F.A.Q.

Hey people! First of all thanks a lot for all your comments and your nice words regarding my artworks!!

As you know, I have not enough time to answer all your messages and e-mails, so I made a list of some of your most frequently asked questions and I answered them. In the future I´ll be updating more of them.

What types of mediums do you use in your speed paintings? Which program and tools?
I use a regular computer with a good video accelerator device and at least 1Gb of RAM.
Photoshop 7 or CS, and a screen capture software like Camtasia. Then I edit the video in Premiere Pro, but you can use any video editing software.
About the digital tablet, you can try the Genius MousePen 8×6. This is a good one for beginners, is easy to use and it’s not expensive.

Which tablet do you recommend?
The secret here is not the tablet itself. Obviously, it helps, but you could have the most expensive and incredible tablet in the world, but if you don’t practice a LOT to improve your skills day by day, is the same of nothing.

How long do you spend on each painting? And did you paint them by memory or by copy?
It will depend basically of the difficulty of the painting. More details = more hours of working. Between 3 and 7 hours if I want to be “really fast” (well, no so fast), but if I’m looking for a cool and detailed finished painting, it will take more obviously.
Sometimes I use a reference picture to paint the human faces for example. (if you do a realistic portrait a reference picture is indispensable). It helps me with the real textures, colors and shading. Copying a picture is a good exercise to do, and you will learn a lot about colors, proportions and much more. But always will be better if you create your own art.

Which resolution do you use for your work?
200 dpi as minimum.
I use 300 or more dpi of resolution when the artwork is going to be printed.
These sizes are quite good to draw the little details.

Which kind of brushes and tools do you use in Photoshop?
I use default brushes, with different opacities and flows, shape dynamics and some pen pressure. Obviously I make my own brushes too, depending of my specific requirements. But basically you can find in default brushes a lot of cool variations.
Sometimes I use the smudge tool as well as the burn and shadow tool. They are a good choice in a lot of paintings and allow you to make really nice effects.

Where can I study that kind of painting?
Some kind of school or what??
Mmmm. I have not idea where you can study this in your country.
I learnt this just practicing. Nobody taught me how to draw or how to paint in Photoshop.
Maybe you could do the same I did. I’m drawing since I was a child. (Also you could try some Digital Art Academy or Video Games design career or something like that).

Why do you keep naming this speed painting? … its nice, but IT IS NOT SPEED PAINTING. I would name it “accelerated painting by video edition”.
Ok dude, call it as you want.
You also can name it “FAST FORWARD PAINTING”, or “TIME LAPSED DIGITAL PAINTING ACCELERATED, MUSICALIZED and RENDERED by a VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE”.
The concept of “SPEED” I’m using is for the time of “WATCHING” all the process, not the real time of painting, you know.

What is the name of the song of this or that video?
If you take the time and read the info at the end of the video, or in the description in YouTube, I bet you’ll know it.

Any advice?
My main advices are always the passion in the work and that you have to practice as much as you can. There is no magic in doing this. Practice, practice and more practice my friend.

Can you paint my picture for free?
Mmmh… Nope. Sorry. I do this kind of work for living.