Do I have "Concept Art Skills" ?

[Gwen VIBANCOS]

Hi there !

I'm a brand new registered user and I'm both intimidated and honoured to join this great community !

I'm officially a french comic book author and freelance illustrator since 2009. And recently, thanks to great artists like Feng Zhu, Nicholas Kay, Sinix or Noah Bradley, I litteraly fell in love with design and concept art approach of drawing.

So my point is that now, I'm trying this new way of considerating art since 4 months, learning my fundamentals, lighting and shading, showing forms, sketching before diving in the final piece, searching references and all great stuffs that Feng Zhu and others learn to us on the web.

Therefore, I posted some of my recent works in this thread, concerning concept art, illustration and ways to train to enter this industry. So feel free to criticize, 'cause my point is to learn things and improve my skills as much as possible !! I am here for that, so don't hesitate a minute to point my weaknesses and things I have to work on to be better.

To sum up, here are the two main questions I really wish you'll answer in this thread :
- Do am I on the right way to become a concept artist and work for video games, cinema or animation or should I quickly go back to comic books and illustration 'cos you think I'm wasting my time trying to go in this new carreer path ?
- What are my remaining weaknesses on these few pieces attached to this thread ?

Thanks in advance to those who will take time to write a thing on my work here, and I hope my english is understandable to you all, haha !!

I've sorted the following illustrations out from the older one (4 months ago) to the last one I did (3 days ago).

CRAB WARRIOR - My very first concept art illustration attempt - done in 4hrs.


WEIRD MARINES' DISCOVERY - 2hrs work.


BIOMECH - 2h30 work.


Gareth Edwards' GODZILLA REBOOT FANART 1 - 6hrs.


Gareth Edwards' GODZILLA REBOOT FANART 2 - 6hrs too.


INSECTOÏD ALIEN - 2hrs.


SPIDEY MECH - 3hrs.


So, what do you think ? Do I skip it or do I keep on training ?

[kingkostas]

Hello mate, time pushes so i will try to keep it short.

On your first question:
There is no way you are wasting your time when you try to follow your passion and achieve your goals. If you constantly feel that you like to do concept art more than you like to do comic then you are definitely on the right way. Concept art is somehow a big subject. What i mean? Well the better you become at drawing/painting and design the better concept artist you become. A concept artist should always keep becoming better so that he can enchance his speed, his design skills, his presentation skills. To sum it up, you are on the right way to become a concept artist, as long as you have the will to constantly keep drawing and designing new stuff and evolving as an artist

On your second quesion:
Ok let me see. I see that there is improvement between the first and the last work, that means you are working towards becoming better and thats always important.
I dont want to say every little specific thing to improve your work because i dont think there is much value in doing that. You have to always keep studying the fundamentals on simple things [learn to make realistic cubes/spheres/cylinders in space, and to put them in different kind of perspectives] then try out the knowledge you get in some imagination pieces.
I will only talk about the last work since it contains your current skills.
The main subject has a nice readable shape so good work on making it like that. That happened because you putted contrast in it while you kept the contrast on the background very low, so, good work on that, thats a very important element. I see texture in there, thats also good. Damn i said i will not talk about details, really its not important. The important thing is that this work can become better. More studies on forms, more playing with it to manage to make it look more realistic or more informative.
Also you want to be a concept artist, so design more rather than doing illustrations. Present your skills at thumbnailing [Very important], show your workflow, try to add more material variety in your designs.

Ok to close it down, your work has potential and you definitely should keep up if you want to be a concept artist. As i said its an ongoing process, you could already been working as a concept artist [make more pieces, different kind of stuff, vehicles, characters, architecture, guns, puppets, whatever comes to your mind, you are to become a world creator [however some companies like some specialization so i guess if you love doing enviros, mechas or whatever, push more on them but dont neglect the others]. The better you make your skills [design and painting/drawing stuff] the better concept artist you will becoming.

Keep up the good work!!!!

[Gwen VIBANCOS]

Thank you veeeeeryyy much for your reply, Kingkostas ! It really fill me with enthusiasm and give me energy to go on !! I've checked your work and it is soooo mindblowing ! By the way, thank you again for the time you took for your response, so nice !! I'll work on the different aspects you mentionned, 'cause thanks to Feng Zhu, for instance, and you today, I'm aware that it is the key !! Fondamentals, contrasts, design, rendering, composition, perspective, anatomy, functionnality on props and vehicles, understanding real world to improve design. So thank you again to push me forward with your words, I'll work hard !!

[kingkostas]

Good to hear my friend!!! lets stay healthy and keep up!!!