Naomi theory: concept art

To make the fantastical believable, you have to know how to bend the rules. Proportions, perspective and other such are easy to get wrong, but within a fantasy scenario it can be manipulated and still look right.

Concept art covers many things, basically a visualisation for that that doesn’t already exist. It can be used to visualise fantasy games, movie sets, architectural developments, and character design, Vehicle etc. But every area has to be believable, so an advanced knowledge of say mechanics is needed for car design, other wise it just wont work!

Daryl Mandryk has worked on Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor Concept Art

He’s has also worked on video game titles such as Prototype 2, Guardians of Middle-earth, Need for Speed: Underground 2 and Turok.

He’s been in the entertainment industry for over 10 years, starting off as a 3D modeler and texture artist, and then moving onto being a full time concept artist, working with EA and Disney Interactive. He then became a freelance artist in 2010. His list of clients includes Blur Studios, EA, Dark Horse comics, Lucasfilm, and Imagine FX magazine plus many more.

‘He currently lives in Vancouver, Canada, where he is constantly drawing, painting, and drinking coffee’ [1]

See more at: (http://slixart.com/artists/12/daryl-mandryk/#sthash.EZ48Qomx.dpuf)"

Character design with variant in outfit

A frame from the finished website

Process

He seems to use a lot of different techniques to flesh out his characters - one of which is doing some rough sketches and starting digitally with a silhouette, from which he'll use as a mask in Photoshop. From there he adds the structure of armour and refines the shape - He's constantly playing and nothing is set in stone. As he continues drawing it, the story of the character develops too and their purpose. Towards the end he uses a lot of adjustment layers. Character sketches take anything from a few hours to a couple of days for a more finalised piece. [2]

In concept art, lighting plays a great role in the atmosphere and feeling of the piece, and is often the first thing that is applied - light and dark areas. This technique recalls the process like those of the romanticist, and such artist as Caspar David Friedrich. Also, the method of digital painting is similar to working with oil paint, in the way it can be moved and altered.

Casper’s landscape work often features craggy rocks and hazy clouds - things that prove atmospheric for concept art and environmental sketches. He often diminishes the human presence in his paintings, and creates an awe for nature. He exaggerates the form of nature, creating an unearthly scene, much like the huge landscape ‘constructions’ for games and films.

Greifswald in moonlight

Morning 1821

Daryl

Here you can see the obvious similarities within the atmospheric climate and use of depth.

Here are black and white thumbnails to show the lighting and perspective. Thumbnails may be asked to be done within the hour when working for a company. They can be done quickly by copying and pasting elements and altering them through rotation and placement.

We were set our own task in class to create characters with the hours from old masters paintings. I used Rubens painting, The Battle of Anghiari (1505) as inspiration. I found it easy to do stereotypical poses and characterisations as it saved time and communicated the role efficiently.