Concept Art Book Research

Concept art is a form of art which depicts an idea that could be used in games, films, comics, etc. It is a journey from an initial idea into a fully fleshed out and refined final idea which is placed into the final product. 

Concept art for products are not created alone; in order to create a unique and detailed design it undergoes redesigns from not just one person, but from a team of people aiming to create something eye catching and original. These teams usually are split into focusing on certain aspects of the final product, for example environment, characters and props. 

For example, Assassins Creed Odyssey is a game that employs many different teams to focus on the game's main characters, biomes, weapons and enemies. This is because it both saves time having a team work toward a same goal, but it also allows these designs to flourish by having many people working on it. 

Creating Concept Art

 Early sketches by Thierry Dansereau

In the beginning, concept art is created using very quick sketches. These are often not complete and without colour, but create the basic designs and convey the purpose of the character to be further refined. 

Early concept art by Gabriel Blain. 

After the early concept sketches are complete, the next stage is to create several different ideas for designs of the character which could range from clothing to hairstyle designs, etc. To get inspiration, they are often inspired by real life sources which reflect the time era and environment the character is in. For example, these are inspired from the ancient Greece time period.

Ideas from these designs can then be taken and refined in order to get closer to a final design. 

Once a final design is complete, they are then integrated into the film, game, etc. Using in this case, a 3D render. 

For my final project I plan to create concepts for characters and a creature to be a part of my environment. To do this, I want to understand how concept art is created. However due to the time that goes into creating a final design (which could span from months to a year) I will be taking a much less detailed journey towards creating my characters.