10 things you can do to get started to become a concept artist

01. Sketch book- If you don’t already have one, you NEED to buy one and keep it with you. If you’re in still high school, start drawing things from life…NOW. Don’t just copy what you see, but see what you are drawing. 

02. Ask question- Why does the chair look the way it does? What material is it made of? What does metal reflect the way it does…why is the shadow there? You get the point. Ask a lot of questions and try to answer them.. if you cant figure it out ..Google it!

03. See, don’t look- There s a different between looking and seeing. Seeing requires effort. Don’t just look around your surroundings, learn to see it.  See the patterns in the wood grain, study the way light reflect on objects, and make little mental notes. This helps train your eyes.

04.Build a reference library- This is very important if you have not started one. Make a folder and start collecting images on the web that interest you. Gradually grow this inventory of references. I organized the images into different categories like for example mechanic, organic, people, textures and so on.  Look over them from time to time. This will help you build a mental visual library. In order to create very cool design, you need to be familiar with a lot of things in this world. To do that, you need to keep stimulating your visual brain with new contents.

05.Start a book collection- I buy a lot of books. I don’t buy just any books. I am very selective with the kind of books that I buy. I buy visual books that cover on nature, technology, and history. I also get concept art books.

06. Follow your favorite artists- Seek out a couple of your favorite artists that are doing what you want you do and retrace their career path and find out what they did to get where they are. Learn from them. 

07.  Have a web presence- Start a blog,  sign up as a member in art forums…participate and be active.  cghub, concept art, cg society are some you to start from.

08. Build a concept art reference folder- You need to do this for two reasons. 1) For inspiration and 2) you need to know what the standard is out there, so you know how high you need to aim for if you want to compete. Make sure you organize the folder relative to its category. Ex: Creature, sci-fi environments, vehicles and props,

Characters, could be different theme and styles

09.  Learn Photoshop- There are lot of online resource and tutorial you can access if

you make the effort to seek them out. This is a must on your to do list!

10. Read, read and read!-  I like to read stuff from Wire and National Geographic, magazines. It is very important to stay up to date with what is happening in the world.  A concept artist need to be at the forefront of the latest developments. 


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