Avoid Concept Art x_x

Art Discipline is a monthly drop of thoughts, processes, and behind-the-scenes from the artist behind OlliOlli World (BAFTA-nominated). Dive into character design, world building, and the weird joys of making art. Stay weird.

Avoiding Concept Art

As an artist, you’ve probably had moments where you don’t know what the hell you’re doing. You’re stuck, questioning every move, feeling like if your next piece doesn’t hit, you’re doomed.

Most of us end up doing what we think is expected. We make stuff that fits a certain studio, a certain job title, or a certain box.

But I will tell you otherwise:

Want to be a concept artist? Avoid concept art. Avoid games.

This affects how we approach our creative journey and how we spend our time creating. We tend to overthink this process of starting a new thing based on many ideas and external factors. But these are critical moments when you have many possibilities. It doesn’t matter if it “fails.” Action builds momentum. It trains your creative instinct.

Let me tell you about a small project, one of those that without any expectations changed a whole career.

I’ve talked about taking risks before. This time, I want to show you what that actually looked like and how one weird little detour got me into the entertainment industry.

Any action compounds over time, and this one made a huge difference.

Portfolio Graveyard

Like many of you, I spent a lot of time building a portfolio around what I thought concept art was supposed to look like. I was learning to paint, draw traditionally, and mess around with basic 3D blockouts, trying to hit all the right marks.

I actually enjoyed making these pieces. But the more I looked around, the more I realized what really pulled me in was the animation industry. Specifically the stylization, the simplification, the clarity. Art could be cool and simple, straight to the point of telling a story or sharing an idea in a simple (not easy) way.

After months of sending my portfolio out there and hearing crickets, I decided to make a small project for my portfolio based on what I liked. Not what I thought studios needed. No one was hiring me so f*ck it, at least I could have some fun while sinking in my art career.

That’s when I decided to make a project just for myself. No rules. No expectations. Not what I thought studios wanted, just what I wanted to see. A series of illustrations telling a story visually.

I didn’t overthink this, I designed the characters and went for the frames where I designed the environments also as an excuse to design some strange places with architecture I liked and exploring different color palettes.

In the next drop I will share, the project I’ve been refering to, titled: Meaningless Adventure.

(There’re some size limitations of email, and I want to share the whole thing ._.)

What about Concept Art?

Now you might be thinking: “What does any of this have to do with concept art?”

The important aspect of this project is that shows my way of thinking about funny and silly art while showing my thought process designing from scratch and using visual storytelling.

Thanks mostly to this project I started gaining visibility and work inquiries. Doesn’t mean it was a lottery ticket. I had been working and sharing my stuff for years. But this was the one that clicked with people. One of those “years to become an overnight success” situations.

I thought it was a silly project just for fun and that it wouldn’t serve as something in my portfolio. Turned to be all the way around.

Do what you love and try to improve with it.

I threw it online without expectations, and it caught fire (in my small scale). Visibility grew. A few months later, I started getting real opportunities:

Valorant (Riot Games), Everdale (Supercell), Hourglass Moonland (Animated show), etc.

I’ll go deeper into those projects in future drops. Some were wins, some were flops, but most were visually and creatively connected to Meaningless Adventure.

Should you actually avoid the whole concept art vibe?

Not really. But I do think you should look beyond the game industry for inspiration.

Because this personal project is part of what led me to make the art for OlliOlli World. A whole game in my own art style.

Part of luck and good timing and part of me making the decision to do something I purely liked and I put out there not caring if it helped my “concept artist portfolio”.

I don’t give a crap about what technically makes a good concept art portfolio.
You have to show your taste, your skills, and your ideas.
That’s what makes a good concept artist.

We’ll talk more about skills and technical stuff in future drops.

But for now, tell stories. Don’t just design things for the sake of designing.
We all want to see what you’ve got to tell.

Thanks for reading and see you in the next drop to see Meaningless Adventure.

Art Discipline is an independently-run newsletter. If you’ve enjoyed it, consider sharing it with others.

Share this issue

Character Design Tutorial and Free Brushes here!