Procreate Painting Time

Procreate Painting Time by Project Type

For concept art and freelance work, a finished Procreate illustration tends to run 4-12h. Studio concept artists at Marvel, DC, Wizards of the Coast or Riot land closer to 20-40h per final piece once you count the iterations, the revisions and the last paint pass. Break that down and you get something like 30 min for the sketch, 1-2h of lineart, 2-4h of base color and 2-6h of rendering.

Procreate logs every brushstroke and spits out a time-lapse video of the whole session. That's handy for portfolio reels, and it also lets you measure how long you actually spent. The capture is sampled rather than frame-perfect, but the final runtime lines up with your real painting hours once you subtract the pauses.

Applications

Use it to price freelance commissions by the hour, map out a studio production schedule, or see how your speed stacks up against industry averages. It also helps when you're deciding whether an asset is worth outsourcing, or pulling time-lapses to post on Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts or TikTok.

FAQ

How long does a Procreate illustration take? A polished personal piece usually falls in the 4-12 hour range. Studio concept art, once you factor in revisions, can climb to 20-40 hours per final piece.

Does Procreate track painting time automatically? It does. Every stroke gets recorded into a time-lapse video you can export from the Actions menu, so your real painting duration is logged without you doing anything.

How do I speed up my painting time? A few habits help: lean on custom brushes, reuse your base color flats, set up Quick Menu shortcuts, and merge layers a bit earlier so the device stays responsive once you hit the render phase.