Concept Art

This field of illustration is very broad and there are so many different ways to approach it. Concept art ranges from very innocent subjects such as children's television shows and films to graphic and gory video games. My style suits the children's side of the market better, but I tried to create something more aimed at adults as well.

This first image is inspired by Max Ernst[1]  who was a leading artist in the Dada and Surrealist movement and used a technique called, 'Decalcomania', which requires creating a shape or series of shapes from getting two pieces of paper or a piece of paper and a sheet of acetate and placing some thick paint in between, then pushing them together to create a splodge of paint in a strange shape. This can then be used to create a character concept or landscape, which is what Ernst was most famous for. I used paper and acetate to create this image, where I thought it looked like a lion. I drew in the features but kept the painterly look to the blue as I feel that really added to the piece.

This image was inspired by concept artists for Disney, both Brittney Lee[2] and Bill Schwab[2]. I really like the way they create such textured pieces in digital art, and so I wanted to create one in my style. I decided to use A Little Princess as my reference for this illustration, as it was one of my favourite books[3] and films[4] of my childhood. I loved the styling, era and direction of the film as a child and still love it to this day. I wanted to make a character design for Lavinia, a character who is spoiled and hates other people having the limelight. She likes being the leader and took that role out of fear from the other girls, and doesn't like when the main character Sara comes in and takes away her 'subjects' with kindness and optimism. I wanted to catch the expression she largely had on her face, one of pursed lips and raised eyebrows to signify her looking down on everyone, almost like she feels sorry for anyone who's not her. I used Photoshop and textured brushes to create the shading, which I feel adds to he piece a lot. It creates a painterly effect.

This is my one more adult piece, which is inspired by the remake of Robocop[5] and the art of both H.R. Giger[6] and Vitaly Bulgarov[7]. I wanted to create a biomechanical piece where you don't know whether it's human or robot, or a bit of both. The armour is influenced by Robocop and is very sleek and untarnished, and I wanted to juxtapose that with the gritty, post apocalyptic setting. I wanted it to look like there were robots still roaming a dystopian land where everything had been destroyed. Or perhaps the areas had been ruined by the robots, maybe their robot police force is going rogue and deciding justice is destroying everything a bad person owns. Either way, I liked the way Bulgarov created the shine and complex design of the armour for Robocop so I wanted to include a bit of that into my work.

I wanted to create a landscape for a part of this blog and really wanted to create an atmosphere. I was very inspired by the work of Walt Peregoy[8] who was a concept artist and key colourist for Disney. His work uses light and dark so well to create moods for his pieces, and he creates texture and movement so effortlessly. I wanted to try and create something in my style but with a similar feel. I enjoyed trying to create something like his which is very traditional and uses a lot of different mixed media in a digital platform, as I tried to create a mixed media feel to an otherwise very textured and painterly looking piece.

I feel there are many ways to approach concept art, and so many different avenues to go down. The industry of concept art has changed dramatically as the digital age has taken hold, and with so many artists using digital mediums it almost seems like a necessity to use it in today's fast paced market. I plan to learn a lot more about it and try to incorporate different artists ways of working to create my personal hybrid style of inspirations.


References -

[1] SPIES, Werner (2013). Max Ernst Retrospective. Hatje Cantz, Germany.
[2] SOLOMON, Charles (2013). The Art of Frozen. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, US.
[3] HODGSON BURNETT, Frances (1905). A Little Princess. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City, US.
[4] A Little Princess. 1995 [film]. Directed by Alfonso CUARÓN. USA, Baltimore Pictures.
[5] Robocop. 2014 [film]. Directed by José PADILHA. USA, Strike Entertainment.
[6] GIGER, H.R (1993). Biomechanics. Morpheus International, USA.
[7] Vitaly Bulgarov. Art of Vitaly Bulgarov. [Online]. Available at: http://www.bulgarov.com/professional.html [Accessed 2nd December 2015].
[8] The Animation Guild. The Animation Guild: Walt Peregory. [Online]. Available at: https://animationguild.org/oral_history/walt-peregoy/ [Accessed 2nd December 2015].