Tag: vlog

Post Surgery Update – Septoplasty (Deviated Septum Correction)

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Today I wanted to provide you with a quick update about my septoplasty surgery.

This episode is not really art-related, but rather a personal update. Feel free to skip if you are uninterested.

Background to the Septoplasty Surgery

I have had a deviated septum for pretty much as long as I can remember. To be more accurate – I’m not sure I always had it, or it’s a condition that worsened with time.

The deviated septum made it so that my right nostril is mostly blocked. My instinct tells me I had about 20% airflow in it.

In the 10 years or so, I started feeling the effect of this. I couldn’t sleep on my left side properly (would only be able to breath through my mouth).

I also have some allergies, and this worsened them feeling of tickling and stuffiness. My nose was generally annoying haha.

After deciding to get the surgery done, it took about 6 months of preparations, exams and meetings. Most of this was due to the hospital schedule (these surgeries always take time to schedule here).

The Septoplasty Surgery Itself

I got to the hospital very early, signed on and started the prep and anesthesia process.

The surgery was quite short, about 45 minutes long. Out of that I think the doctor was working for about 30 minutes.

It was a funny experience, as I was under local anesthesia. So I felt the doctor pulling stuff, cutting stuff, hitting with a hammer. But at the same time I was really groggy, and luckily felt no pain at all thanks to the anesthetic-soaked pads stuffed into the nostrils at the start of the procedure.

After the surgery I stayed the night at the hospital, and left the next day.

The doctor said the surgery went well, and I should expect too rough of a recovery.

If you want to see some pics from the hospital (nothing graphic haha), check out this IG post: Septoplasty Update on IG

Recovery

I’ve taken a week of “forced vacation” haha. From last wednesday (03/04) till today (10/04) I’ve been sleeping, resting, painting a little and playing on my Switch.

I hope to start gradually going back to work tomorrow.

You can expect new YouTube videos for Thursday and Saturday.

And that’s it for this one. As mentioned, no Artist Corner this time, but we’ll be back to the usual routine really soon (:

— Liron

Real-Time Narrated Painting Tutorials – YouTube Experiment Results | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 60

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Hi there, Liron again here! Today I want to share with you my recent YouTube experiment – posting only real-time narrated painting tutorials – and talk about the results.

Let’s get going!

YouTube Experiment

Over the last few months, many viewers mentioned how what they are missing are full painting tutorials. Meaning – they didn’t want time-lapse vids. They wanted to hear my thoughts as I painted.

Following these requests, I decided to give this a try for six videos, which are two weeks.

This means that for the past two weeks, I’ve been only posting longer (40+ minutes) tutorials.

Feedback I Got

The vast majority of feedback was very positive. People were commenting how hearing my thought process is really useful, and how real-time allows them to follow along the action.

On the other hand, there were probably one or two comments saying how the videos are too long, and how they preferred shorter vids.

Results on YouTube

This is more about my YouTube analytics. I noticed several interesting things here.

First, one of the videos has done really well, gaining over 10K views. This is a lot for me, as I average at around 2K views, I would say.

Aside from that one, two other videos show some promise, and will perhaps gain more views with time.

I did see an immediate increase in watch time, which makes sense – as I was posting much longer videos.

But with that, there were also more views in general. This could be attributed to the 10K views video, but I’m not sure about that.

Also, I did notice an increase in subscribers growth, which was very slow for a while now. I averaged for a while around 40-50 new subs a day, and then increase temporarily moved the average to around 70, with the peak at 100+.

These are great results.

YouTube Channel Future Direction

My main insight from this experience was that I MYSELF am interested in variety. After such a long time period of posting only these longer videos, I started craving making shorter videos.

Another insight was that you can’t please everyone, which is 100% okay. So I might as well do what interests me.

My plan is to now incorporate what I learned over the last two weeks into my routine. We’ll go back to the normal series (The Paint Show, Painting Masters), but I’ll also try and do at least 1-2 full processes every two weeks.

Conclusion

I hope this experiment pushed the needle a little more in the direction of me improving as an artist and a teacher. And I’ll keep you updated on future experiments and new ideas I get.

And now, it’s time for today’s Artist Corner!

Artist Corner

In this episode I talked about Jasmine Huang, an incredible Taiwanese watercolor painter.

