Concept art serves as the visual foundation for innumerable inventive realms.
It is the spark that fires the creative process, giving shape to ideas and laying the groundwork for everything from blockbuster films to video games, theme park attractions, and more.
This comprehensive handbook is your key to mastering the trade, honing your technique, and pursuing a successful career in concept art for those hoping to become concept artists or trying to improve their talents in this exciting profession.
This comprehensive handbook is your key to mastering the trade, honing your technique, and pursuing a successful career in concept art for those hoping to become concept artists or even those who hold a degree in graphic design but are trying to improve their talents in this exciting profession.
What Is Concept Art?
Any piece of art that is used as a reference to develop materials for a game or film is considered concept art. When it comes to conveying what you want something to look like, pictures may tell a lot more than words.
Concept art is utilized to provide the design team with a muse, or visual depiction of what they will produce.
Concept artists have some leeway in expressing their personalities and originality in their work, but they must ensure that the concept art is tonally consistent with the rest of the design team's vision.
If a film is set in a dark dystopian environment, concept art should demonstrate to set designers, VFX artists, and the lighting department how the final product should look.
If a game's aesthetic direction is colorful and cartoonish, the concept art for every item, character, building, article of clothing, and vehicle should mirror this tone.
In other words, effective concept art not only makes a film or movie more bright and innovative, but it also ensures that everyone on the production team is on the same page.
The world of a game is formed on the foundation of concept art.
Types of Concept Art
Concept artists may specialize in a variety of concepts. While one artist may excel at designing architecture and buildings, another may prefer to depict figures or objects.
In reality, the most prominent concept artists are distinguished by their distinct styles and characteristic approaches.
For example, Eyvinde Earl is a great concept artist who worked on several Disney classics including Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty. His concept drawings featured highly stylized tree and plant life and became a mainstay of early film design.
Jason Chan, a prolific concept artist in the games business, is most known for his character designs, which have appeared in titles such as League of Legends and Mass Effect.
In reality, Jason Chan produced the majority of the character models in Mass Effect 3.
In other words, different artists might thrive depending on the necessities of the project. A concept artist is needed in a variety of fields, including creature design, character design, technology design, asset design, and environment design.
If their work is remarkable enough, a highly skilled artist can construct their entire portfolio around just one of these categories, but most concept artists must be able to handle a number of these categories to ensure their work is consistent, even if they have a particular specialty.
In any case, an artist's personal style will have a large impact on the types of tasks they can get hired for, and it's okay if they do better in some areas than others.
After all, Halo Infinite concept art will seem very different from Genshin Impact concept art.
How to Become a Concept Artist?
If you're beginning from scratch, you'll first learn the fundamentals. It's a terrible repeat of this advice, and it's virtually an empty statement at this point. However, wingfox provides several courses for concept art from beginner to hero.
To be an artist, though, you must first grasp the fundamentals. Some examples include form, value, lighting, and perspective.
Working from experience is the greatest approach to grasp these concepts. You'll want to start with painting and then go on to drawing, although both require the same fundamental ideas.
To find inspiration in everyday life, you must first grasp how an artist sees things. There are two halves to art: seeing and making. Exercises accompany technical hand movements.
If you can sketch a genuine item in front of you, you will ultimately learn to start from scratch. You can then use your imagination to sketch characters, environments, vehicles, and whatever else you desire.
All of this is dependent on your ability to grasp the fundamentals first and truly comprehend how they affect your work. So, how do you go about doing this?
If you Google it, you'll find a plethora of beginner art books and classes. This may seem unbelievable at first. But the truth is that simply reading books may be of little value.
Wingfox is the best choice for video classes, covering everything from art principles to 2D concept art, 3D rigging, digital painting, animation, and more. You can find your way whether you are a novice or an advanced user.
I understand that some people are uncomfortable with self-study. This could be due to a lack of discipline, stress, confusion, or the inability to construct a personalized instructional plan. But keep in mind that painting is a never-ending learning experience.
The first step is to get started. It takes time to learn to teach oneself.
Wrap Up
Becoming a concept artist is a journey of aesthetic exploration, storytelling, and creation. With this complete guide at your side, you'll have all the information and guidance you need to go on this thrilling journey.
Remember that concept art is a vibrant and dynamic profession where your unique perspective and artistic voice have the capacity to impact the worlds of tomorrow's entertainment, art, and design.
Embrace the adventure, polish your abilities, and let your imagination soar as you create unique worlds for others to explore and be inspired by.
