What Concept Art Is And Isn't

What is a Concept Artist?

First I think it is important to define what the job is for a concept artist. I can speak from my own experience that it involves being a problem solver first. Art is secondary and the tool used for solving the problem. What is the problem we as concept artists are solving? They are design problems. And again, art is the tool used to solve the design problems.

As a freelance concept artist, I have art directors come to with their problems. Their problems being a design issue. They may come to me saying that they need a vehicle designed. They may need a character or a character's costume designed. They may need a weapon the characters will use in a video game or film designed. They may need a monster or environment for the characters to exist in designed. Everything comes down to design.

There is usually an established aesthetic I as the artist need to stick too. Perhaps the design problem needs to be solved in a cartoony sort of way. I did this recently with Dwarves of Ironpeak. They had a much more cartoon like or storybook whimsical look than I was used to. My initial sketch for the card I was designing was an attempt at being hyper realistic and it failed miserably. I went back to the drawing board and solved the problem of the client in a style they needed. I just wasn't using the right tools, I guess you could say. So let me make the point I mean to make: Concept art and this job is about solving problems not really painting pretty pictures. The pretty pictures are the result of solving a problem. I think if more artists, that want to be commercially successful, think of their profession in this way, they will be more successful.

But I really cannot speak too much on "Success" as I am just barely breaking into this myself... After almost 6 or 7 years of trying.

Marketing Illustrations Vs Concept Art

Another point I would like to talk on is the idea of marketing art and concept art. Often times, people confuse one for the other. They see something like this:

(old illustration I made a few years back)

And think that THIS is what ALL concept art is. Often times, concept art is ugly though. It's done quickly and under the gun. You are trying to churn out ideas as quickly as possible and you don't have time to bring every idea to marketing level polish. In fact, marketing might come back and say they want a particular sketch made clearer for marketing purposes, but this is different from "concept art" within the production pipeline (at least for games). Sometimes, concepts can be fast and loose like this:

(another older piece)

(another quick concept sketch)

These were done quickly with an attempt to get the basic mood or feeling of an idea. Sometimes the concepts can be like this as well:

And a GIF of the process:

It's quick and dirty problem solving. I think too often, aspiring artists think that they have to take everything to a picture perfect finish. But often times, I just don't have the time for that and that isn't what the client needs. The point I am trying to make here is to not be duped by high quality marketing illustrations and think that everything you create must be at that level.

What counts is whether or not your work is making sense. Is the design problem solved? Can you solve it with a quick sketch? Sometimes, that's all that is needed.

http://www.jontorresart.com/
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