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'[citation needed], which still exists and has planted offspring on other art communities such as ConceptArt.Org and CGSociety. Its popularity on the internet was drastically increased with YouTube videos featuring fan-paintings by digital artists like Nico Di Mattia. Technically these videos were not speedpainting, though they helped publicize the practice.

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. Sadly, before Denny died, he had trained only one Student, Brian Olsen of Art in Action. Brian has continued to carry on Denny's belief that the painting was secondary.

The message was most important. "It's not what you do, but the way you do it that's important. Whatever you do...do it with all your heart.

Be what you are...be creative!" 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.

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