How long do you spend on a painting

robgale

@DOTTYP Exactly! I want to do a good job, but I also don't want to work for minimum wage! It's all about limits.

DOTTYP

@robgale I just looked up your website you are very very good you also have some great info on there ,you should definitely not be working for minimum wage maybe you just need to speed up your process.

Lee White

@Elinore-Eaton My video this week will elaborate on how I use the time blocking techniques.

Elinore Eaton

@Lee-White Awesome! Thanks!

robgale

@DOTTYP Thanks for the kind words! Well I'm not currently working for minimum wage, but I'm working mainly as a designer and I'm trying to work out my process for making illustrations in a way that makes sense. So yes, I definitely need to find ways of working faster/smarter/more efficiently. Speed is one aspect, but also speed while still being able to come up with good ideas. I'm not always so great at giving myself structure, so it's something I'm trying to learn more about and implement.

robgale

Ok. Because I like this sort of thing and it helps me see things visually, I made a pie chart to visually see the process as percentages according to @Lee-White 's recommended breakdown. In case anyone else finds this useful

Artboard 1.jpg image url

Lee White

@robgale Cool!

peteolczyk

@robgale yes that’s brilliant Rob

Gary Wilkinson

How long is a piece of string? 1-infinity hours I guess....

I would say on average I try to keep the total time to around 20 hours, but if it's going beyond that then that usually means something has gone wrong, either in my process or the image itself. The current paintings I am doing are taking a lot less time than previous ones as I am trying to simply things a lot more and make sure everything is almost finalized before touching the final canvas. This has actually made my research, thumbnail and color study time increase by a lot in comparison, however the final painting is taking much time and I don't have to worry about scrapping it and starting again as I have in the past.

The book I just finished had about 3 double spreads that I spent a lot of time on, but completely repainted them at a later stage. It was a waste of time, but it taught me to make sure I was well prepared and I feel that it is paying off as I have managed to paint about 3 paintings in about 3 days as I already had everything set up for it. The painting I got to do for the podcast also felt as though things were running a lot smoother than usual and I was pleased that I got a result I was happy with without spending too much time worrying about it.

This is all through trial and error though and if I hadn't wasted time or gone through a bad process in my pursuit of becoming an illustrator then I may have not learned the things that have helped push me forward

robgale

@Gary-Wilkinson Awesome. Yes. It's great to hear about people's experiences, what they've arrived at through trial and error. I like that so many people are saying the same thing... basically spend a lot more time up front and the painting will go faster and you'll be happier with the results. I also like your comment about, if it's taking longer than the 20 hours (for you) it probably means something more fundamental isn't working.

Thanks!