SPEED PAINTING

Lixin Yin makes use of lighting, composition, colour and concept design as he quickly builds up storytelling elements in a scene

- Lixin Yin

During my time at art school I learned a lot about painting theory and techniques. It’s enabled me to express my feelings through my art and also to convey my ideas to the viewer.

Storytelling has always been important to artists. It encompasses a wide range of artistic skills and also tests the artist’s overall ability. It requires the artist to have a deep understanding of core skills: lighting, colour, composition and so on. I enjoy finding inspiration in this way, and I’ve honed my artistic skills through storytelling. It’s improved my abilities and productivity no end.

I think that as an artist I should always try to improve my basic art skills, through regular practice. Speed painting is a great way to make these practice sessions more interesting! I paint a lot of these quick doodles almost every day. If you keep up your practice pieces and then compare your work in a couple of years’ time, you’ll see an amazing improvement in your skills.

I know many artists struggle with material distinctions, brushes, composition or lighting. So in this workshop, I’ll share some of my approaches and also explain how I improved my storytelling skills. I hope my article is useful to you.

1 Come up with a story that leads to questions from the viewer