Her paintings have a beautiful realistic vibe to them. She uses a very unique color palette and is very well-versed in wet-in-wet.

Coincidentally, she is also the wife of Chien Chung Wei, who I featured in a recent episode of Painting Masters. I believe I will dedicate an episode to her as well (:

The best place to check out here work would be Facebook:
Jasmine Huang on Facebook

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

I’m Visiting The USA | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 37

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Hi there! Today’s podcast episode is a personal / blog update about my upcoming visit to the USA, and some additional updates.

Visiting the USA

I will be visiting for the entirety of August (2nd – 29th). I’m visiting family in Cleveland, Ohio.

I’m really looking forward to this time. It will give me an opportunity to recharge and reset, and perhaps refresh my vision for the future.

In addition, I’m pretty happy to visit my family! (: We may also visit Canada.

YouTube Channel VS Painting

This is something that’s been on my mind for a while now.

I feel like I’m putting A LOT of work into the YouTube channel, and not enough time into painting and making art.

I think I need to rebalance this. I’m unsure if this means going down to 2 vids a week, or less, but it’s something in that range.

I’m actually considering taking 2 weeks of a complete break from YouTube for a hard reset, but we’ll see.

I don’t want to give up the possible upside / potential, but I do want to make sure I don’t burn myself out.

Results VS Expectations

This is something that pops from time to time. I sometimes feel like my progress isn’t “fast enough”, or that I’m not getting better as fast as I can.

This is of course a little ridiculous. I am working as hard as I can, and I am doing my best. I need to re-sharpen my gratitude and acceptance skills! (:

IGTV

Finally, just wanted to mention this awesome platform.

Instagram created an additional app called IGTV. It’s like YouTube, or a TV, only made for mobile. The videos are vertical, and it’s just fun to use.

I’m posting A LOT there (almost every day), so make sure to check it out. You can get there by visiting my Instagram page, and clicking where it says IGTV.

Artist Corner – Tim Wilmot

Finally, today I mentioned Tim Wilmot. He is an incredible watercolor painter from the UK.

He has – what I think are – some of the best YouTube tutorials out there. Be sure to check out his work:

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 for today, I hope you enjoyed this one, and we’ll talk soon!

– Liron

The Products I’m Working On | Liron Yanconsky’s Podcast – Episode 18

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Hi there! Liron here. In this episode I want to talk to you about the products I’ve been working on during the month of February 2018.

Courses

I’m working on 3 new course I intend on publishing on the Udemy platform. This is where I currently make my courses available (together with my website).

I’m close to finishing 2 out of the three:

  • Portrait painting in watercolor
  • Landscapes in watercolor

Because I’m working on so many things simultaneously, this has been quite the challenge. I really have to work hard to be able to devote large chuncks of works to these products.

They involve recording, and then A LOT of editing work.

Book – How to Sketch People

I’m working on a book on how to sketch people in pen and pencil. This book is meant to be a “twin” product to my video course on sketching people.

This is a topic I’m trying to tackle from a rather unique angle, in my opinion. I try to provide students with a loose and fun method, that still preserves the accuracy and realism of the sketch.

I think this is an incredibly challenging topic that deters many from tackling. With this book, just like with the course, I wanted to turn it into a fun, light-hearted experience.

Increasing My Income

As an artist that is trying to build a business around their art, I have to be proactive. I always have to take care of my own income and earnings.

I have no boss, or salary. This is a huge challenge, but also a great freedom.

My goal with producing so many products is mainly helping as many people as possible, as well as MAKING MORE MONEY (:

I think this is also a uniqe value I bring to the table when it comes to helping other artists. I’m very business-oriented, and hope to inspire other artists to proudly create and charge money for their creation.

I want to use this opportunity to thank you. Yes – you! My listener, viewer, reader and follower.

Without you, all of this would have been impossible.

Artist Corner

In this episode I talked about no other than Paul Cézanne.

He doesn’t require too much introduction (;

Cezanne was a French post-impressionist painter, who is widely-known and highly-regarded.

Both Henry Matisse and Pablo Picasso have remarked that Paul Cezanne “is the father of us all”.

You can read more about him in his Wikipedia page.

Conclusion

And this is it for today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed it!

Here’s where to find me:

Here you can support me on Patreon

Check out my YouTube Channel – Liron Yanconsky

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