Teaching a mini-class on concept art at my college - class approved

[darkwolfb87]

My university is reviving this program called "communiversity" where students and faculty alike can apply to teach a class one or two days a week for a couple months about any interests or hobbies they have. Given the fine arts bent of this liberal arts university, I'd love to get out there and give a primer on concept art and possibly illustration. It should be pretty awesome cuz I'll be able to hook up my laptop and tablet to a projector (I saw this in the Prague workshop pics), and I'm thinking I could spend one class a week showing what concept art is, and the other class doing a 1-hour speedpainting to show what's possible entirely in Photoshop (of course it'd be pretty boring if I don't do q&a while painting haha).

Here's what I'm thinking about covering so far:

Course Description: Introduction to Concept Art

Have you ever wondered how designs for the Star Wars universe got created? This course will provide a glimpse into the essential roles of the concept artist in visualizing, designing, and applying their art into films, video games and books. Lectures will be supplemented with Powerpoint presentations and live painting demos.

I. What is concept art?
a) role of concept artists, the industries they work in
b) mental assets: creativity, imagination, effective design
c) example art (i'll need to get permission from the artists)

II. Live demonstration

Given that I'm probably the only one that's gonna be teaching this, what would you guys include in the curriculum to show what concept art is all about? I appreciate your help! Yes this is ambitious but I'm definitely gonna do it!

~ Stephen

[Interceptor]

Great idea. I'd like for you to show how it's evolved over the years. And how the duty of a concept artist grows more important as the game industry gets bigger.

[tensai]

i would definitely focus on the varied skillset a concept designer has. he is not just a designer, and not just an illustrator, but rather an illustrating designer or designing illustrator. there are amazing illustrators out there whos designs arent all that exciting (but they have beautiful renderings of them) and there are good designers that cant draw for shit. i think syd meads work for example is still so successful because he is so good at both.

[darkwolfb87]

Interceptor - Thanks, I'll be sure to include those. Any ideas on how to explain the significance of the expanding game industry?

Tensai - I completely agree, design and illustration skills require equally large amounts of effort to improve as a concept designer.

[Interceptor]

The expanding game industry means higher production values. Which turns into more room for artists, and more time for them to spend on game designs. Bringing the artistic quality alot higher. Compare Pacman to Shadow of the Colossus.

[Magic Man]

I just had a look at your website and I don't know if its uptodate or whatever, but make sure you're not in over your head, make sure you prepare like hell and I'm sure you'd find it a good undertaking.

[darkwolfb87]

Hmm yeah that site is quite old, just took it down. I think this is just something I shouldn't pass up because I'm not going to get a lot of opportunities to speak in public like that, so besides the time commitment, it should be a good experience for many reasons.

[darkwolfb87]

Okay, so they like the course, but they want a more interactive hands-on approach to the class. Maybe give everyone paper and pencil and get a feel for visualizing ideas themselves? I feel like not a lot of people are gonna be artists, so I need some help thinking of other methods of interaction.

[darkwolfb87]

Okay so here are the details: They want me to teach this for 1.5 hours twice a week in the first month of next semester, so I'll have roughly 12 hours to unload quite a bit of info. I feel like the whole "What is concept art? What do they do?" thing will take up all of like 20 minutes, so it seems like this will really turn into a class where you just experience what it's like to be in a concept artist's shoes.

I think what will work is if I do one long-term assignment for everybody, and give people a choice whether they want to design a character, environment, creature, etc., and I'll see what I can do to critique all the design stages. Hmm, I'll have to think this out some more, can I get some more suggestions as to what you would do?

Thanks, I appreciate the help!