Painting Practice
- Open roles
- 0
- Founded
- 2006
- Employees
- 11-50
- Offices
- 2
About Painting Practice
Painting Practice is a British design and visual development studio working across feature films, high-end television and advertising. It connects the traditional art department with digital visual effects, helping productions develop imagined worlds and translate them into physical sets, virtual environments and finished screen imagery.
Founded by production designer Joel Collins and visual effects supervisor and art director Daniel May, the studio has developed from a boutique concept art and digital matte painting business into a multidisciplinary production partner. Its creative operations span Cardiff and London, with artists contributing from early script development through post-production.
From concepts to production
The studio combines drawing, storyboarding and miniature drafting with digital visualization. Concept artists develop environments, keyframes and visual ideas, while previs teams explore scene blocking, camera positions and lens choices. Techvis supports the planning of complex camera and lighting arrangements, and postvis helps productions assess digital elements alongside photographed material.
This approach lets directors, cinematographers and production designers test environments and framing before committing to physical construction. Painting Practice also supports virtual scouting and real-time visualization, prepares assets for virtual production, and develops set extensions, matte paintings and visual effects designs that connect live-action photography with digital environments.
Its graphics work includes fictional computer interfaces, in-show screen content, main titles and show branding. These disciplines allow the studio to contribute both to a production’s overall visual language and to specific details encountered on screen.
Screen work
Painting Practice’s television work includes concept design and virtual scouting for His Dark Materials, production design and interface graphics for Black Mirror, and world-building and visual effects design for Doctor Who. Its portfolio also includes visual development for Wednesday, Halo and Watership Down, alongside screen graphics for Sherlock.
Feature-film contributions include previs and concept support for Gravity, concept art and digital visual development for Beauty and the Beast, and visual development and matte painting for Allied.
More about Painting Practice
Leadership
As of the November 2026 research, Joel Elliot Collins and Daniel James May are the company’s active directors.
Plan V development
Painting Practice created Plan V, a real-time virtual studio visualization application built in Unreal Engine. It supports tablet-driven virtual cameras, lighting tests and production budget planning. The system was used during production of His Dark Materials and Black Mirror.
Development received research and development support from Clwstwr, part of the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Creative Industries Clusters Programme, and involved a partnership with the University of South Wales.
Production staffing
The studio operates with a core team of supervisors, art directors, production managers and software developers, expanding with freelance artists during major production cycles.
Notable credits
10 creditsOffices
Where Painting Practice is based
- Wolf Studios Wales, Building 1, Trident Park Estate, Glass Avenue, Cardiff, CF24 5EN, United KingdomCardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
Painting Practice Cardiff
HeadquartersCompany headquarters and primary production facility, co-located alongside major Bad Wolf productions.
- 24 Underwood Street, London, N1 7JQ, United KingdomLondon, England, United Kingdom
London office
About this office
Creative and art direction branch housing supervisory talent, including Supervising Art Director Rafael Martin. The dedicated facility was announced on March 20, 2023.
Open roles
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