chris_scruff:

 

you talk of setting your brush to pick up surrounding colours... (im kinda a selftaught photoshop user -  so am maybe missing out on some of the tricks that other people know about) how do you do that?

 

Brush Settings: Colour Dynamics 

In photoshop, you have the option to paint each mark with a new tint of colour. This is via the Colour dynamics option.

You can acess this option, when you go to your brush settings. And under your current selected brush chosen > it will have various options such as size, opacity, jitter, blah blah.

Colour Dynamics: Options and Fine Tuning Summary

By setting your foreground and background to different tones of colour or value, your modified brush can be set to paint like an oil brush (seen in painter)

• FG/BG jitter: 80-90% - tells the brush to alternate between the FG/BG
• Options: Fade 50-70% - determines the duration/transition between FG/BG
• Hue/Brightness: 2-5%  - provides slight variance in colour and hue/brightenss change from your original colour (mimic traditional brushes)
• Saturation: 0% produces pastel effect. > 1% produces a saturated feel
• Purity - 0% (ensures your original colour is used). 1%

This works best with a custom brush made of horizontal strokes when producing your custom brush

A similar detailed outline on how to produce a custom oil brush can be found at this link

Hope that helps a bit

NB: Please experiment and post your results. Only through experimentation will you (hopefully continue the spirit of sharing as I have done here) pioneer and keep on sharing/growing in the arts.

CAUTION: Could I please advise some caution in the sense that less is more

• Dual brush settings (can slow painting experience esp at large sizes > 500 pixels)
• Any increase above 5% causes too much alteration of colour, hue, saturation. I would advise extreme subtlety. As only subtle changes, will be required to mimic a oil like brush.
• Might be easier to just use Corel painter. (but if set up right , your brush can do wonders)
• This kind of "oil painting brush" is best used initially, when laying out rough forms during the initial composition. Afterwhich, a hard brush is prefered.

omg, how brilliant is this!?  i would never have come across that... makes me realise how stuck i am just using the same brushes the same way, every time i paint... i hardly ever experiment anymore - clearly that has to change

thanks for posting this koshime, i cant wait to try it out.. will definetly post when i try some of these new techniques.

Have fun experimenting guys.

Just a word of caution. Do not adjust your colour dynamic hue/saturation/colour changes mroe than 5% as the colours become too random and are not oil like anymore. Also, in my everyday work. I find a variant of a simple hard brush (square or round) is sufficient to paint anything.

So like a new toy, it may add some spice to your painting. Just do not become reliant or go over the top with the brush settings.

have fun and play safe folks! 

woooo hoooo. go Doc.  thanks for this. :D

ill be playing with this from now on. :D 

Koshime, if I lived in London and didn't have a family, I'd be sitting outside your door asking you if you needed an apprentice.  I love reading your insights.  I printed off a previous thought provoking piece about art and I read it often.  Thank you so much for sharing.

for me speed painting started in the studio, I had a model for 2 hours, all I could afford, I spent 20 minutes limbering up and testing light shaddow pose composition etc.  I would do a complete sketch in sanguine or charcoal in 5 minutes.

then I would break for 5 minutes and consider what had taken place, usually I would be inspired to go back and start over on one of the poses, change it slightly, then draw the model for about 1-1:20 minutes at the end of that I would ahve a good sketch to take away for working up a painting later.

these days with digital concept work I will often thrash out basic ides in 15-20 minutes, but they are unrefined and rough (though still incisive and to my mind good) Ill usually have 5-10  concepts floating around by lunch time and spend the afternoon refining one or two of them. 

for me there is also a benefit in allowing myself the freedom to mess things up, allowing myself to express without inhibition or fear of getting it wrong, there is no right. allowing myself to be, rather than do, means I am free to create and be created.

DefiledVisions:

Thanks Koshime. Very interesting stuff you delivered here :)

I second that. Koshime, thank you very much. It is wonderful to see such in depth thoughts on speed painting. And thank you everyone else, too. :] This is very helpful.

The other consideration to have with speedpainting, is another approach.

The moodboard painting

With a moodboard painting, one seeks to convey the atmosphere, ambience, colour and composition within a shorter timeframe. Eg. 20-40 mins per frame. This works as an advanced mood storyboard,

Say you have to illustrate or display a 10 part sequence for yoru movie/game director by noon time. One certaintly cant afford to spend 2 hours to make a perfect 1st frame. Instead. You work through methodically to lay in the shapes/forms in 80% black in each panels for the 10 shots you require (or more). Then divide the time required to detail up a bit more each panel.

So, in theory if you start work at 9 and do 3 20 min moodboards. You can just finish 9-12 speedpaint mood panels bu lunch time. productive indeed!

very interesting piece, that.

Very definitely food for thought. Thanks Koshime.