Steve HT's portfolio/art dump - illustration & concept work
Hi there guys,
Here's a dump of my work let me know what you think.
See more work on my deviantArt : http://shtripp.deviantart.com/
Here's a dump of my work let me know what you think.
See more work on my deviantArt : http://shtripp.deviantart.com/
14-2-2014.JPG
530 x 800 - 193K
Comments
also, pretty neat art. I don't know how much concept art is needed specifically, but perhaps you should join someone working on a game and help by making art for their game? That would be the best advice I can give at this point for getting started in art for games.
As far as I know (I don't really), we (Luma Arcade) are getting two great concept artists working with us full time (which, as far as I know, is the first time we've had people doing concept art full time -- in the past we've just all done a bit of it, given our all being art generalists), and you might benefit by watching them work, getting the same briefs, and doing an internship here. Drop me a PM if you're around Joburg and interested.
The pictures posted don't depict a concept artists skillset.
Right now your portfolio on deviant art tells me that you want to be an illustrator, not a concept artist.
Show that you can achieve a range of styles. Client work can often mean making the not "cool" stuff, zombies are awesome, but what about cute friendly things for kids games? or block designs for match 3 games? How about a zombie match 3? with a variety of different zombie heads embedded into the block.
You normally see multiple concepts of the same thing. How about, zombie with a straggly beard, black eyes, arrow in the ear, then again now with full beard, red eyes with yellow pus oozing out and no jaw. Show that you can put down multiple ideas of the same subject matter. Chances are there going to be more than 1 zombie in your apocalypse, what do they look like? and can anyone tell me why is that yellow stuff coming from the eyes?
Challenge yourself to keep drawing the same thing but differently, until you've run out of ideas. Find your limits so you know where you need work.
I see similarities in your work to mine, in that you like drawing characters, but have a weaker understanding of environments. The Arabian sand temple picture lacks atmospheric perspective, making it read flat. Feng Zhu has a wealth of information in his youtube tutorials on environments, watch them.
Random Concept thoughts:
Plants for instance: what shapes are the leaves? how do they connect to the stork? how can you design it in a development friendly way so that asset swapping is easy, or so that you can combine different assets to make new unique looking ones, how can you design for variance with saving memory in mind. What plants would you expect to see in this environment? what do they look like infected with alien mucus?
Modular designs! As much as you can and where it makes sense.
Patterns: clothing, style and different materials. Medieval knight with shiny armor, leather archer armor with embellishment pattern lining. Tree bark, wood grain, cloth, carpets, mugs, the masters Challice! Medallions, pick one and fill a canvas with variants.
Details: What exactly does that dagger in your top image look like? Show details of shape and the things within it, a profile view of the blade and the design of the hilt, is it wrapped cloth or bone inset with the teeth of his first 9 victims? Perhaps the design of the full tattoo he's got on his arm so that someone can use that as a base when they start the texturing.
Mood/lighting: Faster/Smaller images of the same setting depicting different moods or time of day, or Color harmonies of before and after the virus broke out. Designing your color pallet has a huge impact on the overall impression of the world you create.
UI: Chances are if you the 1 concept guy working in a games company, you going to need to design UI.
Most of what concept art is about - from what I can tell - is making images to show other people in the pipeline what it is exactly they need to be making, and making sure that everything lives in the same "world". Not just drawing different characters, unless I guess you want to be a specialist character designer.
I've not been in the Industry for all that long, but I've had the pleasure of working with many artists, out of which only 1 was a dedicated concept artist. Not to discourage you, but the competition is damn stiff and the jobs are few, not only in South Africa, but around the world.
Get to know who they are, who in the industry are you competing against? Make sure you have a critical eye so when you look at your work you can see if you near or on the same level. Find out who the artists are working at the various studios you want to apply to and see how you compare, how do you fit in with what they produce.
Valves handbook mention something called a T shaped person, one deep understanding in one area and shallower useful skills elsewhere. I'm of the opinion that if you don't have a T shaped skillset, get one. If you interested in concepts, maybe learn the texturing workflow.
If you think about it for a second, how many concept artists can a team have? How many teams are there? and can they afford a dedicated concept guy.
That being said, @Elyaradine It's pretty awesome that Luma are looking for fulltime concept dudes!!! Nice!
I challenge you to play some of the prototypes on the forums, when you've played one and had fun doing so, make concepts for that game:
4x Mood / Color board. - Depicting possibly different environments the game could be in OR if no environment color harmonies that would suit that game.
1x Environment and vegetation - 1x main tile and 3x flavor tiles OR if not tile based x1 ground texture and 3x props.
1x Main Character - Character design.
1x UI
1x "Marketing type" image
Good luck and Keep on drawing, painting, learning and improving, you are moving in the right direction!
Here's some resources:
Matt Khor
Anatomy
Marc Brunet
Michael Dashow
because dota: http://www.markbehm.com/ Hey looks like it's a good time to be a concept guy!
http://howtonotsuckatgamedesign.com/2014/02/lets-get-real-concept-art/
Feng Zhu's video on illustration vs industrial design
tldr, concept art and illustration aren't the same thing, but the way the game industry advertises it to those outside of it, it's easy to see why people can get confused.
An artist's sketchbook is so much more representative of good "concept art" than a bunch of "painstakingly finished masterpieces".
I am aware of the many differences between illustration and concept work, but your post helps me to remember that I do need to start demonstrating a variety of workflows that will cater more towards concept work.
I have spent the last couple of years teaching myself from online sources, looking at artists, including the ones you recommend. I do agree with that T shaped person, however, I do believe that the deepest part of any artist's skills before anything else is their understanding of the fundamentals. Anatomy, colour, lighting etc. Once mastered these skills can be used in any which way the artist desires, whether it be quick and original concept work, or full polished illustration, and indeed the genre you spend more hours in will become your specialty.
I'm currently on that mission to master my fundamentals, and I believe through a more realistic 'illustrative' practice I will be pushing myself harder than with anything else.
I will definitely be taking you up on that challenge :D Thanks man for a definite wake up call.
Feng Zhu the bomb!
I will post some more work soon.
I shall be joining the arty scratchy lot soon enough
anything more I can say that's relevant is yeah, either subscribe to armour, or make it something else that isn't for protection, don't get vague and get your panties exposed
I'm sorry I was naughty, it was late at night and I was looking at sexy drawings of girls and I couldn't help myself :(
Here is some work to start off the year.
"The Expressionless" character done for the Character Design Challenge group on Facebook last
Also you can browse through my stuff on artstation here: https://www.artstation.com/stephenhowardtripp
And can follow me on instagram(where i post more drawings and what not) here