Part 1

What is "concept art" anyway?

I believe concept art is just that, a concept, simply getting your idea visualized and on paper for others and yourself to see. It’s to help you flesh out an idea and see if it works and see what needs to be done to change it and possibly make it better.

Why are you interested in it?

I’m interested in concept art because I’m working on video game design, and being able to show people my ideas visually is important. I want to be able to accurately show people what I need help with, and show them what my ideas for a game is more accurately. It will also be helpful in that I can also have a better understanding of other peoples concept art, what I could suggest to change to help with the idea.

What is your background?

I have done some drawing in the past, I have not done much though. Mostly I have just done a few characters and object sketches, and a little bit of landscape drawings, but not much else.

Do you have goals related to "concept art" however we may define it?

My only goal really is that I can get my ideas out to people effectively, and be able to create concept art quickly and clearly. I can create some art already that is good enough for alright concept art, the problem is that it takes me far too long to make it clearly enough and make it look the way I want to, which is why I want to work on my technique.

Part 2

The first couple I did was the dragon and the other larger character silhouette, the problem was that I spent way to much time on both of them and needed to spend less time. I then started on the characters at the top, and kinda hated it. I couldn't put much detail into the characters because of the time constraint, they just came out as the blobby masses you see before you. What I did like was drawing the nightmare monsters, I could draw their features and not have to worry if they looked enough like people to be recognizable, it was also a lot of fun coming up with all the different creations. I'm glad I switched to the creatures, it helped me see that I need to focus more on figure exaggeration and less on fine details.

My favorite ones were probably the dragon and the nightmare king from my final silhouettes. Although I am still not completely happy about how the dragon's legs turned out, but I love everything else about it. I love the way the wings look with the rest of the body. The nightmare king was a lot of fun, I liked making the flowing shadows and adding more details than the smaller version, getting to flesh out the design more and make it more interesting.