An artistic technique in which the artist completes the work in a limited amount of time. The time can vary and is usually set from a few minutes to a few hours. Unlike sketching, speed painting can be considered "finished" when the time limit is reached. Speed painting is particularly common among digital media artists because the digital painting medium allows the work to circumvent the drying time of traditional media. Digital media artists primarily use speed painting to practice working quickly and efficiently. Speed painting techniques are also often used in conceptual art, especially in the early stages of production when the polish of a single image is more important than the clear basic presentation of many candidate concepts.
Traditional media artists also use time-limited work as a challenge to technique and as an exercise in not overthinking the work. Both digital and traditional quick-draw works are considered by artists to be excellent demonstrations of the painter's subjective skills, as time constraints require efficient rendering of form and detail, as well as a deep understanding of the chosen medium, to capture a complete, intense image with little time left to notice and correct errors. Danny Dent is recognized by many as the pioneer of speed painting in the United States, having introduced speed painting in live performance in 1981.
