how to become a successful artist Archives

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

Common Artist Problems – Self-Discipline & Comparing Yourself to Others | Liron’s Podcast Episode 118

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In this episode I talk about 2 common artist problems: SELF-DISCIPLINE, and COMPARING yourself to others (and also how to get started in watercolor 😉).

Let’s break it down!

How to Develop Self-Discipline as an Artist

Here’s my take on it:

Understand what your vision / ambition is
Make a connection between the mundane daily tasks – and that larger vision. How does completing this seemingly mundane task (or simply a task that scares you and creates resistance) – helps in making your larger vision come true?
Schedule it! That’s the first step to getting things done
Monitor it – How did you do? What can be improved?
Don’t be too harsh with yourself. Are you consistently moving forward, and getting up after “losses”? You’re golden!

Comparing Yourself to Others

You’re not alone in this – we all do this.
You may not be able to get rid of this habit completely, but you can work towards making it affect you less.
You and every single person in the world are VASTLY different, and so you cannot create exactly like others – and THEY cannot create exactly like you!
Focus on yourself, compete with yourself and strive to improve yourself

How to Get Started in Watercolor

Lastly, I also provided some advice for getting started in watercolor.

This is divided into two main parts:

Learn the medium / techniques
Paint as much as you can – preferably from real life as often as possible

There’s no substitute for practicing (:

I hope you found this episode helpful and encouraging! Be sure to follow me on Instagram for the next live video I do.

Here’s where you can do that, as well as how to find me on other platforms:

Instagram – @LironYanIL

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

I Want To Create Something Truly Great | Quality Over Quantity – Episode 114

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In this episode I want to share with you a new desire I feel to create something TRULY GREAT, and to focus more on QUALITY rather than QUANTITY.

* Quick links to previous episodes:
– Doing is better than thinking
– The Importance of patience & focus

Aspiring to be the BEST

One of my aspirations have always been to become one of the greatest watercolor painters on the planet.

This vision has become clearer and more detail in my eyes, as time went by.

I want to paint spectacular paintings that will completely AWE viewers. I want to achieve that 10/10 level.

Here are some examples of paintings I do think are close to that goal, if not hit it already!

This desire has gotten greater and greater lately. I think another manifestation of it was the desire to create my own manga / story. It’s also the reason I’m still in the writing stages, and haven’t even begun drawing – I want it to be REALLY good!

Quality Over Quantity

I generally believe in quantity over quality – especially when getting started.

I find that putting the emphasis on DOING, CREATING and moving forward fearlessly – to be very beneficial.

The same goes for growing an audience on social media. You have to let go of perfectionism and share more freely.

It IS a game of quantity too.

HOWEVER, lately I’ve been indeed feeling like I want to go more for quality. More for greatness. Even at the expense of communication and sharing.

Temporary Situation

It’s important for me to clarify that this is TEMPORARY. Once I feel like I gained the benefit of whatever it is I want right now – you’ll see much more of me.

And – it’s going to be BETTER quality.

And also – I’m far from quitting anything. I’m still planning on posting 3 vids / week on YouTube, emails, podcasts and posts.

It’s just a little less 😉

I hope you’ll accept this, and encourage me in this part of the journey.

I feel like it will be for the benefit of everyone. And some of you may not even notice a difference, so all good 😁

And with that, I’ll take my leave.

I hope you’re doing great and are feeling well!

I’ll talk to you again real soon.

P.S. my bad for confusing this for episode 113… 😂

P.S. 2 – Here’s where you can find me online:

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

LinkedIn – Liron Yanconsky

Pinterest – Liron Yanconsky

Instagram – @LironYanIL

Twitter – @LironYan