Week 7 - 8, About Concept Art

Concept Art

'Concept art is not the same as illustration' 'Its about creating a single artistic vision that can power a franchise' - video game industry veteran James Pickthall.

Concept art is often referred to as visual development. It ia the initial design used to look and develop a feel of the project. It can range from anything from animated films to video games to artwork. The main purpose of conceptual art is to channel a visual representation of a design or idea before a final product. Concept art can present itself from mood shoots to more detailed ideas of things like props or characters. Overall it reduces the margin for error and therefore, reduce time and cost. 

Figure 1 - Futurist transport art in development 

Most of the time, concept artists will have a rough sketch and, with the okay from a project manager, will move forward to a 3D modular or an illustrator to develop the idea further and create a better visual representation of the idea. Some concept artists will just pass their idea to someone else within the next stage of development, whereas some will remain throughout the whole of the project to see the final outcome.

Figure 2 - Concept art of a futuristic car

Often conceptual art and illustration are considered the same thing, however they are not. Whilst skills and techniques overall, the difference is the word 'concept'. A concept artist will quickly explore ideas whereas an illustrator is more focused towards a clean polished approach to an image. 

Concept art has taken off as a field of its own. You will find a vast array of online forums, websites and logs dedicated to the aspect of visual development. 

Figure 3 - Scene concept art 

It has emerged that as an art movement in the 1960s and the term usually refers to art made 1960s to mid-1970s. It wasn't until the late 1960s that conceptual art became a definable movement. The term conceptual art was first used to reference its distinct movement in an article written by Sol LeWitt in 1976:

'In conceptual art, the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual art form, it means that all of the palling and decision are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair.'

    - LeWitt, 'Paragraphs on Conceptual art' Actforum Vol.5, Summer 1967, 

pp 79-83.

As a definable movement, conceptual art is associated with 1960s- 1970s but its origins reach much beyond these two decades. Marcel Duchamp is often seen as an important 'forefather' of conceptual art with the readymade art.

Figure 4 - Marcel Duchamp Fountain 1964

Image references

- Figure 1 - 3 - Staff, C.B. (2012) Just what is concept art? 

- Figure 4 - 200, D. (1986) Conceptual art.

Bibliography

- 200, D. (1986) Conceptual art. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/conceptual-art (Accessed: 28 October 2016).

- Admin (2014) Concept art: What is concept art and why is it important? Available at: http://artistryingames.com/concept-art-concept-art-important/ (Accessed: 28 October 2016).

- Staff, C.B. (2012) Just what is concept art? Available at: http://www.creativebloq.com/career/what-concept-art-11121155 (Accessed: 28 October 2016).