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How to become a
Concept Artist
Who are they, what do they do and how to become a Concept Artist?
Who is a Concept Artist?
Concept Artists are artists and visual arts illustrators, working in an analog or digital environment; they focus on developing and designing an idea (i.e. concept) for film, TV, video games, animation, automotive, comics, Live Entertainment, advertising and other media to shape the final product.
What does a Concept Artist do?
The work of a Concept Artist is based on iteration: several solutions to the same question are developed through sketches, project drawings and illustrations, in both analog and digital form, going through several steps before reaching the final design.
This process is functional to develop the project’s executive assets and to share work in progress phases with all the figures involved, from directors to clients.
The term originated in the early 1930s in the first Disney Studios.
What skills should a Concept Artist have?
- Drawing: a high level knowledge of anatomy, mastering perspective, light and colour theory and general technical mastery of visual arts.
- Problem Solving: developing a concept requires multiple answers to a single question to define the final design. Concept artists are called upon to develop and propose multiple alternative solutions for each part of the project at hand, by interpreting the brief and stimulating the entire team’s creativity.
- Team work: ability to work in a team, organising one's own work, technique and files in a teamwork perspective, considering the work pipeline, meeting deadlines, respecting role hierarchy.
- Mastering the quality/quantity/time relation: being able to optimise, through dedication and experience, your productivity equation in terms of quantity, yet keeping the highest quality output in the shortest possible time.
- Curiosity, Open-mindedness, Creativity: innate creative talent regularly cultivated thanks to a mindset that is always open, curious and inclined towards acquiring new knowledge in all major creative disciplines: art, film, TV, music, gaming, architecture, design, fashion, theatre, sport.
How do I become a Concept Artist?
Concept Artists are a crucial profile in all the main Entertainment and Live Entertainment creative studios. A specialised course offering training in the basic principles of 3D modelling, VFX, Games, Screenplay, Storyboard, Concept Art, Illustration and Entertainment culture can help in entering a team, starting with internship collaborations, and then moving on to employment as a Junior Concept Artist with the prospect of future growth within the company as Senior Concept Artist and then Art Director, supervising the team of illustrators.
- Creative Technologies, specialisation: VFX e 3D
- Film and Animation, specialisation: Animation