watercolor Archives - Liron Yanconsky

Watercolor Portrait Painting & Importance of IMMERSION | Liron’s Podcast Episode 121

Today we’ll talk about the importance of IMMERSION when painting, and I’ll demonstrate this specifically in the context of portrait painting.

Watercolor & Drawing – Divide & Conquer

One of my main goals for June 2020 is to create immersive work days, where I allow myself to be immersed in one specific artist endeavor.

So instead of squeezing in painting time every day, I’ll have ONE consolidated day, devoted 100% to watercolor painting (Sunday). This may sound a little crazy, but I believe there are significant benefits to immersion, over “cheaper” and shallower artistic experience, where I have to “cut” the session in order to work on something else.

This also doesn’t mean I CAN’T paint in other days. I can – for the purpose of content production for example (aka YouTube videos and so on).

I’ll also have a dedicated day to work on my manga (Wednesdays).

Today’s Portrait Painting Experience

Today I started applying this new approach, and spent a lot of time on just watercolor painting. I allowed the natural flow pull me in. I started with some basic exercises, and gradually went for more detailed portraits.

The peak for me was when I FELT the desire to go more detailed with this one portrait.

I made this “average” version first:

I really felt like I failed in capturing the beauty of the original portrait. And so I made another slower, more patient and more ambitions version.

Here’s this one:

Hopefully the difference between the two versions can be perceived immediately.

It’s not that the 2nd one is perfect, but it’s darn close to my CURRENT perfect, if that makes sense (:

Better Artistic Experience

Doing this felt GOOD and RIGHT. I’m so happy I got to experience that, and I hope to continue this way in future sessions.

I hope you enjoyed listening to / reading this one! And if this speaks to you – trying allowing yourself some more freedom when it comes to painting time, immersion and patience.

And always, here’s where you can find me online – let me know your thoughts! (:

Instagram – @LironYanIL

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New Watercolor Breakthrough – Holistic Shapes | Liron’s Podcast Episode 111

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Hi there! In this episode of the podcast I talk about a watercolor breakthrough I anticipated I’ll be going through soon.

Watercolor Rough Patch

I’ve had a challenging 2 months or so when it comes to painting. I didn’t feel like my work is connecting the way I’m used to, and the results were hit or miss. Got some great ones, but also some subpar ones.

This isn’t necessarily bad. It usually means you’re going through growth and raising your standards.

Sergey Temerev & Looking at Shapes

I gained an interesting insight while, by pure chance, stumbling upon a video of Sergey Temerev painting a spectacular cloudy skies scene (his speciality, it seems).

Here’s an example of a similar one by Sergey Temerev (you should really look into his work – it’s SO GOOD!!).

And here’s the specific process video I watched:

While watching it I felt like there’s something I want to try when it comes to the painting process. And that thing is looking at shapes a little differently, and dividing the subjects into shapes a little differently from what I’m used to.

The result was this small painting of the Bourges Cathedral in France.

I’m highly pleased with it.

I think it will be a bit hard to explain the exact mental shift I went through, so I do plan on addressing it in a future YouTube video.

But it does seem to be connected to wet-in-wet, and making the most out of every part of every wash.

I hope that makes sense, and that you enjoyed listening / reading.

And with that, I’ll wish you lots of good health in these challenging CoronaVirus times. Stay safe and healthy!

And I’ll talk to you again soon,

— Liron

Here’s where you can reach out to me (:

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Why Painting is SO Hard | Liron’s Podcast Episode 101

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Today I want to provide you with an encouraging perspective as to why painting accurately can be SO HARD, and talk a bit about the process of improving over time.

Painting Should Be Hard!

When you really think about it, the act of accurately putting to paper what you see is incredibly impressive!

Being able to portray a 3d object / scene in a believable, realistic or even INTERESTING manner is an amazing achievement!

With that in mind – of course painting should be hard!

Any small success should be greatly celebrated.

One of my favorite things about painting is that I may mess up 80% of the painting, but there’s a 20% I was able to REALLY nail down!

And that’s part of it.

