Speed Painting 2018-2019

One of the stand out experiences of last year (2018) was attending THU in Malta, inspiring and terrifying in equal measure. As a visual artist working in video games for 10-11 years its always a very startling reminder of how much there is to continuous personal development, and how it need not be so scary or daunting.

It was a pretty full on week; one of the key take-aways I took from it as an applicable habit, was the notion of daily speed paints. I'm more than familiar with the practice, and I'd always deemed painting to be important to me, yet I hadn't done regular paints in some time - so this past year has been an opportunity to get back into the habit of digital painting, and charting the progress.

A (slightly naff) number 1

Time capped at 30 minutes, some are rubbish, some are surprising. Done in the half hour at the end of the work day Monday to Friday (when possible), these have been a feature of the past year September to September.

Some early scenes from the first 10 or so paintings.

  Mainly it's a combination of created landscapes and scenes, photo studies, and studies from other artists, so jumping around a lot, but largely just little scenes, i'll post these in a rough chronology.

Number 42

Number 46

Number 53

Number 58

Number 81

Number 123

 A few studies from life, other artist's work and photos (mine and others), and movies were in the mix too.

Number 4

Number 21

Number 72

Number 86

Number 88

Number 111

Number 85

Number 107

Number 108

Number 120

Seems pretty obvious to say it's been worthwhile - but when posted up next to each other you can get a better appreciation of any direction of travel and development. I've been able to produce some stuff that's lead onto other pieces, plus really focus on a few elements such a colour and value, and observational painting in general if nothing else. I'd say keeping it to 30 mins is key, and if you hate one or two it's no biggie, but If you can make the habit stick, its a good one. 

(please note as typing this I've taken a break from Inktober and recovery, and I probably averaged 4 a week, but hey! It's still enough to show improvement)  

 (The full sequence of 1 to 136 below.)

(Also just to be clear there are some studies from other artists in the gif mix here too, so props to the originals)