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Today is all about speed painting! You should check out the article over on our sister blog about how speed paintings can help you land a job. But improving your chances on the job hunt isn’t the only reason to try a speed painting — here are the 4 best reasons to whip out your stop watch and blaze through your next project!
(Before we get started, it’s important to point out that this applies to all forms of speed-artwork. If you would rather hone your skills with a speed model or a speed animation, then by all means go for it!)
1. Develop Decision-Making Skills
If you force yourself to complete a painting in under 30 minutes, then you’re placing major restrictions on the creative process. You’ll barely have any time to think as you rush to complete as much as possible. Practicing speed paintings will help you develop strong decision-making skills that will enable you to quickly pick a good idea and then tweak the idea as you work. Artists are known for suffering from writer’s block (or artist’s block, in this case). Sometimes, the best way to overcome artist’s block is to stop worrying and just start creating!
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2. Time Management
If you’re like me, then you probably like some steps of the creative process more than other steps. You might adore coloring but hate sketching, or vice versa. It’s easy to spend extra time on your favorite parts of the artistic process when you’re not under the clock. When you do a speed painting, you have to quickly figure out how to manage your time so that you won’t hit the time limit with an art piece that’s only 80% complete. Forcing yourself to follow a strict deadline can improve your time management skills.
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3. Work Outside of Your Comfort Zone
Business leaders tend to agree that one of the best ways to improve is to work outside of your comfort zone. With a speed painting, it’s practically impossible to create a finished product. You’ll have to put aside your desire to be a perfectionist and throw yourself into the project. I know that it will be tempting to put a few finishing touches on your artwork once the buzzer rings, but the lesson that you have to learn from speed painting is that sometimes you just have to accept the flaws in a piece of art and let it go.
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4. Pioneer New Art Styles
It’s pretty much impossible to do a speed painting in the same way that you’d do a normal painting. This restriction forces you to experiment with new art styles as you rapidly put as much color onto the canvas as possible. Speed paintings generally care less about fine details and more about the broad, overall picture. Check out the picture below. It’s very splotchy and a lot of the finer details are missing, so the artist was forced to convey the scene in as few brush strokes as possible. Who knows? Maybe speed painting will allow you to discover your new favorite aesthetic style!
Image source: Guesscui.deviantart.com