How can I Speed up my Art Process?
Plan your painting & learn to see things differently.
One of the ways an artist can speed up their art process is down to how they see things in the first place. As we observe real life, lights, shadows and color all seem to blend together to create intricate differences; some subtle, some more obvious, and a typical approach of a novice artist would be to try and focus on every little detail.
If we try to focus on every detail it will slow our art process and we're more likely to make mistakes in representing what we see simply because it's too much information to take in! A masterful artist would first plan, and break the image down into simple digestible chunks. Separating the dark and lights (values) will enable for a more accurate interpretation.
Learn to become efficient with your strokes.
When you start to break down the information of a subject into simple shapes, you begin to focus on the relationships between the subjects in play. You can never fully reproduced what is presented to us in reality, but this approach is key to becoming extremely efficient and accurate and will help to speed up your painting process.
Proportion, Value, Edges and Color are key things to master. By observing these things and breaking them down it will inevitably teach you to become more efficient with your brush strokes. Why use 10 strokes when you can identify the foundations of the key shape in play and place it down with a single stroke?
Working big to small is usually the best approach to a painting, it enables the artist to digest the main blocks of information, and then work into them. Chunk by chunk, bit by bit it will help keep the image consistently accurate and therefore speed up your painting process through lack of error.
Understand your software and use shortcuts.
Another key way to improve your speed is to master the software you use and utilize all the shortcuts available to you. For example, if you consider the time difference between pressing 'Ctrl+T' in photoshop (Transform Tool) and using the mouse to navigate through to 'Edit > Transform' and then back to your canvas, the difference is a second or 2.
These seconds compounded over the time duration of your painting all add up, and that's just 1 short cut. If you spend a whole day on a painting and make sure you use all the shortcuts available to you, they could potentially save up to an hour of your time.
Repetition is the Path to Mastery.
The most obvious way to improve your painting speed is practice through repetition. Drill the the process over and over so that it becomes muscle memory, and make sure you practice right! Because you don't want to have to un-train any bad habits. It's advisable to learn from established artists that have already mastered these skills. They would have already made the a lot of time wasting mistakes and ironed them out of their process, so to mimic them would but in you a position to adopt an efficient and speedy painting process.
Ok, but now I don't know what do Paint
Not knowing where to start is a common problem and can slow down your process
The whole purpose of this site was initially to prompt Artists with ideas and ultimately give them an instant starting point. The Art Idea Generator generates a breadth of Art Briefs to inspire you with ideas or suggest what to learn, take Art Studies for example. When you click 'Generate Brief', predefined words together in a set context to represent an unique idea or visual image. It's been a great starting point for Artist who want to speed up their art process.
This site continues to grow and inspire Artist in new ways with different Art Generators and Art tools such as the Art Resource. This Art idea generator is has many unique approaches to finding idea, and works on the fundamental principle of randomization. It takes you from that blank space and transports your mind in a random place that you would have never imagined. From here, you're free to take it wherever you want.
It draws on the power of words to fuel your imagination. You can explore the full range of Art Idea Generators by becoming a member.
What else can speed up my Art Process?
Using Reference will ensure you iron out potential mistakes painting how you think something looks
Any artist will tell you to always use reference! If you have something in your portfolio that doesn't look right, then it's an instant blemish on your portfolio or art piece, and this will count against you. You need to makes sure the fundamentals are in play from Perspective, Anatomy, Lights, Shadows and Values, otherwise it just simply breaks the magic of your artwork.
So make sure you use reference, get it right the first time so you don't hours guessing. By using reference it'll also build up your visual library so eventually you won't need it because that information is already logged in your brain, this will also speed up your painting process.
Get instant Art Reference for the Art Ideas you Generate
One of the key features of this website is a powerful tool called the Mood Board Generator. It works in conjunction with your Art Idea by taking the keywords and adds some search variables to them to churn out instant visual reference for you to use. This could save you up to 30 minutes of your time having to search each group of keywords yourself.
The full package Tier 2 Membership can basically speed up an Artist's process from beginning to end by saving time thinking up new ideas, subject matter and then gathering reference. You can also tailor your Mood Board based on the search pool of images automatically searched for you.
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