Daily Spitpaint

Speedpainting is a great practice for digital artists. It takes attention away from detailed rendering, and forces you to focus more on colour and overall composition. Recently a group has trended on Facebook called 'Daily Spitpaint.' Each day a selection of topics are posted by the group moderators, and artists are allowed 30 minutes for each painting, which must respond to one of the topics. Although the activity is open to all medias, the group has attracted a range of talented digital artists, such as Titus Lunter and Mark Molnar. Some of the topics offer great opportunities for studies from reference:

'Couch potato' encouraged a lighting study.

'Dead eyes' inspired me to study actor Michael C. Hall portraying 'Dexter Morgan.'

'Tiger Parachute' encourage a study of a tigers face and fur.

'Chrome boy' led to a study of chrome and how it reflects its surroundings.

Some of the topics led to experimentation:

With 'Charon,' I achieved an interesting composition by copying areas of the piece and rotating and distorting the perspective.

With 'Tree Cathedral,' I tried a technique demonstrated by Mark Molar in the magazine 'ImagineFX,' of laying down cool colours as a base for the composition, and adding warm colours for a vibrant effect.

With 'The Joker,' I tried a chiaroscuro approach.

When creating concept art, I am often doing static environments or character turnarounds, so with 'Prisoner Number 5, I attempted something with a dramatic perspective.

Overall, participating in the Daily Spitpaints offers opportunities for both self improvement and networking. There is a great sense of community among the booming group, which contains successful artists from within the industry. It truly is a great platform for getting your artwork seen.