I finally looked up the average time people spend on a single digital painting

I was reading an old forum thread from 2018 on a big art site, and someone mentioned they tracked their hours. Out of curiosity, I dug deeper and found a survey from a few years back. It said the average for a finished, detailed piece was around 15-20 hours, which honestly surprised me (I usually feel slow if I hit 8). Makes me wonder how other folks track their time, or if they even bother.

3 comments

3 Comments

abby9431mo ago

Wow, that's wild! I just use a simple timer app and it really helped me stop guessing.

blair_dixon1mo ago

Honestly @abby943, I get the timer thing but it feels like trading one guess for another. My brain just fights the beep. I tried it for laundry and kept second-guessing if I started it right. Now I just watch the clock on the microwave. For me, seeing the numbers change is way more real than a timer going off somewhere.

casey161mo ago

Yeah, the microwave clock thing makes sense because it's a physical object you're already looking at. It removes that extra step of starting a separate timer, which can feel like a chore. That's probably why it sticks better for some people.