Concept Art

First things first: Go down and look at Alec's last post if you haven't.

Don't tell anyone but I am secretly a nerd. As such, I'm a real sucker for sci-fi and fantasy culture. I think something really tragic and beautiful about so many games, movies and shows is the concept art. Tragic because it's rare that the final product ever matches the feel of the concept art, and beautiful because, well:
Yeah, C3PO used to be very Metropolis. Star Wars is one of rather few movies that reliably lived up to its concept art. Often, it occurs that when concept art is held up next to the finished product, they seem like two independent IPs. This isn't really a bad thing, and can make up for some interesting contrasts between the concept and the way it is carried out. I think concept art might be what really sparked my interest in illustration, and it's definitely the kind of thing that I can see myself doing.
What really constitutes concept art is kind of nebulous but I've read it defined as illustration with the objective of representing and idea, design, or mood for another creative work, be it a video game, movie, or comic book. For a little reference, I'll throw some stuff up that calls itself concept art:
This is a digital painting by Tim McBurnie. Scenes this involved are usually limited to the pages of comics and webcomics because of the relative cheapness to produce compared to the cost of making a movie or game. At any rate, I am into exploring fictional worlds and I think concept art generally makes them seem a lot more concrete and nearer to existent, whether or not the art is made as part of a bigger production or in relation to an existing work. See more of Tim's work here: http://www.timmcburnie.com/

This is the work of Matt Gaser, and it pains me to post only one image of his, but I'll post the link to his portfolio in a sec. Something I am noticing as I write this is it seems like many of the illustrators that use digital painting assume a sometimes of generic style full of colorful, glowy luminosity when painting big scenes. It might have something to do with the wide appeal of the style. It doesn't really bother me, because there is enough variety between scenes and in they way that certain elements are handled that I don't really get tired of looking at concept art. Mostly, it just makes me really want to get a Cintiq. Matt Gaser Home

A blog that I came across while looking for artists was Muddy Colors. Muddy Colors is "An Illustration Collective" and they have a lot of guest posts by working illustrators. I think it's a really good resource of information and expect to probably visit it more in the future. I hope you liked this post and Alec and I promise to post more regularly soon.

Love,
Daniel