Before the Expanse

(Here Byron paused before the expanse, turning back with dawning awareness of the descent ahead.  We would need to press on, whatever the challenges ahead might be.)

After realizing that several of my past pictures have taken 16-20 hours to make, I wanted to see if I could pick up some techniques for producing art more quickly.  In pictures known as speedpaints, I've seen examples of coherent pictures which may only take from 30 minutes to an hour or two to complete.  I noticed that some features of others' speedpaints were distinctly different from aspects of my full (time-consuming) pictures, while still resulting in aesthetically pleasing works. 

I wanted to find out if I could adapt to a shorter time to work with, so I set out to make a speedpaint of my own.  I'm concerned that I stayed too close to the formula I generally keep in mind for full pictures, and I don't think this represents the look of being complete in its own right that I was aiming for.  I'm not sure what exactly appears to be not quite right in this picture, but it just doesn't seem to be what I had in mind.  All the same, it's still something of a success because I kept close to a reasonable time limit for a speedpaint.  This was 1 hour, 45 minutes from start to finish.  I'd be glad to know what others think makes for a successful speedpaint, as I'm just now trying to pick up that skill.  (Byron, cross fox original character (c) foxstory 2014.)

By the way, my favorite part of this is definitely his tail.  If you're new to my art, you may like some of my more detailed full pictures.  Comments and critique are appreciated, as always.