The Witch Hazel album cover illustration has been a long time in the making! I didn’t realize just how much time I put into this painting, but I hope that the changes I made to my process and the extra time I dedicated to it will be apparent. I don’t usually count the hours when I paint, but since I began making speed painting videos I can now do the math (a time lapse video takes an image every 10 seconds). I was shocked to find I spent nearly 90 hours on this painting (which is more than double the norm and doesn’t include the work I put into the initial drawing).

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining! I am glad the band was patient with me though!

Some of the things I did differently:

• Worked on multiple concepts before choosing one
• Worked fairly large (this piece is 18″x24″)
• Worked with Oils instead of acrylics
• Did a full underpainting
• Repainted some parts of the piece that I wasn’t 100% happy with

I don’t think art works very well on a schedule/deadline. Some pieces might take 10 hours, and some might take 200 hours. You just have to paint until it is right. I do hope I will eventually be able to pump out pieces a bit faster. I’m trying really hard to be objective, but I can’t tell yet if these changes have improved my work at all. I guess all I can do is keep moving forward and pushing my limits as much as possible.

Thanks for following me on this journey! If you like the speed painting video above, please take a moment to subscribe to my YouTube channel  here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP-o2ijhmpWQzh7G5ElrGyg