Pep Talks For The Beginner Concept Artist

Our last post focused on contextualising concept art within its collaborative environment. We looked at an example of a collaborative project that I am currently undertaking alongside a 3D artist, to create a Japanese style frog temple environment. We mainly focused on the central altar, which took the form of a stone frog statue, and this is what we'll be working on again today.  Our discussion is going to be continuing on with the theme of collaborative work, this time moving away from collaboration throughout the design process, and into bridging the gap between concept and production. To this end, we're going to be taking a look at examples of concepts that provide utility and clarity for the production team. Turnarounds and Callouts When presenting concepts, we should aim for them to convey as much information as possible, as clearly as possible, so the production team aren't left questioning the details of whatever it is they're making. Two of the most common aspe

 Up until now we've mostly discussed concept art in the context of personal work - we've not really looked at external input from colleagues, clients and leads, and a lot of our discussions have been more about personal work. Now that we've built up an understanding of the process of researching, designing and presenting concepts though, I'd like to take a step back and try to think about the role of concept art in its proper, collaborative context. Of course, when working on your portfolio, you'll be working towards your own briefs and coming up with your own ideas, but this isn't going to be the case in a professional setting.  The Concept Artist as a Collaborator As can be said for many professional roles, both in this industry and others, a concept artist is first and foremost, one part of a greater team. This means that a concept artist must be able to communicate well with others, which entails both taking on board what others are saying, and conveying the

 In this post we're going to be finishing off our mini Mesoamerican project by bringing our dagger design to completion and providing a final concept sheet. Our focus today is not so much about the design process, which we covered in the last two posts, but rather providing a concept that showcases ideas such as mechanics and functionality alongside the subject matter's visual appearance. Without wasting any time, let's jump in where we left off. Producing A Final Render And Overcoming Hurdles In our last post we more or less reached a final design for our dagger, with the caveat that it was still fine to make alterations at this late stage. The first task following on from this point was to produce a final render. Depending on the task and the client, the required level of finish for a final concept will vary, so I've tried to shoot for the middle ground of a pretty well rendered final concept for this demonstration. Let's have a look at a working capture of the da

 Following on from the previous post, we're going to be advancing with our discussion of the design process by continuing where we left off on our mesoamerican-inspired project. As a reminder, we are designing a boss creature and accompanying key item, in this case a dagger that is used to awaken the creature from its slumber. Last time, we covered the idea of using iterative sketching to establish a more targeted direction following a brief. In terms of practical demonstration, this meant exploring different body types for the creature and taking a first look at potential design features. Today we're going to be continuing with the theme of iteration, but we'll instead be taking a look at the next step in the process - using sketching to iterate and improve on an initial idea. We're also going to consider the importance of focal points in design work. We'll first be continuing with our boss design, before also taking a look at the dagger. Development Through Iterat

So you've done your research, gathered your references, and now it's time to begin your concept - but where to begin? Until now we've only discussed the topic of design work in so far as it relates to the use of reference, but with these next few posts we're going to be exploring the process in greater depth, so that we can build a repertoire of useful tips and strategies, just as we did for the research process. It's important that we provide this topic adequate attention as design work does, after all, make up the bulk of a concept artist's day-to-day. With this first post, we're going to start by establishing the idea of iterative sketching, before looking at an example of its use in the early stages of a project, when still trying to establish a direction. So What is Iterative Sketching and Why Do We Do It? You'll often hear industry professionals saying that a good concept artist should be an 'idea factory', and alongside having ideas that a

 In the previous post we looked at the process of gathering references and applying them in design work with our coral-based architectural example. In this post we're going to be continuing on with that project, now looking at the idea of tonal referencing.  Tone and Referencing in Concept Art Alongside working out the physical designs of things/characters in the game world, the role of a concept artist can also entail exploring and providing indications of tone - the mood/feeling of a location or sequence in a game. Just as with design work, tonal exploration benefits from the reality-based foundation that referencing provides. Our surroundings convey plenty of tone in real life - just think about how cloudy, rainy weather make us feel compared to a clear blue sky - and it's important that we use that to our advantage in the form of reference. Introducing the Exercise Following on from my coral citadel design work that we looked at in the previous post, the next step was to be