Tag: podcast

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

Anchor Podcast, Sales Funnel & Patreon | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 47

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Today I want to give you a quick update about my work and what I’ve been up, especially in regards to my new podcast on the Anchor app, my sales funnel and quitting Patreon.

Anchor Podcast

There’s this app for podcasting called Anchor. This month I decided to go all in on it and see what happens.

So for the entirety of November 2018, I plan on posting an episode a day on the app.

Unlike this podcast, there I’m posting shorter and quicker snippets, talking about how my day was, what I’m working on and so on.

I want to taste it and see if it has potential in addition to this podcast. You can actually find me there by searching (any podcast directory – iTunes, Google Store, Alexa, iHeart Radio, anywhere) for “Liron Yanconsky”.

Sales Funnel

This one’s going to be quicker. I finally finished and launched my third course, called Sketching People MASTERCLASS.

It’s more robust than the other courses, and so I priced it at 97$ (you get a 7-day free trial to try it out first).

I sold 3 of these so far, which is really nice, as the profit margins are much better (;

And I’m currently running Facebook ads and they are starting to pop and work for me.

This is one of my main sources of income, so it’s nice knowing I can start relying on it a little more.

Quitting Patreon

I talked about this on YouTube, Instagram and now here on the podcast as well.

I quit Patreon because (1) I don’t like to ask for money – tip jar style. I’d much rather have you buy a course or a book and learn something you want.

And (2) It stifled my ability to share in other platforms (as I would think to myself – hmm, this is good, maybe I should “save” this for Patreon).

I didn’t like that feeling of creating a wall between my content and you.

And by the way – I have NOTHING against the platform or the people on it. For some it is actually a GREAT match, and allows them to monetize their art and creation and actually make a living.

But I feel like it’s just not for ME (:

And that’s basically it for today’s episode! Now let’s move on to the artist corner.

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Lena Amstrand. She is a Swedish watercolor painter who works very loosely.

She loves to portray mood, atmosphere and especially – water.

You can check out his work here: Lena Amstrand

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 Really Matters in Life – Being Present, Loving Others and Your Work | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 45

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Today I want to talk to you about what really matters in life, for me.

Today’s episode is a little special, in that it’s more “meta”. I wanted to share some old and new insights I’ve had regarding what really matters in life.

These are things that I found bring me happiness consistently, and over long periods of time.

Main Themes

Presences – experiencing every fully, as much as possible. This means taking in both pleasures and pain, both worries and relaxation.

I find that when I’m present, I feel a lot more at ease.

Love – giving yourself to others, having good intentions and making sure other peoples’ experience of you is a good one.

Devotion to work – doing what you love and loving what you do.

Letting Go

One of my key insights is about understanding that it all comes to an end eventually.

Every little thing we worried about, and every little thing that made us happy – they all come to an end eventually.

So might as well experience it fully (:

This is sometimes easier said than done, and that is fine. It’s a daily practice. Something to work on and aim towards every day.

Daily Awareness Routine

I start every morning with a daily awareness routine. I meditate, write my thoughts and read my vision to myself, so that I re-remember why I do what I do.

I find this to be incredibly important for my success, and for honing and preserving my motivation and connection to my end goal.

Final Words

I hope you enjoy this episode. Not that art-related, but it’s a few things I wanted to “unpack” by talking to the mic (;

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Lars Lerin. This is a watercolor painter I’ve been told about a long time ago.

He is a contemporary Swedish painter who’s work I really admire. His works are both loose and realistic.

He has this unique type of impressionism you don’t see very often. Very simple color schemes too.

Highly recommend you check his stuff out HERE and HERE (:

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

Inktober Is Here! Pen and Ink Sketching Challenge | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 42

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Hi there, Liron here! And today I wanted to talk to you about the Inktober 2018 challenge!

What is Inktober Challenge

Every year during October, many artists and creators take part in Inktober. This is a pen and ink sketching challenge.

The goal is simply, for the entirety of the month of October, you produce a sketch every day.

It doesn’t have to be fancy. It can be simple, small, or whatever you want.

The goal is to produce something every day.

The challenge was started by an artist and illustrator called Jake Parker, as a small initiative. With time it grew in popularity – it’s huge now!

If you search for #Inktober2017 on Instagram, for example, you’ll find over 3 million posts.

Inktober Prompts

Every year, a list of prompts is posted. These are ideas meant to ignite your creativity.

You can look at it either as a crutch (for getting ideas), or as a handicap (“making” you do something around a specific idea).

I like to look at it as an added layer of challenge. It’s another thing to be creative about (:

Additional Benefits to Doing Inktober

I think what Inktober does really well, is force artists to create FOR CREATIONS SAKE. Or even for THEIR OWN sake.

It’s so easy to get caught up in our work. For me that’s creating content around watercolor painting, mainly. Or marketing my products, books, courses etc.

Doing this challenge is a huge opportunity of creating and enjoying it to its fullest.

When art turns into your career, it can take away some of the magic. This is a tremendous opportunity to get some of it back (:

My Plan for Inktober 2018

I’m planning on leveraging the challenge for multiple purposes.

1. As I mentioned – creating for myself and my own enjoyment.

2. Sharing more about myself, by doing art you aren’t used to seeing from me.

So for example, yesterday I posted a manga style sketch of Reiju, a character from the manga series One Piece. This is the type of work you won’t normally see from me!

3. I’ll try leveraging the challenge to reach more people. The challenge’s hashtags are quite popular, so perhaps my work will get to more people.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this episode. I will probably do a summary podcast at the start of November, concluding my Inktober experience.

Stay tuned!

And now…

Artist Corner

Today we talked about Eiichiro Oda – the mastermind behind the manga One Piece!

This is the first time I talk about a manga artist and creator, and this man is incredible.

He sleeps 3 hours a night (yes yes, highly not recommended by the way), and he created what’s currently THE MOST popular manga and anime series in Japan and worldwide.

I highly recommend you check out his artwork. And if you are into manga and haven’t read One Piece, I would highly recommend taking a look.

It’s wacky and very unique, but it’s one of the best stories I’ve read / watched, and it has a lot of DEPTH.

You can read more about One Piece here: One Piece

And about Eiichiro Oda sensei here: Eiichiro Oda

And again, I really hope you enjoyed this episode, and I want to send you my complete gratitude for watching / listening / reading my stuff

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

– Liron