Painting Speed

[Enzie Shahmiri]

A painting's complexity , the amount of detail and one's painting method often dictates the amount of time it takes for a paintings completion. With that in mind, I am perplexed why it takes me forever (several months!) to finish a painting. I am glad I don't work in an agency

What do you do to force yourself to pick up the pace? How long do you work in average on a painting?

[Michele Rushworth]

I have a sign in my office that says "Work Expands to Fill the Time Available". So true. I set up a schedule for myself with a deadline for each painting, a goal that I want to meet.

A one-person three-quarter-length painting with some kind of background typically takes me 100 hours of painting time. I keep track. That doesn't include photo shoots, planning the composition, client meetings, doing color studies etc, just actually doing the painting on the canvas. I can usually get one done a month, fitting easel time in around all the other stuff involved in "running a business" as a professional portrait artist (marketing, paperwork, etc.)

I know other artists who can get 20 to 30 portraits done in a year. One person in particular has a wife who is his full time assistant, though. He also may do more head and shoulders portraits than I do and he may do only very simple backgrounds.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Michele,

Thanks for your reply. Keeping track of "hours spend painting" is not a bad idea. This might actually help to see exactly how much time each painting takes and how much time "life" takes away from productivity.
Good tip!

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Hi Enzie,

One important point concerning "speed" is related to style. The way you paint makes if faster or slower.
Two great guys to mention: Morgan Weistling and Tony Ryder, the first one is a fast painter, and the second one is a contemplative painter. Both produce hight quality and beautiful works, but in very different ways.

I work part-time, but one holiday I stayed in front of my easel for about 15 hours, and once (but only once) I worked for 3 days without sleeping, but I usually like to paint for 4 or 5 hours and take a rest (painting another thing, of course) and than come back the next day, so I can see how the work is going with "fresh eyes".

Every person is different, I wish I could paint full time. I have one friend who paints 14 hours everyday since he was 19, today he is 74, so you can figure how much work he has produced so far.

The love of Art is what makes me pick up the pace everyday. As I said before, I wish I could paint full time.

C. Ya.

[Debra Norton]

Enzie, I'm just a student, so I have no "real life" experience on finishing a painting, but something one of my teachers is fond of saying is finally beginning to sink in: "Think the end from the beginning." If I can get "end" drawing, value, color, or edges on the first or second layer of paint, do it! This has helped me speed up.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Claudemir,

I agree, sometimes I wonder how much one's personalty effects the way one paints. For example, some people are very care free, therefore if something is a bit off, they are ok to laugh it off. Then there are those that are very analytical, for them everything has to make sense and lastly the perfectionist, who can't leave things be and always strives to do better and better, often sacrificing speed for achieving the ultimate goal.

Debra, your teacher is so right.I have often found that if I failed to do a step in the initial stages, it costs me more time to fix it later. It is amazing how much discipline painting requires, isn't it?!

[John Reidy]

Enzie,

I like this subject. It allows me to peak in on others work styles, similar to an art class studio or workshop. I rarely have the opporunity to visit other artists and this fills that curious void.

I agree with Michele, as an experienced graphic artist and manager I found that deadlines dictate the time. Even a schedule with copious amounts of time the job always seems to fill the gap.

I am more of the analytical type becoming more and more analytical as the painting progresses. Towards the end I can spend a lot of time away from the easel trying to determine the areas that are untrue. It is here that I can spend days viewing and contemplating with little time actually painting. Consequently I try to set up a personal deadline based solely on my experience. Then I try to beat that deadline. I usually miss my deadline but not by much.

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Originally Posted by John Reidy

Enzie,

Then I try to beat that deadline. I usually miss my deadline but not by much.

I have a friend who never meets her deadlines, she says her clients think her work is worth the money because it seems to be difficult. When she meets her deadlines, her clients say it was easy and they try to bargain in future commissions.

[John Reidy]

Interesting Claudemir,

It seems to validate the theory of "percieved value".

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Claudemir, your friend is very lucky to have such admiring clients. In today's day and age where instant gratification is almost expected, people often are baffled when they hear how long it has taken an artist to paint something.

John, I find it great that you set a time line and try to abide by it.

Someone once told me that the painting let's the artist know when it's done. Hmm, that seems to leave many artists that are hard of hearing, because there sure is a lot of unfinished work out there. Don't you think?

Joking set aside, I believe that there is truth to this statement , because if one knows the fundamentals of drawing and painting and truly follows the procedures of preparatory work, proper layout and paint application, time can be saved from the onset, resulting in a fairly decent painting. Then it becomes a matter of the artists individuality and his/her "critical eye" , weather to push further or leave it be.


Creating art is a curious thing. One person can create something beautiful in a day, another in a week and yet another in a matter of months.