Excited to Be Back – Post Vacation Update| Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 40

Hi there! In today’s episode I wanted to you an update after returning from my US vacation.

Vacation

I had a really good time in the US. We visited many places with my family, and saw all sorts of interesting things.

Aside form spending time in Ohio, we also drove through Pennsylvania and New-York (state), and visited the Niagara falls (Canadian side).

Taking a break from work

This is the longest break I took from work, since I got started teaching art and building my personal brand.

I was a little scared about taking such a long break, but it ended up doing really good things.

Painting less frequently

When I got back to painting, I felt more immersed and even more appreciative of how much fun I’m having.

It was great expressing myself in such a way after the long break.

I also feel like I shedded some unnecessary layers of creative blocks, and cleaned up my own authentic creative way of communication.

More on that in a future episode.

Studio

I also moved to a new place recently, and that place has an extra room for a studio space!

I already set most of it up, and am now back on track / to routine.

Having a dedicated creation space is such a big deal for me, as it was my goal since the start of the year.

I hated having to move things around every time I wanted to paint / record. This is a major achievement for me (:

To hear more about my experiences, be sure to listen to the episode.

And this is it for today.

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

Interviewing Patrick Ley-Greaves | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 39

Hi there, Liron here (:

Today I wanted to share with you my interview with Patrick Ley-Greaves. It was originally posted as a video on my YouTube channel (which you can check out here: Patrick Ley-Greaves video interview).

Now I wanted to also share it in audio form, as I know some of you prefer that.

Interviewing Patrick Ley-Greaves

The interview covered multiple topics related to painting, drawing, creativity and motivation.

I feel like Patrick and I share similar perspectives on many topics. What I love about him is that he truly believes anyone can create. His approach is very encouraging and uplifting, and seems to bring the best out of people.

Prior to these interviews, I do a preparatory video call. It usually takes about an hour or so.

Patrick and I ended up talking for about 3 hours.

Conclusion

I had a lot of fun talking to Patrick, and the whole experience was great. I hope you also enjoyed listening to the interview.

As a side note – we did the interview a while ago, but I’m only now posting it, after my month-long vacation.

I hope to be back on track soon, with the normal posting schedule for the podcast and YouTube channel.

Thank you for your continued support and for sticking around!

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

The Secret Mindset for Painting Beautifully | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 35

Hi there, today I want to talk to you about a magical mindset for heightened creativity.

I’ve been painting for 3 years now, and I noticed that whenever I produce beautiful results I like – I find myself in that state.

The Child-Like Creativity Mindset

It’s worth mentioning this state of mind had nothing to do with outside inspiration.

In fact, it felt like the opposite most of the time. It felt insular. Almost like it was BLOCKING outside inspiration, in order to self-generate it from the inside.

When I hit that mindset, it feels like I’m slowing down naturally. I’m focusing more on the small space where I’m working. I’m very present, and enjoy the movement of my brush across the paper.

It truly is magic, so let’s talk about how to generate it!

How to get into the Child-Like Mindset

Here are several things that work for me. Try them out and see what happens (:

#1 – Developing your skills.

This is probably the most important stage. You want to have mastery over the basics of the medium. If you can hit that intermediate level, it makes things much easier.

I had this happen a few times when just starting out, but it’s not the same. Having skill and knowing what you’re doing is actually VERY important.

#2 – Embrace freedom.

This involves understanding that you don’t HAVE to do anything. You don’t have to paint things exactly as you see them, or use one technique only.

You can “re-invent” yourself every day.

#3 – Let go of the outcome.

A well-known concept. This dictates that whenever you are able to let go of the outcome, it becomes better.

If you can avoid obsessing over a specific result, or trying to control every step of the way, you can become much looser, and have a lot more fun when creating.

This one and #2 are easier said than done, but that’s life (;

#4 – Paint what you love.

This isn’t a sure-fire way of “triggering” that state of mind, but it can surely help.

#5 – Patience.

And that’s the real key. Building skills take time. This is especially true with watercolor. It has so many “moving parts”, and things you need to do in a certain order, and sometimes FAST.

So have patience and keep working on those skills, and applying the rest of the advice here. With time you’ll see that occasionally you start hitting that mindset / state of mind.

I hope this helps. Now let’s move on to the Artist Corner!

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Ray Balkwill.

I highly highly HIGHLY recommend you check his work out in these APV video:
1. Capturing Coastal Moods
2. Capturing Estuary Moods

Ray is a British watercolor painter that works in mixed media. He has this incredible technique of working with graphite for preparatory sketches.

And then he works with watercolor, chalk and gouache for final paintings. The results are stunning and realistic too.

You can read more about him here: Ray Balkwill

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

Interviews With Other YouTubers and Artists | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 32

Hi there! In this episode I want to talk to you about my desire to make interview other artists, and build connections in the watercolor community.

Things I KNOW I Should Do

I got this idea after brainstorming. I felt like, at the back of my head, there are many things I know I should be doing, but don’t.

So I made a list and 2 main things popped:

  1. Do LIVE videos!
  2. Interview other artists and collaborate!

So I took the 2nd one to hear, and decided to do just that.

