Illustration Job Fair - BAIL104

This is my group's display, showcasing everything about 'Concept Art'

We decided to split it into 4 sections: the basics, and then 3 more specialised sub-topics of animation, games & film. 

My contribution to this task was the middle poster & the light bulbs, which covered the function of concept art. I felt like it was a good role for me to undertake as I didn't know much about the topic until carrying out this task - and so by researching the basics enabled me to get a good all-round understanding of this specialised area of illustration.

All of my findings are below:

What is Concept Art?

- Concept art is a form of illustration used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books & other media, before it's put into the final product.

- Artists try several designs (concepts) to achieve the desired result for the work.

- Designs are filtered and refined in stages to narrow down the options.

- Concept art also shows a project's progress to directors, clients and investors.

- Concept art may be done individually, or as part of a creative team working on different elements.

- A lot of concept art has tight deadlines where a highly polished piece is needed in a short amount of time.

- Concept art usually develops from quickly hand-rendered sketched, into final digital illustrations (although the final result can also be created using more traditional mediums e.g paint and markers).

- Concept art can be split into several subtopics: animated/live action films, video games, story boarding, character design, comic books, posters, environment/set design...

Facts, Skills, Materials & Audience

- More and more concept artists move to freelance due to the security of having multiple clients.

- The average salary is £45-55,000 a year.

- Graphic tablets are commonly used to create concept art, although some initial sketches are done by hand.

- Key words that best explain concept art: inform, explain, represent, test, trail, foundation, exploratory, preliminary. 

- You must be able to: draw, think of ideas quickly, work to strict deadlines, work digitally, & be able to render ideas quickly.

- Concept artists must know the foundations of: autonomy, design, perspective, colour theory, & lighting. 

- Concept art is typically created for the people working behind-the-scenes, rather than what is presented to the public.

- Concept art can be found in/on: portfolios, magazines, social media, YouTube, behind-the-scenes releases (teasers).

- Each category of concept art has a different target audience/demographic.