Writing an article on art is a tough job, particularly if you are an artist yourself, because being an artist you tend to express yourself with the paintbrush or tablet pens. However, since I’m writing about concept art, here are some of my thoughts.
In our country, there are and have been many fine artists and painters acknowledged and appreciated for their art. Painting, sculpture and fine art, thus, are generally known by people, but not many know about a bunch of creative individuals called concept artists.
Concept artists have been working in the art industry for years, but their art never gets exhibited in galleries. They are hardly interviewed by journalists in the print or electronic media because these artists tend to stay behind the scenes, yet all the TVCs, films, short films, documentaries and animated films carry a fair share of their work.
To many people, a concept artist is just like a fine artist or painter (or to some extent a graphic designer). However, there are some major differences between a fine artist and a concept artist.
Fine artists paint for themselves, display their work to people regardless of what they would think about it. They have to report to none, paint whatever comes to their mind, use whatever media they like, and don’t give a hoot about the right proportions, colours or realistic lighting.
Moreover, they work with lots of references and spend a great deal of time on their work. Art is liberty, they say. When it comes to concept artists, they have to work four times faster. They are commercial artists so they have to pay attention to the time they spend on each piece.
They have to work under pressure and, sometimes, only one piece is never enough to sell an idea, so they have to think faster and be creative to make three to four concept art pieces at a time, including a few rough sketches.
There is no time for detailed research, which is why they sometimes work without any reference. Their study and observation should be extremely sharp about things such as the human anatomy, animal anatomy, environments and lighting.
They have to have strong drawing and painting skills. They have no liberty of mediums because they have to choose the fastest yet impressive approach. The most painful yet joyful thing is that they are criticised openly for their work.
They work in advertising agencies, in the game industry, for comics and graphic novel publications, and for film production/post-production and animation houses. Their department is commonly called the art department, which handles all the pre-production stuff. This means they have to visually bring some non-existing things to life.
Concept art is a pre-production design for a production. It shows visual content to the director or directors indicating how their idea would look like after the final output. Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in films, games, animations or comics before it is put into the final product. It is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design.
One of the specific requirements to be a concept artist is sharp observation with strong drawing and painting skills. As a storyboardist, you need to have a good sense of camera movement as well as a keen study of characters and personalities with strong communication skills.
As a character designer, you need to have a strong study of human/animal figure as well as of the facial expressions, very good aesthetic sense of costumes, poses and personalities. As an environment designer/matte-painter, you should have a strong sense of lighting, colour and perspective as well as strong painting skills.
Concept artists have been working passionately for years but, unfortunately, this field in our country hasn’t found its glory yet, and I think our employers play a major part in this lack of recognition. Concept artists are usually underpaid vis-à-vis the international pay-scale.
They work for a company for ages and if they decide to leave it, they are not given their portfolios. They’re back to square-one when they join another company. Another minor part in not giving concept artists their due has been played by our media that includes newspapers, magazines and TV channels.
Concept art seems to be the most discouraged field in Pakistan because a concept artist is commonly considered and treated as a graphic designer. A piece of good news is that because of the worldwide popularity of 3D gaming and animation, at least people related to the field are gaining knowledge about the very need of pre-production and concept art. My hopes are high.
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