Concept Art A LOOK INTO PROCESS DESIGN BY AVERI THOMPSON
Dedicated to you. Never give up.
Concept Art A Look Process Design Š Averi Thompson
Concept Art A LOOK INTO PROCESS DESIGN BY AVERI THOMPSON
Jin Kim
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What is concept art? What is concept art? Well that’s easy isn’t it? It’s super polished art used to promote forthcoming films and games. Right? Wrong! The main goal of concept art is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in films, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product. In other words, it aims to convey the overall design vision rather than specify everything in exact terms right at the start.
What does concept art involve? Concept art can range from ethereal mood shots to more detailed schematics of a prop, background or character for example. The purpose is to reduce margin for error, and therefore, reduce time and cost. But crucially, it’s not just the art itself that’s important. Remember in math class when you used to get hassled to show your work? Well guess what? Concept art is those workings. For every ‘art of book’ quality image you see there are tens, sometimes hundreds of images that have all played a part in that piece. It could be a scratching that helped explain an idea to the art director or the design that was completely wrong. The point is, they are all part of the process, even the ugly ones. Concept art is an iterative process and hitting the bull’s eye first time is rare.
PrinceCanary
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Concept Art is not Illustration
TB Choi
Concept art and illustration are not the same thing. The quality and techniques of the two are closer than ever and there is considerable overlap but they have one intrinsic difference. That difference is the word “concept”. The purpose of the concept artist is to quickly explore ideas and communicate them effectively as possible. The role of the illustrator is to create highly polished artwork. There is no value in having a finely finished piece of work that offers little new in terms of design, mood and feel. This would be a considerable waste of time and effort. It’s better to have a rougher, looser sketch that sparks interest and promotes discussion.
Types of Concept Art • character design • Background concepts • action/movement concepts • model concepts • expression concepts
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TB Choi
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Originality and Diversity When you start doing concept art, you will want to follow what is trending. First you have to find your own style. Not only your own design but also your own technique. You need to find a way to make your work recognizable through your signature style. If you want to create something new, fresh and original, you need to diversify your reference pool. Take a break from the art websites and find other references: in nature, objects around you and so on. If you want to design a new chair, don’t look at chairs. Look at nature, different cultures or anything else that will provide inspiration. It’s okay if your style or technique is not in the trend right now, your are probably creating the next trend.
shiyoon kim Big hero 6
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Camilo Castro
shiyoon kim Spiderman: into the spiderverse 11
Do your research When creating a character, think about where they come from and what makes them unique. Do more research on their culture and things that may be popular in their time period; this may add something to their design. It can be helpful to try and deconstruct why certain character designs work and why some don’t. There’s no shortage of research material to be found, with illustrated characters
shiyoon kim Big Hero 6
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appearing everywhere: on TV commercials, cereal boxes, shop signs, stickers on fruit, animations on mobile phones, and more. Study these character designs and think about what makes some successful and what in particular you like about them. You want to be inspired when you start creating a new character because it makes it easier to think of key traits about them.
Give your characters a personality Interesting looks alone do not necessarily make for a good character design; its personality is key as well. A character’s personality can be revealed through comic strips and animations, where we see how it reacts to certain situations. The personality of your character doesn’t have to be particularly agreeable, but it does need to be interesting, unless your characters is purposely dull. Personality can also be
Brandon Wu
expressed simply in how the character has been drawn. The driving force behind a character’s personality is what it wants to achieve. This missing “something” – be it riches, a girlfriend or solving a mystery – can help to create the dramatic thrust behind the stories and adventures your character gets up to. Often the incompleteness or flaws in a character design are what make it interesting. 13
TB choi
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Actions and poses A key tool in character design is the line of action. It’s when you first capture the pose and reveal the direction of the design. A line of action can help create an efficient narrative and conveys movement. Try to bring the line of action all the way out to the extremities. A ballet dancer is a good example: they emphasise the line from the tips of their toes to the tips of their fingers. The line of action is also easier to see in creatures with fewer limbs, which is why mermaids are an ideal subject for developing a strong line of action. Drawing from life is an extremely helpful observational tool, whether it’s in a classroom or at your local cafe. Sketching and observing people around you can be beneficial in learning how to draw the human figure and the many emotions it can exhibit.
Princecanary
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Push your ideas Exaggerate your ideas to get the most out of your characters! Often, taking a second pass at your initial drawing can be beneficial. When you think about what it is you want to draw, you sometimes have a clear picture as to what that action looks like. For instance, say you want to draw your character sitting down. You could very well draw them resting on a chair and that will get the point across. But how might you push it to tell a better story? Maybe they’re bored, and so their posture is slouched and they’re resting their head in their hands. The addition of more exaggerated movements and subtle
acting can make for a much more appealing character. You should also consider how the character is feeling. Visual clues such as facial expression and body language can help convey the emotions of the character immediately. A character feeling confident may stand with their shoulders back and their head held high. On the other hand, a timid character may be crossing their arms, with their head hung low.
