A - While persistent, I am inpatient. To give you an idea of how bad it is, I can't just sit in front of my PC while it boots, I have to do something else, even if it's aimlessly loitering around the house!

B - My ultimate target is to paint at this level.
This may be ambitious, but quite frankly, I believe I can be there in a couple more years in my graphite drawings. But I ask you, can you pull up a work of art just from memory that is graphite only? I doubt it. Mona Lisa? Starry Night? Even that god awful "abstract" art is all done in color. No I don't expect or want to paint timeless classics (but it would be nice), just stuff I'd be proud to hang on my wall. Now, to the questions (seeing as I've strayed off so much).

1) Is it possible for me to begin painting and only sacrifice a few years of backtracking?
2) What style of painting was the above painting done in? I'd think I'd like to pursue that one. (I heard acrylics, oils etc. being thrown around in the last post)
3) Are there fast drying paints (hour to a couple of hours at max) that will allow me to ever reach the quality level of the above art?
Basically, I'm willing to sacrifice what I'm accustomed to (especially finishing a drawing in one sitting) in order to "convert" to color, but not if it means I have to give up everything I've learned (start over). Thanks in advance.