The Learning Curve

Improving in painting is a long process. It’s not something that happens in months, but rather in years.

You can see great improvement within months, but true understanding and competence usually take longer (if you’re an anomaly – congrats!).

Here are some of the stages in my experience:

Learning the basic techniques and control of the medium
Learning to see things as accurately and cleanly as possible.
Learning to go beyond what you see verbatim, and make every subject YOUR personal impression of it.

That last stage in the list is where I’m currently striving to be.

It’s about turning the painting process into an interaction between you and the painting subject.

And that wraps up today’s episode!

Here’s how to reach out to me!

TikTok – @Liron.Yan

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Twitter – @LironYan

Realistic Painting & Auto-Pilot Impressionism | Liron’s Podcast Episode 96

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Why do I want to experiment with realistic painting? How will it benefit my impressionism?

This is some of what I talk about in today’s podcast episode.

Realistic Painting for Better Impressionism

Lately I’ve been feeling like my impressionism has a couple of weaknesses. Mainly – I sometimes go into “auto-pilot” mode when painting.

And so, I decided to try and mix up some realistic painting into my routine. I believe this will help me further develop my accuracy and observation skills.

I hope this will allow me to better read the reference, and CHOOSE when to simplify and change, rather than “do what I already know”.

By the way – here’s my first attempt art cranking up the realism. A self-portrait based on a pic I took in the mirror, haha!

Tips for Realistic Painting

I also provide a few tips for tackling painting more realistically. Here is the gist of it:

PATIENCE. I cannot stress that enough. That’s, funny enough, the most important component in realistic painting.
Working in sections. In other words, focusing on small areas at any given time, and trying to get them to look as close to the reference as possible.
Working from black and white photo reference! This makes things SO MUCH EASIER.

I hope you enjoyed this one! Here’s how to connect with me…

Reach out to me

Here’s how to contact me:

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

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Twitter – @LironYan

Dangers of Learning Painting From Others | Liron’s Podcast Episode 94

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In this episode I discuss the dangers of learning painting from others, whether it’s teachers, YouTube videos, DVDs and so on…

The Dangers of learning painting from others

Here’s a quick list of some of the dangers of learning painting from others.

Narrowing our perception – One of the main problems. By seeing other artists, following them and imitating their work process, we narrow our perception of what’s the “correct” way of doing things.

We end up doing things they way, without realizing there’s a HUGE spectrum of other possibilities we haven’t even considered yet.

Losing / not discovering your authenticity – That’s the most tragic problem. Learning painting from others can distract you from your unique gift.

I truly believe anyone has a 100% unique way of creating and viewing the world. The artists who are most appreciated have usually discovered their version of that.

By “copying” other peoples’ art and approach, you run the risk of never finding out what your gift was – the one you were the only one able to give.

Copycat – Talking about copying, there’s always the risk of becoming a copycat with no originality.

The solution

I’ll offer three main solutions.

Learn the rules – Physics – Watercolor does have rules – those bound to physics and water and paint.

You do have to learn that when you use more paint, the mixture gets darker. It is important to know and experience how a wetter wash flows more.

But once you learn that – it’s pretty much time to strike out on your own. The rest are things you can figure out.

Detox / Isolation – If you’ve been highly affected by others, it may be a good idea to go completely detox. This means to avoid looking at ANY artwork by other artists for a while.

This is a temporary solution only, you can’t live your artistic life in complete vacuum (well, you can… but I don’t think it’s fun or practical!).

I’m seriously thinking of going through such a detox myself. Could be interesting.

Balance – On a regular basis, try keeping a balance of how much external art, tutorials and guides you consume, as opposed to the time you spend creating purely, not worrying about anything else.

Conclusion

I hope you found this info useful! I’m still learning these things too, so I’ll keep you updated regarding my experiences and findings (:

Want to Reach Out?

Got any questions? Want help with your paintings? Feel free to reach out to me in any of the platforms I’m on, and I’ll be happy to help (:

YouTube – Liron Yanconsky Art

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Instagram – @LironYanIL

Twitter – @LironYan