Matt Rhodes

I see Matt Rhodes as one of the more productive and inspiring concept artists in the game industry right now, known for his works in Mass Effect and Dragon Age (Two games that have considerably different settings to one another), Matt has some pretty wise words to share with future visual developments artists:

"The role of a Concept Artist is the role of an explorer, tasked with charting a world without sunlight..."

The rest of his blogpost can be read here, a really inspiring, and informative read on his experiences:

http://mattrhodesart.blogspot.ca/2013/07/concept-art-behind-scenes.html

  

Much like Claire Hummel, to be a good concept artist, you need to do some proper referencing and researching (Even if you are giving the vaguest of briefs by your higher ups), instead of simply diving right into it, that way you will most definitely have a better idea of what to dish out to show your clients. 

Of course the next thing to do is to constantly explore with doodles, sketches, paintings and storyboards, a proper design process does not only contain polished pieces, but also numerous roughs and concepts that will perhaps never see the light of day, but are in the end, necessary in creating the finished product.

And that is the proper mindset to follow should I hope to ever work in this industry, I can't rush into creating something awesome, a good design will always take time, and will always need thorough researching and lots of exploration.

Claire Hummel

Claire Hummel (Better known as Shoomlah) is an artist who presently works for Microsoft Game Studios Publishing, originating from Los Angeles, California, you might know her better for her Historically Accurate Disney Princess series. Aside from being an incredibly talented artist, Claire also has some skills in costume and prop making.

In terms of character designing, Claire puts so much thought and research into them as compared to most concept artists (Such as me, though I hope to change that in time…), aside from focusing on historically accurate yet creative costume designs, she also does numerous studies for their faces, hairstyles, and even their body postures, to see what best suits their written personality and properly distinguish them from one another, instead of simply giving them a a pretty face and body (Another issue of mine).

What more can I say? Claire is one of the best concept artists out there at the moment, I hope to break out of the fan-service-pin-up style for my concepts and create designs as unique and distinct as hers.

http://www.clairehummel.com
http://shoomlah.deviantart.com

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Seung Eun Kim

There are far too many things that I love about Seung Eun Kim, but I will just be focusing on his sick storyboarding skills for this post.

I have always looked to this man's works when I needed references in storyboarding for my film or animation projects, and no matter how many times I see them, I am always blown away by how unbelievably detailed they are. 

His storyboards are also considerably easy to follow (I find that to be an issue for when others need to read my storyboard before a film shooting). Humorous as it may be, his storyboards tend to be a lot more detailed than the finished product (Or maybe that's not so surprising since the art style of 2D animations tend to be simplified for most cases…).

Someday I hope I can draw crazy perspectives, dynamic camera shots and amazing action scenes like him, to reach that amazing level of visionary that he is so blessed with…

http://kse332.deviantart.com

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Morgan Yon

Morgan Yon is a freelance concept artist and illustrator from France who works in the game and film industry. He has created various concept art for clients including The Movie Picture Company, Ubisoft and Darkworks. Notable projects he has been involved in are Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Heavy Rain.

I really love Morgan's monochromatic pieces, especially since they are so effective in bringing out the ambience of a certain scene. I especially love the silhouette-styled concepts he did for Heavy Rain (I don't normally see such a style used for concept art), they are still incredibly detailed despite the lack of shading, and give off this Sin City vibe.

Aside from how incredibly detailed his works are, I also find his usage of brushes to be outstanding, at times his works resemble graphite drawings or acrylic paintings to me than digital paintings.

I would absolutely love to reach this level of detail for my concept designs in the future.

http://morgan-yon.com/

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Who am I?

Why did you choose to study in this programme?

• To pick up on some valuable animating skills.
• To further improve my character design and storytelling.
• I considered furthering my studies in Illustration after graduating from my previous art school, but I felt that I could do the same by taking Animation. After much consideration, I felt that this programme would benefit me even more!
• To take a scary if not exciting journey away from home and experience a different learning environment (Sorry for the cheesiness there), it was also time to show that I could be independent and that I could be trusted to be on my own...
• To use these skills to help out my family and friends the best I can when they require a professional designer for their projects (Aside from my own projects of course).

What do you want to learn during your time in the programme?

• As many animation techniques as I can possibly can.
• To prepare myself when it is time to go into that very area for work.
• To pick up on practices that are presently being used in the gaming industry.
• Professionalism and confidence.
• How culturally different the entertainment industry will expectantly be here as compared to Singapore (This is considerably important research).

What skills do you think are your strengths?

• I am considerably determined, enthusiastic and passionate about my area of interest, thank you very much.
• I absolutely enjoy writing stories and creating concepts for characters, settings, etc. I also enjoy working on storybook illustrations and graphic novels during my free time.
• I have a really, really wide range of interests that really helps me out when it comes to creating stories and designing things, I also enjoy properly researching into things.
• I do not allow personal feelings to get in the way when I am required to work with someone in completing a task (Internship experience here).
• I have been known to make people laugh a lot with my randomness (That is when I actually allow myself to chill), and when I am happy, it is pretty infectious! (It always does my heart good when I am able to cheer up anyone who is down, such as my driving instructor)

What are the things that you want to improve on?

• I honestly feel that I need to calm down at times and not worry and panic so much, even when I am on track, I still get fearful of suddenly falling behind.
• To be even more accepting of critiques, no matter how harsh they can get, because they will help me in the end in bettering my work and myself.
• Scriptwriting, there is always time to further improve on your writing.
• I need to draw more original works outside of college, fan art has taken complete control of my life for years now.
• I would definitely like to improve more on my drawing skills and experiment with more mediums and styles.

What ways will you use to evaluate your progress?

• Getting any form of critiques from my peers and lecturers will always be appreciated.
• I will continue posting my works on other sites in hopes of getting some much needed feedback from them too.
• I might pen down some of my thoughts whenever I feel bothered and write down a hypothesis to go with it.
• To study other people's works (Be it my peers or just people who are studying in the same area as me) and note down on what I should improve on when it comes to m work (Pretty much self-critiquing).
• I have to just remind myself that I am doing fine and mellow out before I burn myself out, some meditation might help, and maybe a couple of proper breaks.

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Social Media

In this day and age it only makes sense to find ways to connect and keep in contact with people that are related to your area of work, it was only recently however that I was made to create a Twitter account for myself. I am still a little confused about how it works at the moment, especially when there will be hordes and hordes of messages that will perhaps constantly update nearly every half an hour or less, unless I remain on my toes in checking consistently,  though then again I am sure not everything is of the utmost importance.

While I do follow various artists, studios and companies through Deviantart, Facebook and Tumblr, I had never really considered Twitter before. It is of course useful as expected, seeing that you can find out about jobs and competitions on there, as well as have a chance to connect with various well-known artists, illustrators, animators and so on so forth.

A few notable ones that I have followed upon creating my account are Lauren Faust, Craig McCracken, Jenny Lerew, Johane Matte and Katie Shanahan, most of them are storyboard artists which is an area that I am especially interested in. I also of course followed a number of animation and video game studios.