Process

Today I painted Ms. Lauryn Hill — in my opinion, one of the most incredible singer-songwriters and rappers around. Her voice has such a unique sound, so I knew this would be a fun one. For this Lauryn Hill speed painting, I kept the brushwork loose and focused on capturing expression over perfection.

To start, I used a black marker for the outlines, just like in my earlier J. Cole piece. However, I switched to a fineliner for finer features like the eyes and eyebrows to give them a bit more definition. Her head wrap featured beautiful turquoise tones, while the skin had warm, orangey-brown shades. That’s why I chose a Vermillion outline — it brought out the contrast nicely.

Next, I blocked in the denim jacket with loose strokes, intentionally keeping it rough. Meanwhile, I added subtle blues as highlights to the cheek and jawline, which gave the face some depth. Rather than replicating the head wrap’s pattern, I simply suggested the shapes to keep things fluid and intuitive.

After that, I moved on to the background. I layered a few shades of blue with hints of orange to balance the palette. As a final step, I added details across the face and fabric, blending where needed but keeping that painterly texture. That’s about it — fast, expressive, and full of color.

This Lauryn Hill speed painting is part of my music-inspired portrait series. If you’re into quick, bold studies of iconic musicians, there’s more where this came from.

Process Behind the Speed Painting

To begin, I outlined the composition using a big black marker — quick strokes to set the structure. Then I jumped straight into the facial hair and blocked in the base skin tones.

For the hair, I mixed Magenta with a touch of Cyan and Yellow, darkened with Ivory Black to create richness.

When painting the face, I used a mix of all three primary colors. For the darker tones, I added more Cyan, which gave the piece cooler shadows.

After that, I filled the background with a custom teal by mixing Primary Cyan and Primary Yellow. It echoed some of the blue-green tones in the reference, which I emphasized in the cheek and jawline to tie everything together.

Once the foundation was done, I added small highlights and details, but intentionally left some of the marker lines visible. They help maintain a raw, spontaneous vibe.

And of course, one of my favorite parts — peeling off the masking tape. That clean white border always makes the whole piece feel finished.

Process

I don’t do portraits often enough, even though I actually enjoy them. They’re tricky — easily the hardest subject to get right. It takes just one feature being slightly off to throw the whole thing. But they also force you to slow down and focus. That’s part of what drew me to this Snoop Dogg speed painting.

I’ve listened to Snoop since way back, and this close-up — braids, beads, and tinted glasses — had the bold shapes and contrast I like. I started with a bright blue background, slightly more saturated than the reference photo. I felt it would contrast nicely with the yellow beads in his hair.

Before hitting the acrylics, I made a detailed line drawing using a fineliner to get the proportions right. That part isn’t in the video — it takes time and I wanted the speed painting part to focus on color and layering.

Once the base sketch was done, I blocked in the skin tones, hair, and loose t-shirt outline. I used just a few tones for the face — enough to suggest form and light without overcomplicating it. The glasses were left mostly undetailed, with rough brushwork and minimal highlights.

To finish, I added a few shadows, some high-level highlights in the hair, beads, and necklace. From a distance, it pulls together nicely. For a quick portrait, I think it works.