I actually try to do this in my mentorship program. I first teach all the important painting fundamentals (shape design, composition, value, color, edge, etc.) Then I do several demonstrations where I put a microphone in my brain and tell the students the reason behind the strokes I'm making and why I'm making the decisions I am. I try to explain what's important to me, and why, vs what's less important, and why - and then how I'm dealing with it all on the canvas. My hope is to help students gain an idea for the structure behind the thinking you need to employ as an artist. If students want to try and emulate me, they may. But much more likely is that everyone will naturally come up with their own hierarchy of importance that works for them, based on their own aesthetics and personality!

I mostly don't listen to music while I work! I'm more of a podcasts or movies guy. But with movies, it has to be movies I've already seen, or else I can't focus on it, or it steals my attention away from the art. As for music itself, I'm not very adventurous these days, and it's pretty rare that I put music on in general. I listen to a lot of what I listened to growing up - rock, folks, and 90s punk music. If I want something very calm, I'll put on YouTube's low-fi ambient beats channel.

I've only ever had one or two experiences with annoying teammates (and hopefully I've never been one myself!) Honestly, I just remind myself that I value the overall vibe of the studio more than any one relationship within it - so if somebody annoys me, I'll just avoid them. If I have to work with them for whatever reason, I'll just try to keep it all business, and remind myself that I don't have to be friends with the person. In general working on teams is very fulfilling, because you get to see the result become so much greater than what you could have created by yourself! It's also a great learning opportunity when you have so many different specialized skills, possessed by different people around you. Ask them questions! I personally learned lots about 3D by talking to modelers and riggers. I now have some basic knowledge of those things that I actually do find use for in my own 2D work.

Thanks for all the questions, Marcos! Concept art jobs vary widely. Employers need artists who have shown a familiarity with the subject matter they're dealing in. If you draw robots well, you may be a candidate to get hired on a robot movie. Simple as that! But in general you should have bulletproof skill in perspective, form, shape design, and value. Those things, in concert, can generate endless amounts of good imagery, and can be applied to literally any subject matter.

Hi Marco-with-an-S! I am Marco-without-an-S :) Really the only time I think it's helpful to impose a time limit is with gesture drawing. That's because the whole point of a gesture is that it's something you should be able to capture fast, with a shorthand that you develop over time. So drawing from life where the model only poses for 1 minute is good practice there. With almost anything else, I feel, it's too imposing. I specifically do NOT give myself time limits on my personal work. I have ideas of how long things should take, but if it goes over, it goes over. Client work is a bit different. The client literally imposes a deadline upon you, and you have to be confident that you have the skills to allot your time accordingly. This may mean sacrificing certain things to meet a stringent deadline, or rearranging your priorities. The only way you can do that is with lots of experience, which you can pursue on your own. Give yourself different types of personal assignments, from sketching, to refining your sketches later, to coming up with a whole illustration. You'll get a sense for what takes time vs what can be done quickly. With time and experience, you will gain speed overall. But this is merely a function of developed skills and knowing your own strengths & weaknesses and working with them. I don't think beginner artists should covet speed at all. It will happen naturally, and may take years.