How to Develop a Personal Art Style – Basics & Experimentation | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 63

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

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

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

Can You Teach? What Gives Us Permission to Teach Others | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 29

What gives us permission to teach others? And to charge for it?? These are the questions I’d like us to answer today!

A Question in a YouTube Comment

I was asked about this in a YouTube comment. One of my followers there wanted to know – how do I know I can teach?

The funny thing was – I immediately knew the answer!

Listening Allows me to Teach

What I do is share my knowledge as I learn it. I don’t front or pretend, but rather simply share things as I learn them.

I actually feel very lucky. Building an audience on YouTube has allowed me to gain a lot of feedback.

What I do is listen to what you say, and react. Once I saw many followers started asking me about when I’ll create a course, or a book – I knew it was time.

Teaching Watercolor Painting

I’m relatively new to this medium, so up until perhaps 6 months ago, I haven’t even thought of teaching it.

But then comments started piling up. People were asking me to teach, and I started feeling comfortable with the medium. So I went for it!

Listening Has more Advantages

I really focus on that in the episode. Aside from helping me gauge when I can teach, listening has done much more for me.

It gives me new ideas for videos and podcast episodes (like this one!). It allows me to learn what my strengths and weaknesses are.

I also think my growth is consistent (and rapid at times) because I listen. I try to provide exactly what YOU want me to, as long as it’s “in my lane”.

It’s how I got my idea to start (and continue) Business Monday, or my upcoming series “From Watercolor to Pen Sketch” (that I probably will turn into a series).

To Teach You Have to Know

I do think that in addition to the above, in order to be a good teacher – you have to actually know what you’re talking about.

I think the perfect combination is having good intentions + knowledge and experience. I strive to hone and improve both of these.

If you can teach people something they do not know, and you come from a good place, you will have a positive impact.

Also, if you can provide others with teachings they CAN’T GET ANYWHERE ELSE – that’s the real magic formula.

I’m trying to leverage my personality in anything I do. It’s the one thing that makes me truly unique.

Conclusion

I really think there are two sides to this.

One side is being self-aware, and knowing your skills, strengths and weaknesses. The other is LISTENING to others (awareness that’s directed outwards).

I hope you enjoyed discussing this concept! Let’s move onto the artist corner!

Artist Corner

Today we talked about John Yardley. He’s a FANTASTIC British painter.

John has a very interesting life story. He was a banker all of his life. Then, at the age of 53 he decided to devote his life to art.

His inspirations are Edward Seago and Edward Wesson.

I love his style. He tends to not overcomplicate things. His style is less stressful and doesn’t necessarily require working super-fast. It doesn’t make you worry about everything being connected, but it works really well!

I love his unique color scheme as well.

You can read more about him here: John Yardley on ArtNet
And you can watch a really good APV video here: Watercolour Moments: John Yardley

And Here’s where you can find me (:

You can support me on Patreon

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

Or ask me questions on Instagram – @LironYanIL or Snapchat – @LironYan3

And this is it. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I’ll talk to you again real soon!

– Liron