Catching up with the speed painting community on YouTube

Artists spend days, weeks, even years working on their creations, but we often only get to see the final product. Speed painting creators are taking us behind the scenes of this process, showing off the intricate brush strokes, expert techniques, and creative approaches they use to bring a piece to life, in a matter of seconds.

Through speed painting videos, artists showcase the development of complex artwork in a time-lapsed sequence, allowing us to see a 3-hour creation in just 30 seconds. They also put the “speed” in speed painting with timed art challenges that put their skills to the test, like drawing a character in 50 seconds. So far this year, videos related to speed painting have amassed over 150M views.¹

Today, we’re celebrating the speed painting community with a special YouTube logo (known as a Yoodle). It also happens to be the first day of Art Basel, an international art fair that connects artists, galleries and collectors.

These videos are mesmerizing and gratifying to watch, and for fellow artists, they can serve as inspiration. They’re able to learn how to add the right texture and lighting on a hyper realistic drawing of watermelon, layer the right colors for an underwater scene, and even create a tiny forest scene.