Key takeaways from any Concept Art Course – The entire success of any entertainment project hinges on its core building blocks – its Concept and Concept Art
From live-action films to stage plays to fashion shows to video games, concept art has its essence everywhere.
A concept artist is touted to be the designer who visualises and creates characters or settings to give life and novelty to a story, or a visual representation of the core themes of a piece of entertainment (movies, games, TV shows, theme parks, etc).
These artists pave way for interesting concept art techniques to apply them for standalone illustrations and great artworks.
Hence, we have compiled some of the vital techniques that a budding concept artist can follow to master the fundamentals.
Read on!
What is concept art?
Concept art transforms the creative vision into visible art to set forth the reality you have dreamt of!
It is just like creation of any overarching design for the project in order to bring that to the fruition. In visual essence, the concept art is defined as an idea or a mood which is used to design art across certain digital art mediums.
This is basically touted as the process that is done before the implementation of the resultant outcome. This result-building artwork aims at communicating an appealing concept in films, games, videos, animations and other media.
Essential techniques for the concept artists
As a concept artist, you should know about some essential techniques to develop artistic skills and lay the foundation of success towards a flourishing career.
Zest to Learn
Every budding artist should have the zest to learn. As art is an ever-evolving field with various tools and techniques involved, learning can never be stopped.
When you learn something new, you develop a certain perspective and get a new experience. Whatever you learn, you can apply it in your creations. This will not only broaden your knowledge base but also help you grow as a budding concept artist. An environment art made with a well-understood and implemented perspective is bound to be remembered for ages after the project is complete.
Dynamic Research
Research is the prerequisite for every concept artist. It breeds authenticity in the evolution of a design.
Before you start designing, you should know what is real and how to evolve your thinking with rationality. Research assists in giving the functionality to your vision.
A good research gives you a strong start and doesn’t let you bog down in just the material. When you start designing, you start trusting your artistic instincts. This approach helps you see improvements in the overall designing process.
Think Outside the box
“Don’t think like everyone else” is often used for the concept artist and visual development artist.
Though, creative thinking is an on-going process. You work, you learn, you make mistakes and work on them. In this way you develop a more rational approach towards designing. It also helps you to create more effective and influential designs.
Practise digital tools
There is no denying that an artist can rely on digital art but he needs to be well-versed with both digital and traditional art tools. There is no brainer that traditional pencil and paper hold great value for an artist.
The tactile feeling of gliding pencil across the pages can help your brain in making strong connections with your artwork and the process of creation itself. While digital tools of creating art (illustration and drawing) are on the rise, traditional paper and pencil/canvas holds its own.
Budding digital artists also play around with some of the exciting designing softwares to create masterpieces such as ProCreate on iPad. You can find the right fit tool based on your preferences and art goals.
Realise the inspiration
An artist should have an evolving perspective. It just takes a spark of motivation to flame creativity. With every artwork, you are drawing inspiration and weaving it on your canvas.
Therefore, in order to get the right mindset, you need to ignite your creativity in various ways that may or may not be related to your artwork. Few of the ways to get inspiration are:
- Go out in the nature and pay attention to every object and minute details
- Spend time with the people, learn from their experiences and mindsets
- Visit a museum and have a look at the artwork of some famous artists to draw inspiration
- Read stories and listen to the music to relax your mind
- Spend time with children as they have the best imaginative stories
Draw for the audience
Your compositions are for your audience. The people who ultimately decide if a character is successful or not are the audience or the viewers. Concept Art provides direction to production pipelines which then turn out the finished artwork, left to be judged by the audience.
So, as an artist you should always think about what the audience finds appealing. What would be their preferences? Would they love the comic character the same way they love the movie character? What is interesting about this character, and why should they care?
You can ask a series of questions and try to figure out what needs to be done to make your characters fixed in the eyes of the audience.
Understand the concept of world-building
World is not just limited to the characters. The world comprises various factors including; history, politics, religion, conflicts and much more! Hence, your character is not influenced by one factor only.
For example; if you are creating armour for a character, it is not just reflecting the personality of your character. It will reveal the history of your character and about his community. This will put forth the real essence of your character in front of the audience.
Final Words
Concept art is always evolving. As a concept artist, you will get an opportunity to learn something new and exciting everyday.
Therefore, for that it is essential to master the techniques and level up your skills to stand tall with your talent.
Furthermore, a concept art course would also be an ideal way to learn the knits and grits of this art.