Pep Talks For The Beginner Concept Artist

 In this post we're going to outline and demonstrate a helpful research process for beginners, from the formation of an idea and gathering of reference to its use during initial design work. For this research process we'll be implementing a mindset that many creatives utilise, so before we get into our own example we should expand on this and look at examples of it in existing media. 'Nothing is original anymore' - and that's completely fine 'Nothing is truly original anymore'. How many times have you heard that one before? It's a phrase that gets thrown around quite a bit, and arguably, there is some truth to it. No new idea is completely without its sources of inspiration, after all it's impossible not to be in some way influenced by the things we see and experience in life. You can therefore make the argument that no new idea is entirely original. And that's ok.  The best way to deal with this is to embrace it. Though you may not be able to cr

  Now that that we've covered a baseline understanding of what concept art is, these next posts are going to cover the topic of research/referencing. We're doing this at an early stage because despite its importance in the concept art process, research is a step that is both neglected by beginners, and advocated by professionals.  Why is research important? From speaking to concept artists on games from studios such as Playground Games, SloClap and Ember Lab, it has been made clear to me that as a concept artist you should always aim to ground your designs in some form of reality, with very few exceptions to this rule. This is because even fantasy worlds should make sense, at least within the confines of their own rulesets if not those of our own world. The best way to ensure this, according to these professionals, is to always start by conducting research, to establish for yourself a foundation in reality from which to develop your more fantastical ideas. The world is a vast a

  With this first post, we're starting with the very basics - what actually is concept art? There's quite a bit of confusion about this out there, so hopefully in this post I'll be able to clarify some things for any readers that think they might be interested in taking up concept art, but aren't exactly certain of what that really entails. My goal for today is to provide the core information that I wish I had on day 1 of my concept art journey. Defining Concept Art As part of my research over the past year I have been studying the work of professional concept artists in the games industry, and reaching out in order to get their perspectives on the role's functions and processes. Based on what I have learned, I would define Concept Art as  a tool for the visual communication of ideas . Let's break this definition down a little bit. The reason I use the word 'tool' is because concept art is exactly that. Rather than being a finished product in itself (as