Traditional Art - Term 1

In this blog, I am going to cover the art and design process and considerations made when creating pieces for the industry. I will show examples of my work where I have taken these techniques into consideration and exploring outside the box. I aim to become a concept artist for games in the future, and, having learned these techniques and implementing them into my work, I could work in a range of games that focus on different styles. 

Colour Theory

Colour Theory is an essential feature when it comes to concept art. Colours are used if they have certain connotations and want to create a mood for the audience. They have to hold a meaning to the character or environment, and artists need to understand how this can be used in their work. Upon learning this, I have researched artists and how they have implemented colour theory into their work. Listed below are some examples I found.

Concept art for the Sand Kingdom from Super Mario Odyssey (2017)

This piece uses a lot of warm colours, including vibrant reds, oranges and yellows, and this gives off the impression that the environment is somewhat hot. These colours combined with contrasting greens and blues make the image pop out more. 

Concept art of Lee and Clementine from The Walking Dead: Season 1 (2012)

This was one of the earliest concepts for the game. This piece doesn't use vibrant hues and is pretty saturated, but the main colour used here is red, which indicates danger, blood and death, and so the use of colour theory is shown very clearly here.

With these pieces in mind, I used colour theory to create my own piece. I used cool analogous colours for the character and then a warm set of analogous colours for the background to contrast. I also took inspiration from the second piece for the use of black shadowing. I used watercolour paints and fineliners to make this piece.

Line, Shape and Volume

Line work in concept art is useful for creating depth in a drawing. They are usually shown in black and white, if not using minimal amounts of colour. Line drawing can be used as a shading technique, and there are multiple ways this can be achieved, such as how the artist chooses to create lines, like crosshatching, scribbling or stippling. I have found examples of artists that use line drawing for their concepts.

Concept art for The Walking Dead: Michonne (2016) by Jesse Maccabe

This piece uses a lot of shadowing to contrast with the red used. The artist uses thick pens to scribble and add depth to the characters. The shading isn't gradual and is instead very blocky. This makes the mood of the concept art really dark and menacing.

I practised using different line techniques using a guide so I could experiment on shading. I implemented these onto shapes to show off light and shadow. 

Using fineliners I sketched out some objects that were used as a reference and focused on the shading techniques using different lines on the suiting areas. I also added some colour on a few of the pieces.

Here, I used a photo reference to sketch out a copy using fineliners only, and focused on the techniques to create depth and shadow.

Light, Value and Texture

Artists need to understand how light works when it comes to concept art, as it needs to have impact on the characters, objects or environments. Light and shadow is taken into consideration when it comes to value and texture, and it bounces off in different ways. Here, I have found some pieces that use light and shadow effectively.

Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio (1601)

This piece was painted in 1601, and is one that focuses on light an shadow. Years before, artists were not able to comprehend light and shadow in their artwork, and this is one of the few pieces in art history that was fully able to grasp onto understanding light, shadow and value. 

Early concept design of Hush from Batman: The Telltale Series (2016) by Derek Sakai

In this piece, the artist is able to capture light, shadow, value and texture using certain textured brushes. They use black for strong shadow effects, and textured brushes to add to the feel of the concept, instead of using plain block. The light and shadow are implemented here to show a big contrast.

Taking these skills into effect, I drew some studies with more references to focus on light and shadow, and then texture.

I used a range of tools here to create these small studies, including Prismacolor pencils, Winsor & Newton Promarkers and Spectrum Noirs, watercolour paints and fineliners.The markers and watercolours were used as a base that could be filled in with detail using other tools, like the Prismacolor pencils to create fluffy textures, and the fineliners to add extra deep shadowing. I also used a white gel pen to add highlights.

Here, I used a photo I took of a fruit to draw out and focus on the light and shadow, rather than just the fruit. For this piece I used Winsor & Newton markers, Prismacolor pencils, fineliners and a white gel pen.

Composition

Composition is important for concept art. It is used to give the viewer a sense of focus on the piece, such as pointing out key details that are most relevant to the game. Composition includes a range of forms that are used as bases for artists. Each form is unique and holds a meaning in the final pieces. Here are some images that show examples of composition in games art. 

Poster for The Walking Dead: The Final Season (2018)

This poster uses the golden ratio compostion. The largest box centres on the two main characters shown on the image. The spiral ends where the end of the axe is, aiming towards the background, where the viewer can see a small building and car in the distance. The logo is place in the second biggest square on the composition base, making it part of the most important elements on the poster, letting viewers know what game they are looking at.

Poster for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)

This poster uses the Rule of Thirds composition, where it is divided into nine sections. The viewer can point out these sections and which ones are of more importance for the poster. The middle section shows the main character looking out into the distance, which is divided into the other sections. The right side of the image looks to be the main focus of the background as the colours are much lighter and the viewer can make out a castle in the distance.

I used my knowledge to make my own compositional backgrounds on Photoshop. I also used colour theory and focused on using contrasting or analogous palletes.

Additional Work

Here is some more work I have completed. I used animals as a reference, except that I didn't use a photograph, but rather, a video or real life. The aim was to draw something that constantly moves, and being able to capture an image in your head. These are some quick rough pen sketches.

Conclusion

Overall, I feel that with learning about these techniques in more depth helps me prepare for wanting to become a concept artist in the future. It gave me more insight in understanding what artists consider when making a piece, and I am now able to point out where artists use these techniques, whereas before I wouldn't have considered this.

I have a much better understanding of composition. I feel like before I never really noticed this being used in artwork, but now that I learned a bit more about it, I can understand why it is used so much. It's a useful guide for artists to use so they can get a good idea of how to fill in the spaces and make them as interesting as possible for the viewers. 

I am a lot more confident in using different traditional tools in my artwork and being able to experiment with them in several ways. I will continue to improve on my skills and try out more new tools and implement them into my artwork. I realise now that sketching bases with pencils can take up time and makes me prone to making mistakes. It's better to use tools that are unable to rub out so I can improvise and build up more.

Bibliography

2016. Supper at Emmaus [online]. Caravaggio Gallery. Available at: https://www.caravaggiogallery.com/supper-at-emmaus.aspx [Accessed 8th December 2020]

Goellner, C., 2011. Telltale Reveals 'The Walking Dead' Video Game Concept Art, Story Details [online]. Comics Alliance. Available at: https://comicsalliance.com/the-walking-dead-video-game-telltalle-story-concept-art/ [Accessed 8th December 2020]

Maccabe, J., 2018. The Walking Dead: Michonne Concept Art [online]. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/nQwnd1 [Accessed 8th December 2020]

McWhertor, M., 2019. The Art of Super Mario Odyssey comes stateside in October [online]. Polygon. Avalable at:https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/12/18260637/super-mario-odyssey-art-book-western-release [Accessed 8th December 2020]

Sakai, D., 2018. Telltale Games Odd Jobs [online]. ArtStation. Available at: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/O21Dy [Accessed 8th December 2020]