5 - Wrap Up and Reflections

We've now reached the end of this platform's content, and with that, covered most of the key knowledge that I've picked up over the course of this year. Today I want to wrap it all up by recapping the subjects that we've covered and reasserting the major points from each. Finally, I want to finish by comparing some work that I produced at the start of this academic year (when I was completely new to digital art), to some of the stuff that I produced towards the backend of the year, which might include work shown on this blog. I'm not expecting to show some sort of inconceivable leap, as a year isn't that much time in the grand scheme of things when it comes to learning art. However, I do hope that we'll at least see some notable improvement.

Blog Summary

Chapter 1 - For the first part of this blog, we started real simple with an explanation of what concept actually is. My hope is that this was an easy entry for anyone that was completely new and had very little existing knowledge coming into the platform. The main goal for the section was to 'dispel the mystique' a little by making clear that the polished illustrations and splash arts you see posted all over social media aren't to be taken as a representation of the concept art role.

Chapter 2 - Here we looked at a series of discussions surrounding the importance of research. These included the process of conducting research, the use of reference during design work, and using tonal references to direct the mood of an environment concept. For our practical demonstration, we looked at the process of designing an underwater scene centred on a gothic style coral structure. We looked at techniques for conducting effective research and getting the most out of reference images, but really I hope that the main takeaway for this chapter was simply to do the research! Early on in the year, I either ignored research/referencing completely, or rushed through it so I could get to the fun bit, and it definitely shows, looking back. I can assure you, the moment you become diligent with your research, you'll notice it in your results.

Chapter 3 - For our third section, we explored the design process in greater detail. We discussed the importance of exploration and iteration, and looked at some useful techniques for doing so, including a two-step process, and the idea of designing through focal points. Our practical demonstration here looked at a Mesoamerican themed project, for which we were designing a boss creature, and an accompanying dagger that is used like a key that awakens it. We finished this chapter by looking at finalising one of our designs, to provide an indication of some of the considerations that should be made when presenting a finalised concept. Above all, I hope that this section was able to show that as a concept artist, your job isn't to get everything right on the first attempt, and that iteration is a natural/important part of the job. The key is to not get down when something doesn't immediately work out - instead you should see this as an opportunity to grow and push your boundaries as a concept artist.

Chapter 4 - Our last main section of content took a bit of a step back from the technical processes that we'd been looking at, instead making efforts to reaffirm the collaborative nature of the job. For this section, we looked at the step by step process of a collaborative project I am currently working on, focusing mainly on the frequent check-ins I had with my teammate, to show the benefits of collaboration. Good communication is essential to the role of concept art, and most industry jobs, really, so I hope that this came across through my discussion of the process on this collaborative project. Hopefully, this encouraged you to seek out some collaborative work as you learn and develop, as nothing will prepare you for a real role in a studio quite like replicating the environment through group work.

Reflecting On A Year Of Progress

As mentioned, I want to finish off by comparing some of my work from the last few months to similar work I did at the start of the academic year, back in October/November. Without further ado, here's a selection of comparable work from then and now:

Right away, the glaring difference to me is in my thumbnail work (which I audibly winced at when digging out the ones from the start of the year). I think it's fair to say that at the start of the year I didn't really understand or see the point in thumbnail experimentation, and was simply going through the motions because I thought I had to. I'll even admit that sometimes I did the thumbnails after the actual piece, to make it look like I was 'following the process' in retrospect. If you're reading this and you do the same thing (gotcha!), I can't stress enough how worthwhile it is to practice these - it makes the process of creating the final concept a whole lot less painful if you go into it with elements like composition, lighting and values mostly worked out already.

Besides the compositions, I think there's been an improvement in my rendering abilities too, but most importantly to concept art, I feel like my design sense has definitely seen some progress, and I'm now designing things with more visual interest to them. Of course, I'm nowhere near where I'd like to be just yet, but it's reassuring to look back at the progress I've made in my first year.

The reason I wanted to cap off this blog by looking back at my old work wasn't for my own sense of gratification though - I want this to show you that it doesn't matter where you start off, and reassure you that you can make this sort of progress too with a bit of work. My hope is that the content covered in this blog will in some way help you along on your road of progression, and I strongly believe that if you apply the things we've discussed here in your own practice, you can make at least the same amount of progress that I have in the last year, if not more. If I've done my job here at least somewhat well, you'll be able to avoid (or correct) some of the pitfalls that I've taken so far in my progress, and therefore improve at a faster rate. So with that said, I'd like to sign off by saying thanks for reading, and best of luck with your concept art journey!