginning, I felt a little rusty, as expected. But it’s not like I took a full break from painting. I’ve been actually painting a lot – inside.

So here’s the fascinating part – I could feel just how much sharper my instincts became. I could immediately recognize how my composition was more on point. How better prepared I was to tackle the subject.

Another interesting feeling I had was that of slowing down. I felt like I’m deliberately working slower than usual, and I still maintain the same control (and you know how sometimes with watercolors – you have to be fast!).

Conclusion

So over all this was a big experience for me. It’s something I haven’t had in a while.

I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and perhaps this resonates with you, regarding plein-air, or anything you may have taken a break from.

Let me know in a comment below – did you ever experience something similar?

And now – it’s time for the Artist Corner.

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Andy Evansen.

Andy’s an impressionistic painter based in the US. His style is fairly minimalistic, yet has a strong sense of realism.

He started painting in the mid nineties, and studied under some of the greats, such as Skip Lawrenc, Eric Wiegardt, and my favs – Alvaro Castagnet and Joseph Zbukvic.

Here is his website, where you can see some of his work: http://www.evansenartstudio.com/

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

Paint More! Challenging Myself | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 53

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Hi there, Liron here!

Today I wanted to talk to you about a little challenge I have for myself, for the month of December 2018.

Paint More

My challenge is to paint more than I usually do. I would say I average at about 2 hours a day, for 4-5 days a week. I want to increase that to around 4-5 hours a day.

So far it’s been working really well! ^_^

Reasons for Painting More

There are a few really good reasons for me taking this challenge upon myself.

Accelerated improvement – I have experienced a significantly accelerated growth of skills in the past 6-12 months. I feel like I have a really strong momentum that I’d like to capitalize on.

I still learn a lot – I’m still learning so much with each and every painting I do. It keeps surprising me actually.

This is also noticeable when starting to work on a new painting. I always feel like I’m better prepared “this time”. And that’s because I am increasingly more prepared with each and every painting I do.

No Plateau – I haven’t plateaued in my skills in a while now. I honestly don’t remember the last time I felt significantly uninspired / demotivated to paint. Nor do I don’t remember the last time I feared the blank page.

I want to really maximize and capitalize on all of the above, to make the most out of this time period.

My biggest fear, always, is regret. And I don’t even want to give myself the opportunity to regret anything I’m doing now (;

Painting More – Results So Far

So far I’ve been doing decently on the challenge itself, in terms of time spent painting. I’m definitely not at 4-5 hours a day like I wanted to, but it has increased to around 3.

In terms of the process, I feel BRAVER. I’m happy to test my comfort zone and try new things, and I create in a very spontaneous yet immersed way.

I will keep at it and let you know how it goes around the end of the month (and year!!).

And with that being said, let’s move on to the artist corner!

Artist Corner

In this episode I featured Dax, an up and coming rapper.

When I started this podcast I made a decision to feature a large variety of artists, and different types of them. And this is an example of that.

You may or may not know, but I love rap. And this guy is someone I stumbled upon rather recently. I could immediately tell he is very talented, and probably also works hard to create his music.

Just about 1-2 years ago he was a night-time janitor, and now he’s starting to gain some success.

If you don’t like profanities, don’t look into his stuff (as most rap has lots of it). My apologies if that’s the case.

But if you don’t mind, I would definitely check out his songs. My favorite is a remix of a song by Tupac Shakur: Dax – Hit ’em Up

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

Going All-in on Instagram & What I Learned (for Artists)| Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 49

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Today I wanted to share this update regarding the recent changes I made in my Instagram routine / strategy / tactics, and the impact they had on my presence on the platform.

Two Main Changes on Instagram

I changed two main things in my Instagram routine:

1. Increased post frequency

This did prove to provide faster growth, and it didn’t seem my audience “got tired” of my content (:

I basically moved from 1 post a day to 2-3.

2. Tons of stories

I used to post 1-3 stories a day, and sometimes zero. Now I’m doing as much as 15-30 stories. I’m also making sure I use hashtags there as well.

One last thing I did, though that was a little while before all of that, was changing to a business account. I wanted to get the analytics (:

The Results & Impact on my Instagram Account

I’ve been feeling the acceleration in growth in terms of followers, no doubt.

But the more important thing is the amount of messages and genuine comments I’ve been getting, which really blew me away.

The engagement went crazy too.

So we’re not talking only about quantity, but also about quality.

Future Plans

My future plans are basic – keep this new baseline, and increase / go above it as much as possible. I’ve been doing the occasional 4 or 5 posts a day too.

I will keep you updated on how it goes! (;

That’s all I wanted to share today. We can now move onto the artist corner.

Artist Corner

Today I’m featuring Ilya Ibryaev, a Russian watercolor painter.

His focus seems to be light, and I don’t mean that in the usual sense. His great talent is portraying actual light shining through trees and clouds. He focuses on simpler landscapes with more complex and interesting skies, clouds and light.

What I noticed he does is play around with edges and contrast, to create a strong illusion of light. It actually FEELS like you can see the light itself.

If you want to see what I mean, I actually found a GREAT article written on him over at Seamless Expression – a website about painting and watercolor that I LOVE: Ilya Ibryaev on Seamless Expression

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