Steve Mitchell / The Mind of Watercolor

I already started applying this change. I recently contacted Steve Mitchell of The Mind of Watercolor channel.

He is an amazing artist and I really appreciate his work. I also learned a lot from his videos. He was the first person I wanted to interview.

Luckily he was so cool and friendly about it and immediately said yes. The interview should be out this Thursday on my YouTube channel, and next Tuesday on the podcast as well (:

Benefits of Interviews of Other Artists

I have all the reasons in the world to do this. First – I think this will create AMAZING content for mine and the interviewee’s audience. I want to ask the less obvious questions. I want to open a window into the PERSON I’m interviewing.

Another huge advantage is building a more personal connection with the watercolor community.

And lastly – this will really help our channels grow, by increasing exposures.

Other Artists I Want to Interview

I’ve been thinking about some of the “purer” watercolor artists on YouTube such as Patrick Ley-Grieves, Nitin Singh and Teoh. I hope to reach out to those soon.

But then the more I thought about it the more I realized it doesn’t matter. I can interview ANY artist I want! The content will still be relevant – especially with visual artists (the medium is of less importance).

This is it! Now onto the Artist Corner

Artist Corner

In this episode I mentioned Richard Bolton, a watercolor painter who lives in New-Zealand and has a name sounding like a Game of Thrones character =P

He is an incredible painter, and an author of several books such as Texture and Detail in Watercolor (affiliate link, you pay the same price and I make a small commission).

I highly recommend you check out his artworks. You can do that on his website: http://www.richardbolton.com/

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

 

How I Make Money From My Art | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 31

In today’s episode we’ll talk about how I make MONEY from my art.

Today’s going to be a special one, as it’s the audio taken from one of my recent videos, that’s a part of my new series – Business Monday.

(if you want to watch the video, you can do so here: How I Make Money From My Art)

In it I talk about the connecting point between art and money. It’s aimed at people who want to make money from their art, as well as entrepreneurs who want to build an art business.

QUICK NOTE – NEED YOUR HELP

If you find interest in this series (Business Monday), I’d be thankful if you leave a comment. Let me know what you thought of this, and what other topics you want me to cover.

I want this to have valuable information FOR YOU (:

Now let’s talk about how I make money from my art. Also note how I’ve included some things that work in general. These are tangentially related, and don’t necessarily make money DIRECTLY.

WHAT WORKS & MAKES ME MONEY

Here are things that work for me and actually make me money.

Books – I am able to sell my books in different channels. I was also able to sell the Spanish language rights, making my book How to Sketch available in additional countries in Spanish!

Courses – This is something I’ve been devoting many hours to producing, marketing and selling. My courses are selling on both the Udemy platform and on my own website (DrawAnythingUSee.com).

YouTube – This is obviously my favourite platform (; I’m really enjoying producing content here, and it actually WORKS. I receive valuable feedback from you, that helps me know what you want to see more of.

Instagram – Another platform I’m really enjoying right now. It’s also the best way to connect with me, if you want to hit me up with a quick message. I’ve been putting a lot of effort into YouTube and Instagram for the past 2 years.

WHAT DOESN’T WORK & DOESN’T MAKE MONEY FOR ME

Reddit – As a social media platform, it used to help me a lot in the past, but not so much.

Licensing my art – I tried websites like Society6 and RedBubble, but that didn’t really work as well.

Smashwords – A digital book distributer. I have some of my books distributed through it. As I mentioned in the video, I think 2 months on Amazon made me more money than two years on Smashwords and it’s 8+ different distribution channels. Haha.

Selling my art directly – This is something I haven’t really focused on much so far. I let it come naturally to me. Which brings me to my next point…

MAKING MONEY TAKES TIME, EFFORT AND PATIENCE

When I really audit myself and try to find correlations between my success… It is glaringly obvious that the things that really worked out for me are the things I spent A LOT OF EFFORT, WORK AND HOURS ON.

At the end of the day, success takes a lot of time.

The things I succeeded in so far are really things I thoroughly researched and worked on. It’s things I had a natural inclination to put more work into, but on the same token – it could have ended but being different things.

The message is that PERSISTENCE IS KEY. You have to keep pushing through until what you are doing works – or learn when to stop and move onto something else.

A SMALL CAVEAT

I think it’s important to audit yourself and your work. If you’ve been doing something for 10 years and you don’t get results, maybe it’s time to move on.

Or, if you enjoy it regardless, do it while recognizing it won’t make money, and not relying on it financially.

I hope you enjoyed today’s different format. Now let’s move on to the artist corner.

Artist Corner

Today I talked about Thierry Duval, a Parisian watercolor artist.

I originally came across his work through Instagram.

He paints beautiful scenes from France (mainly Paris, I believe). His work is realistic – photo-realistic. He has a very strong sense of light in it as well.

I’m fascinated by his techniques. He works in a very measured and calculated manner to achieve his realistic results. He uses masking fluid, and glazed quite a bit.

I highly recommend you check out his Instagram, where you can see some of his work processes and final artwork: Thierry Duval on Instagram

Also, be sure to check out this webpage, showing many of his beautiful works: Thierry Duval Artworks

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