TB choi 16
TB choi
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Johanna the mad
Jin Kim Big hero 6
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Things to think about Whether you’re creating an animal, robot, monster or human, you can guarantee there are going to be a hundred other similar creations out there. Your character design needs to be strong and interesting in a visual sense to get people’s attention.
• Look at reference pictures • Practice drawing how the body moves • Apply twist and tilt • Apply squash and stretch
Beverly johnson
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Princecanary
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Princecanary
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stella cho
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I think I’ve always known in my heart that I would end up doing something creative, so I decided to give my all into being an artist rather than trying to fit in somewhere I know I won’t be happy. -chi ngo
David Ardinaryas
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Expression Sheets and Concepts Drawing expressions can be pretty tricky. The best place to start is picturing what emotion you would like to try to convey, but also pushing what that expression might look like when you try to distinguish between emotions that may look similar. An example of this would be the difference between sadness and grief. Never be afraid to look at reference pictures. Looking at a reference will
Jin Kim Big hero 6
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remind you of the ways the esh on the face moves. Another helpful tip is to make the face of the expression while you are drawing it. This helps you channel the emotion and makes it a bit easier to draw. Expression sheets are usually for characters that have gone through an agreed design. They help envision what the character’s face would look like when emoting.
Shiyoon Kim  Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
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Jin Kim Big hero 6 26
Color and Tone According to psychological market research, color can account for up to 60% of the acceptance or rejection of a product. In the same way, a character or scene will look thrown together or implausible if color is not carefully considered throughout the design process. This is because color greatly contributes to the mood and story of a piece. If compelling and meaningful choices are made, color can be used
to imply a character’s personality or role within the story. To use color effectively, you must first understand basic color theory, the different attributes of color and to use them harmoniously.
Anna Cattish
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Julie hauge anderson
Kenneth anderson
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Temperature For design, using a harmony of both cool and warm colors is highly effective. However, combining excessive amounts of both can make the design seem busy, chaotic and ugly. For this reason, it is a good idea to pick a dominant temperature and use the other temperature as a highlight. For example, in a predominantly cool design, a warm color will pop out and vice versa. This can be used to great effect when designing both characters and scenes. When designing a scene or character it is important to understand what you want before you begin choosing colors. You must consider what you are trying to say or convey about the character. Remember characters don’t exist in a vacuum, they live in a world or environment. Consider the colors around them and what it says.
Suheb zako
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I never went to art school. -stephen silver
Cj rivera
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Listen to your body, stretch often, take walks, give yourself a chance to have outside experiences because that in the end will make your work much stronger.
Pernille Orum
-leah artwick
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chi Ngo
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Development takes time and every artist, even the big ones, can stumble into doubt from time to time. I am still learning everyday and I will be for the rest of my life, that’s also the beauty of it. - julie hauge anderson Pernille Orum 33
Background Concepts A good setting will help tell a story that will hook viewers into the world you are trying to convey. Every fantasy world needs carefully-crafted environments for characters to roam. Whether these are harsh wilderness terrains or busy city streets, the environment artist is tasked with designing the look and feel of these areas. This requires much more than just art fundamentals. You need an eye for great design. You need to understand basic objects like plants, animals, nature, geology‌ not to a scientific
Patrick O’Keefe
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level to the point where you can replicate ideas from your head. Also remember that environments can have people in them too. This means you should have a decent understanding of anatomy and gesture to understand height differences. Designing a setting is just as important as creating a concept for a character. You are trying to reach the reader and make them interested in this world so making connections about whether the world is different or familiar to the character is something to think about.
Alberto Mielgo  spiderman: into the spiderverse
Peter Chan  Spiderman: into the spiderverse
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Peter Chan spiderman: into the spiderverse
Mingjue helen chen big hero 6
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Getting to grips with composition is vital to the structural strength of design. Composition is not just a standalone term that simply describes an arrangement of forms and shapes. Instead, realize that composition is perspective, value, staging and color arranged harmoniously, to tell the story or idea more efficiently. Perspective is the placement of the camera and what type of lens is being used. Value translates the application of lighting. Staging is the arrangement of different elements in the canvas using the combination of shapes, sizes and overlaps, creating depth, dimension and balance. Color is the harmony of palettes and temperatures. Combining different shapes and sizes together in a shot creates the perception of intensity. Intentional overlap in images also develops cohesion and relationships among characters and environment. The higher the contrast between sizes the greater the intensity. The same goes with shapes.
fabio baretta
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Mingjue helen chen big hero 6
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Mingjue helen chen big hero 6 Daniel Arriaga
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Nick carver overwatch
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Alzmann
I hope that this book has inspired you to create wonderful things. Always follow your heart and your hopes, even if people may tell you that you can’t. Never give up on your dreams.
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Special Thanks Jason Pickthall Armand Serrano Pernille Orum Brittany Myers And to those who have never given up on me. Thank you.