1 - What Is (And Isn't) Concept Art?

  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 more traditional artwork is considered), it is instead a tool that is utilised in creating something larger - a video game, film or tv series for instance. As for the 'visual communication of ideas' part of my definition, what I mean to say by this is that the role of concept art is to take an idea (the client/designer's brief) and present it visually, in order to convey the information required for production of the game or film in question. Concept art hence serves to bridge the gap between the birth of an idea and its realisation. Because of this, concept art is mostly devoid of the abstraction that is present in much traditional art, and should instead be as clear and explicit as possible, to maximise its utility in production. Don't worry if this all sounds like a lot; we'll be going through and breaking it down into manageable chunks over the course of the blog.

Areas of Concept Art

With a definition of concept art under our belts, we can now look at the different types. Typically, concept art is categorised into a few areas, which are as follows: 

• character and creature design
• environment design
• props and vehicles

From speaking to professional concept artists, it appears that while generalists do exist, most tend to specialise in one of these, honing their craft towards the requirements of that particular sector. The different areas involve different core skills, for instance character design requires a strong understanding of anatomy and silhouettes, whereas environment design can demand strong fundamentals of perspective and light. Because of this, many professionals recommend selecting one at an early stage and working towards developing a strong portfolio in that specific area. This may feel like it restricts your range of job opportunities, but it also gives you the chance to get really good in your chosen area, making you a more appealing candidate, for the right job. As an example, my focus is on environments, and I made this decision based purely on what excites me when I play games, which is usually having immersive and atmospheric environments to explore.

Examples

Now I want to look at some examples of concept art, to demonstrate the ideas that I've discussed above.

Character Concept by Milan Nikolic at MASSRA Studios

The character design sheet above by Milan Nikolic demonstrates my points about the necessity of clarity and lack of ambiguity. Nikolic provides both a front and back view of the character, as well as callouts of specific elements of the design, in this case the arms and hands. This is all to provide as much visual information as possible, to aid with production. The concepts themselves are also cleanly presented, with clearly defined surfaces and edges.

Environment Concepts by Chris Karbach, for Ember Lab

These environment concepts from the development of Kena: Bridge of Spirits also demonstrate concept art's primary function of communicating ideas visually. We first have a full environment concept, followed by a breakdown of the space's primary feature, the heart of the corruption in the area. This breakdown shows the heart in two different states (open and closed), as well as demonstrating how other variants of the corruption hearts look. The first concept image communicates how the corruption heart fits into and affects the environment around it, while the second sheet provides additional visual information for the corruption hearts themselves.

What Is (And Isn't) Concept Art?

Having established a definition of concept art and looked at a few examples, we can now look to answer the main question of this post. What is, and isn't, concept art? The best way to go about doing this is to start by looking at the types of art that are often grouped under the term of concept art, but in fact aren't concept art at all. It's important that we do this at this early stage in our journey so that we clear up our misconceptions before diving head first into a career path that turns out not to be what we were after. So often you'll see things on the internet labelled as concept art that aren't concept art at all, and this can guide beginners in the complete wrong direction when starting out, so hopefully we can prevent that here.

Uncharted 4 Promo Art (Naughty Dog)

Promotional art such as the piece above is not to be confused with concept art - none of the design work is being figured out here, and it is not being used in actual production. Artwork like this is instead produced to generate hype for a game during its promotional campaign, in the buildup to launch. This is the kind of thing you might see on a bus stop or billboard in town, accompanied by a release date and bundle info. Something else to remember is that since promotional art is often made well into a game's production, it is therefore based on how the game is turning out. If you think about it, this makes it the complete opposite of concept art, which informs the way the game will look, rather than being based on it. Generally speaking, promotional art like this piece is labelled accordingly, but it will still likely be mixed under the term of 'concept art' by many online, so just be aware of that, as pieces like this will not be the focus of your role as a concept artist.

Aside from genuine promotional art like the piece above, some studios will also release or 'leak' what they say is 'concept art' in the lead up to release, again to generate hype and awareness for their project. The problem with this is that this 'concept art' will likely have been made for the express purpose of being released to the public, and will be polished to an accordingly high level, in excess of what is usually required for actual production art. These pre-launch 'concept art' releases are a major contributor to the intimidation many (myself included) aspiring artists can feel, as they get far more mainstream visibility than most actual production art, and can hence assert an unrealistically high standard. 

Blood Moon Diana Splash Art, League of Legends (Riot Games)

Another important distinction to make is that which exists between illustration/splash art, and concept art. Games like League of Legends feature a lot of splash art, such as the piece above. As a concept artist, it will most likely not be your role to produce pieces like this, as companies such as Riot Games hire Illustrators/Splash Artists for this purpose. As a character/skin concept artists at Riot Games, to continue with the example, you would instead be doing all of the rougher design sketching and iteration that goes on behind the scenes and functions as reference material for both the splash artists and in-game modellers. What you wouldn't be handling are the flashy pieces such as the one above that make it into the game's client and cosmetics store. If we are to categorise it, splash art really comes under promotional art, since its purpose is to look awesome and convince you to purchase a character or cosmetic. If this is the kind of artwork you were expecting to be doing as a concept artist, perhaps you would be more suited to a role in illustration/splash art instead.

That's More Like It

Corruption Heart Iterations - Chris Karbach, Ember Lab

Composition Thumbnails, Eytan Zana

Spaceship Iteration, Hue Teo

So now that we've ruled out some examples of things that are often grouped under the term of concept art but don't actually fit the description, what can you truly expect to do as a concept artist? Well from my research over the last year, the answer is a lot of design work and iteration, such as what we see in the examples above. That's not to say that concept art doesn't also encapsulate the high polish final concepts you see a lot of all over Artstation (Horizon Forbidden West example below), but according to the professionals I have spoken to, these account for only a very small portion of the tasks they handle while working as a concept artists. A few also note the difference between portfolio work and job work - your portfolio isn't really under any proper time restraints, and can be more focused on producing final pieces, whereas much of professional work is about speed and iterative quantity, while of course retaining a high enough level of quality. A job in concept art can sound very repetitive because of all this, but most I have spoken to have made clear that they love their job.

Blight Concept, Horizon Forbidden West, Lloyd Allan (Guerrilla Games)

Summary

To summarise everything we've looked at in this post, we can start off by saying that it is important to be aware of the difference between promotional art, and concept art. As a general rule, we can say that anything that is made to sell a product rather than communicate an idea, is in most cases not concept art. Concept art is above all a tool, and therefore focuses on utility and design rather than glamour. It is about communicating ideas effectively, which often entails offering multiple interpretations and explorations of those ideas for clients to select from. If you were expecting a heavier focus on proper illustration, then maybe that might be a better direction for you to pursue, but if the idea of design exploration and iteration appeals to you, then you're probably on the right track pursuing concept art.