Drawing Fundamentals – Shape, Volume & Mass | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 61

Liron here! And today I want to tell you about me going back to the drawing fundamentals, and sharpening my pencil-related skills (pun intended).

Why Fundamentals

I’ve known for a long while now that what makes a piece of art really communicate with the viewer on a deeper level – is usually not the glitz and glamour.

Usually it’s good mastery of the fundamentals of art. Those would be composition, form, value, colors and so on.

Artists Teaching the Fundamentals

I recently also started exposing myself to artists and teachers that focus on the fundamentals.

This really awakened something in me that wants to revisit this ideas, strengthen my understanding and control of them, and incorporate them in my artwork (mainly watercolor painting).

If I really want to become the best I can, this is an integral part of the deal.

What Fundamentals I’ll Focus on

Here are some of the main fundamental principles / techniques I plan on working on: Pencil and line control, shading, volume and mass, simplification, working from direct observation, creating a sense of depth and more.

I’ve been doing this for about 2 weeks, and am already very excited about the results. I feel like this is the right decision for now.

Scheduling Fundamentals Practice

This is going to be the real challenge. I need to somehow carve up more time for pure practice and working on my skills.

This is already a challenge as it is, but I’ll get it to work. It’s at least as important for me to work on the quality of my art, as the rest of my daily tasks.

And by the way, I plan on continuing with the normal routine on YouTube. However, I may share new insights as I learn them. Especially if I feel like something is significant enough.

And with that being said, let’s move onto the Artist Corner!

Artist Corner

In this episode I talked about Marcos Beccari, an extremely skilled watercolor painter based in Brazil. 

He paints what I would call hyper-realistic watercolors. His subjects are mainly the female figure and water.

It’s incredible and I highly recommend you check him out. Here’s his Instagram to get you started: @marcosbeccari

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

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