10 steps on how to become a concept artist.

I often get mail, on the best way to become a concept artist, so here are the top 10 steps towards becoming a concept artist.

1. Practice your craft 5 hours a day to 12 hours a day.

Remember, practicing concept artists, draw 8 to 14 hours a day.  You need to put the hours and practice in, in order to retain a spot on the curve.  I would say 5 hours is light.  If you think that is a lot, then concept art may not be for you.

2. Treat every opportunity as a job interview.

Freelancing is pretty common for concept artists.  Every job is an interview for the next.  Always treat it so.  Treat co-workers and clients well.  Find the professional moment in each job however large, or small.

3. Seek and enjoy feedback from people better than you.

Some artists hate changing stuff..  I never understood that.  Feedback, and change is an opportunity to make the image or design better.  The earlier you see things this way, the better off you will be.  Do not be a smarmy egotistical kook.. it will not take long for rumors to spread about your vast greatness, and your career will suffer for it in the long run.

4. Get an education, formal or informal, from someone in the field.

There are a lot of educations to get out there... Get a good one.  Get one from a person who has actually done the work you are looking to do.  Accept no less.  Do well, and inevitably that person will introduce you to a person who can help you along after you are done.  This does not have to be an expensive university.  I have had interns that have done extremely well, with minimal education.  They got their education on the job, and treated every moment as a learning moment.

5. Work on what intrinsically motivates you.

Find what you love and work towards that.  If you are not intrinsically motivated you will fail as an concept artist.  Ideas and design are moments that occupy our minds all day and all night.  If your task leaves you blank as soon as you leave your desk, it will never be enough motivation to move you towards an outstanding result.

6. Prioritize quality over money.

If one job pays little, but is awesome content, take that job.  Getting better at your craft is value added to your career.  This added value is way more important over the years than a minor bump in pay.

7. Return better value than you are paid.

Always try to give more than what is asked.  The most valuable artist is the artist that returns the most frequently.  They are also the artist who is exposed to the most opportunity and opportunity will free you to seek projects that you will love.

8. Be consistent and reliable.

A lot of artists can't even work 9-5 consistently.. Much less on demand on two or three projects all night for a week.  Be consistent, don't over stretch, but always deliver.  Your consistency will keep your quality high and high quality pays off towards more opportunity again.

9. Network.

Prepare to save email, and contacts.  Each contact is another source for an opportunity.  Not that you need to be a salesperson, but you do need to be able to send someone an image, if you think it may inspire them to have you contribute on a project.

10. Love what you do.

Don't do concept art for the fame, credit, or the money.. Do it because you have to design and draw. Do it because it's the best thing you can think of to do, and you would do it for free anyway.  If this is true, you will lead an amazing and fulfilling career.

There you go!

Battle SF

I am about to watch Battle LA on iTunes..  It got me thinking, what would Battle SF look like.  Here is an idea.

Update on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 11:32AM by RobertDBrown

Gotta say, I really enjoyed Battle LA..  The production design was up my alley, and the story was engaging enough to keep me very entertained.  ..The sound design was stunning too.  I might have to buy this one.

Futuristic Back Alley Concept Art set design.

This Alley was designed to fit in a practical location.  The direction was to add elements to help sell a 2075 time line, so I added automated trash dumpers, conduit, security doors, and post-present graffiti elements.

Futuristic Warehouse

A concept art piece of a futuristic Warehouse and testing facility for cars.  This interior was designed for Hyundai's Genesis commercials.  The design is inspired by a sound stage, but also needed to match practical lighting that was done to the practical shot. In the final shot, a car was comped in where you can see the shadow on the ground for it.  Additionally, practical shots of computer monitor stations were comped in.

Speed paint, sci fi city block, dystopia.

Web bots love this image I speed painted of sci-fi. It's mostly texture tweaks and rough painting mixed with a few tricks.  Not terribly worked out as a design, but catchy as a thumbnail.  This sketch consistently floats to the top of search engines. Before I changed my site it was always third or fourth row. I'm nuts for moving it, as now it dropped off, but it will be fun to see if it rises back up.

Website update.

Time to update!

Oh the debate between spiffy hotness, or practical coolness...  Being in the business of selling concepts, I feel the supreme need to sell one here on the page.  Ha, but then again, I also think usability and overall approachability is paramount..  I'm using Squarespace because I can get a 'little' of both.. and by little, I mean not so much on spiffy hotness, haha..  ..but the ability to offer live twitter feeds, client login, and file upload/download is just too attractive. 

Also, being able to drop a few tips and tricks into a blog will be a very nice ability to have.

Best,

R