Speed Painting videos are quite fun.
I write about the adventures of a silly spider in a place called Moonwater Meadow. I’ve been doing so for decades. It’s a long story really but all you need to know is Ollie, a five legged spider, and his friends are the children in all of us adults who remember those care-free days of childhood. When I remember, I shoot a speed painting video of my work for you to enjoy.
Among Ollie’s qualities is the ability to turn any old day into a special holiday.
I jot them down on his yearly calendar for posterity. Some of these days include Wear A Cape Day, Hug A Sea Monster Day, Be Nice To Everyone Day and so on.
I made a speed painting video for our most recent Ollie-Holi-Day. We celebrated Glitter Dance Party Day. This one, unlike Cats In Sombreros Day is pretty self-explanatory. Throw or attend a dance party chock full of glitter, bright colors and thumping, booty shaking music. They like to dance in Moonwater Meadow.
This is the time lapse illustration I made for the occasion.
As for technique, I first do a lose pencil sketch to layout the design. If everyone is where I want them and they’re doing something interesting I then make a tighter pencil drawing. Next, I figure out the general color palate, backgrounds, foregrounds and who’s wearing what. I do a once over with light washes to see if I like it (not that I can change it at that point). If it all looks good to me, I then darken and deepen the paint. Then I add the ink outlines. Sometimes I do ink first. It depends on how I feel at the time.
This is where the magic comes in.
After all the preliminary painting is done I add in shadows and highlights. to turn flat color into three dimensional representations. After the first go with deeper and lighter shades I use crosshatching with the ink, gray tone markers and a white ink gel pen.
I let it sit a few hours to clear my eyeballs. If I’m happy with it I then sign it, scan it and open it up in Photoshop. While I don’t change much digitally, I do remove blemishes, stray lines and if necessary, I deepen the saturation so it “pops on my socials. Yes, my slang is so hip.
That’s pretty much one way I do what I do. I hope you enjoyed the guided tour.
As a bonus, I added a special guest, dance sensation Jean Claude Van Damme busting out his signature moves from one of his cinematic outings. They all thought he was Tom Cruise…
