The purpose of concept art is is a form of illustration where the main goal 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. Concept art is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design. This term can also be applied to retail design, set design, fashion design and architectural design.
Constructed World
This is a piece by Daarken, used for the game "Warhammer age of Reckoning".
This is a great perspective piece with good use of depth and space. He is generating space by drawing objects that we can relate to. For example, the doors on the far left and right give us an idea of the size and scale of the structure. This is obviously a landscape piece, and the use of his brushes makes the eye drawn straight to the left of the structure. The use of more detail makes it more ascetically pleasing to look at. The clear use of brush strokes makes the background less dominant in the image and brings the eye back to the mid ground. This concept to me feels like part of a story or experience. The shear size of it suggest an epic feel to the surrounding area. Especially because the artist has not drawn any of the surrounding area. It seems out of focus and not relevant to the image.I know that this particular piece of concept art is made for a sci-fi and fantasy world, however you can tell he has taken some references form things that are real in this world.He as used a variety of texture brushes and taken time to blend the lighting and shading together. This image makes me think of adventure and mystery. The artist has tried to make the image seem as if it was a desert. The way the edges of the mountain are very soft makes it kind of look like a sandstorm. This makes me think that it is a hidden and lost place. This is represented in the use of colour and how that the colours are worn and similar.
Natural World
By using simple brush styles in some areas and then filling others with fine detail, it tricks the eye into seeing more than what is there. To generate a bigger sense of fantasy to this image I think that he has added the purple smoke/light. This gives it a feel of magic and power. The stance that he is in, arms apart and palms up, shoulders back and looking down. This pose gives a sense of power over not only whatever he is looking at, but also to the audience looking at this image. This makes it quite striking to look at. The background is very abstract and blurry. This makes it hard to look at and draws your eye back to the character. This also gives the whole picture a feel of darkness and uncleanliness. Those colours, dark brown/swampy green, make the chracter stand out all the more because his clothes are much darker them self. You don't even get a real sense of the characters size. If you look at him, you imagine him human size, maybe standing in front of a swampy meadow. But if you imagine him to be 60ft tall, you can see him in the clouds. This emphases his power i think. Also his head. It is either a head or helmet but the skull and devils horns make you think of the devil, this emphases his evilness.
Article
Environment
This is a concept painting by the YouTuber, "TheConceptPainter". This piece is called "I Stand Alone". I think that this is a very good representation of environmental concept art. This is due to the high level of skill put into it. One of the main things is that this image has many different things happening in it.you have the calm, clear and peaceful waterfall at the foreground and then you have the dark mysterious figure in the mid ground. Then in the background you have the harsh light and almost explosiveness of the bright yellow which punches you in the face. the contrast in this image are great. There is so much change from foreground to background. You eye is drawn though these pillars and up into the light, but it is not drawn to the dark figure. It is only after closer examination that you can see him. I think that the artists has done this deliberately to emphasise the scale of this cave, and also how small and insugnifficant the character in it feels. His stance is very drawn back, almost as if he is in awe of what he has discovered. It also brings up other questions like, is he coming into the cave? Or heading out? This could have been made more clear but the title suggest that he is alone, and therefore he is probably looking for somebody. Also another thing that suggest his loneliness is the textureof the rocks and pillars. They're old and run down suggesting they have been untouched by humans.
Creature
This concept for a creature is one that I found particularly interesting. One reason was that the concepts idea is believable. The artist has taken one very important idea into consideration which is anatomy. If something looks like it could exist you first need to make sure it has the right anatomy to have evolved into the appropriate setting or environment. The artist has drawn this creature in a very dark tunnel and it would leave you to believe that it is deep underground. If we look at the creature we can see that the correct attributes make it seem more believable. for example, there is no need for eyes because it is so dark. So the artist has given it other attributes. They're giant nostrils, for smelling, and large ears, for hearing. Another thing ti consider when thinking about the anatomy of a particular creature is the way it moves. We can see the artist has used a very wide shot so we can see most of the animal, and that it is thin and most likely quick on its feet.
The pose of the creature seems to be that it is startled. The legs have been drawn very tight and elongated. This sort of pose creates a sense of suspense int eh scene because it makes t look as though the creature has seen a predator or prey.
Character
This is a Space Marine for the franchise, "Warhammer 40K". This artist as taken the normal space marine and given it his own little spin. One dramatic concept in this is the walk. It is clear that he is walking towards you because of the use of light. One leg is almost black because it is behind him. This pose, or stance, is giving the character great presence. You will also notice the use of no background. This inst a mistake because you can clearly see the shadow beneath the feet of the space marine. Perhaps this was to dramatize the size and presence of the character. One key aspect to this space marine is the giant fist on his left. You can see that the other one looks a lot smaller. There are probably reasons for this however to somebody that doesn't know any back story to the franchise this would see rather strange. So the artist has deliberately drawn him walking and captured him with his right leg and left arm forwards. This is mainly to draw attention to the power and force of his fist. You can see the size of the characters head, this makes it awkward to try and get the proportions on the rest of his body. You are lead to assume that this is a suit that he is wearing. Much like Iron Man. This then means that the artist has to give you an idea of what kind of size this man is. You can see by the way that the left shoulder is slightly further down when his left leg is behind him that there must be a considerable amount of weight on the soldier. This is an important thing to bare in mind when communicating this concept drawing to a 3D modeller. Because an important part of there job is knowing how characters move as well as how much gravity will affect their weight.
Object
This a concept for a new interstellmarine weapon called the "Assalut Rifle 03"
In this conept of a weapon they have use a 3D rendering software to create this gun. You can also see that they have used a profile line drawing to show the weapon at different angles. Using profiles is one of the key things you need to do when creating concept ideas for objects or characters because it is a good way to determine size, proportions and helps you take it into a 3D program. We can see that when designing this weapon the artist has used a more futuristic movement rather than an older one. We can also see that he has used a more digital approach with the 3D sculpt of the object in the foreground. however behind it, as i mentioned before we can see a more traditional approach with the line drawing. He could have used several different uses of media. For example, 3DS max and Maya as well as ZBrush could have been used to create the 3D version of the object. And for the line drawing it seems to still be digital so i would have thought Photoshop would have been used. We can also see that the content is very hard edge and precise, this i believe is due to the fact that it must reflect how guns operate. Personally i think that this particular object is quite violent and typical. I think it doesn't look too different to guns ive seen before and lacks variation.
