Speed painting

Speed Painting is an exercise, primarily digital, in which one paints on a time budget, using already developed methods to create a piece. Contrary to (somewhat) popular belief, "Speed Painting" is not the same as a time-lapse video of a painting. Speed Painting is a widely used term in the Entertainment industry, often amongst Concept Artists. While it is cloudy where the term was first coined, it appears to have been started on an art forum by the name of Sijun with 'The Speed painting thread', which still exists and has planted offspring on other art communities such as ConceptArt.Org and CGSociety.

Its popularity amongst internet-goers was drastically increased with YouTube's featuring of Nico Di Mattia's fan-painting of John Locke from the hit television series "Lost". Technically this video was not a speedpainting itself, though it did help to publicize it.An example of a traditional speedpainter would be the late Denny Dent, who made a name for himself painting 4' x 6' portraits of famous rock stars from start to finish during the course of a single song. A follower in Dent's footsteps would be Dan Dunn who also creates large scale paintings set to music in relatively short periods of time(typically 3-7 minutes).

Raw speed painting is akin to the "Alla Prima" method of traditional fine artists, in which there is no sketch or underpainting (which are found in Di Mattia's paintings). It is about using value, color, texture, and composition to create a compelling and narrative piece within a relatively narrow timeframe. The pieces usually have an "unpolished" appearance, which stresses the importance of every stroke made on the canvas, digital or otherwise.

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atIvOaFxbas]
* [http://www.conceptart.org ConceptArt]
* [http://www.cgtalk.com CG Talk]
* [http://www.dailysg.com/ Daily Sketch Group]
* [http://www.goodbrush.com GoodBrush]
* [http://speedpainters.deviantart.com/ Speedpainters (DeviantArt)]