Concept Art is more of a ‘design’ practice than an
illustrative one, where artists must showcase their ability to create
non-existent objects or characters to fit in an imaginary or semi realistic
world. The methodologies of Concept art can vary, some are more illustrative than
others, while some are approached with more of a practical/design point of
view. Triple A titles and high profile projects in games, such as Call of Duty
or Assassin’s Creed to name a few, often have their Concept Art look ‘semi realistic’
to give an impression of realistic immersion into the world they are creating
and to make them all look believable.
However not every concept art needs to be at a skill level
of ‘semi-realism’, most concept art are often stylised, stemming from the
Artist’s own style. Some projects usually seek out artists whose style seems
fitting for the world they are creating, but that’s not necessarily true, a lot
of these things can vary greatly, such as the timing of getting that job,
self-promotion and artist exposure.
The methodologies within Concept art are ranges from
illustrative visuals to practical designs, or perhaps both. Concept artist Feng
Zhu, who has worked on many high profile projects, has a unique style of
painting his images. He generates a painterly feel in his illustrations while
adding in a slight touch of semi realism. A lot of artists like Feng Zhu in the
concept art community would often use photographs (known as Photo bashing) as a
quick way of nailing down roughs and to approach the image with a semi
realistic feel to it, although they would generally paint over these cropped
photos as they are usually used as a starting point, not for the finished
visual, unless they had modified the photos to the point of being
unrecognisable.
One of
Feng Zhu’s visual landscape illustration
One of my early works when starting Photoshop. A Photobashing
experiment using multiple photographs I had taken to generate a scenery.
Finished
illustration using the method of Photo bashing.
While Photo bashing is a method considered as a norm within
the practice of Concept Art, there are other ways in producing work, most
commonly the artist’s personal way. You can approach Concept Art in any way or
form, and generally artists who uses digital medium as their primary tool can
approach it however they find comfortable, whether that’s painting
traditionally on a digital platform, in which most current digital artists do
instead of photo bashing. Concept art isn’t really all about how the design works,
they are to communicate a visual idea of the imaginary world to the viewers,
whether its storyboards, scenes or characters.
Using a method of painting a scene and characters with a more
traditional approach of painting from scratch on Photoshop instead of Photo
bashing. One of my earlier works in using Photoshop. It is considered a slow
process compared to photo bashing where concept art are generally produced in a
quick fair amount of time for efficiency and it is mostly to show the idea
rather than being visually appealing, although the two does need each other in
order to produce effective outcomes.
A method of approaching Concept art from a ‘design’ point
of view. It usually involves subjects that are of vehicles, or futuristic
mechs/robots (a popular subject matter within Concept art at the moment, or
perhaps, now becoming cliché as we see it too often in the entertainment
industry). Most concept art in this area are generally to show different colour
schemes, the functions and the practicality of the object, and are often less
illustrative and more architectural. However you can still be illustrative so
it can be visually appealing, while demonstrating the idea behind the subject,
this includes mostly in concepts of characters if they have or carry a
practical object, i.e. weapons, gadgets or armour.
Digital painting has become the industry standard of
producing work for entertainment, film and television, product design and now
there are very few, if not rare, artists who are working with traditional
mediums with concept art. However the methodologies that most concept artists
uses are of techniques and methods that they had learnt from studying the works
of the old masters. Learning the art from the past especially the renaissance
can help to develop skills in painting characters and creatures, including
surrealist techniques that would help to generate unusual and surreal outcomes
for the artists’ visual communication of the world they are trying to introduce
the audience to.
Max Ernst, a traditional artist and surrealist, uses a
technique known as ‘Decalcomania’, a process of applying thick paint on canvas
and covers it with a textured material. The cover is then removed, revealing
the smeared paint with the texture imprinted within the paint on the canvas,
generating a textured piece of colour, that looks otherworldly surreal.
The
Harmonious Breakfast, Max Ernst
A quick experiment using the technique of Decalcomania where I produce a
sample and then digitally reusing it as textures and environmental objects to
produce an otherworldly alien environment. While we may not see this kind of
style and method in Concept Art of today, it was considered as important to
look back into the works and methodologies of surrealists and by those in the
time of the renaissance, as they too, in some way, tried to visually
communicate imaginary worlds, including to learn the understandings and
importance of anatomy, colour and lighting, in order to produce convincing
artwork that we can all visually immerse ourselves into.
Max Ernst - [Online] [Accessed: 3rd Nov 2015] Available from: http://www.spamula.net/blog/2004/02/decalcomania.html
Bilbiography
– Images
Feng Zhu – [Online] [Accessed: 3rd Nov 2015]
Available from: http://fengzhudesign.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/fantasy-landscapes.html
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