4 Ways to Improve your Concept Art Design Skills

Design skills are often the thing which attracts professional work. And your ability to create art which is functional and useful is one of the best ways to stay employed.

But how to improve those design skills is another conversation all together.

It’s easy to search for how to do ‘concept art’ and find a lot of great information. But much of the stuff out there is based around specific techniques or processes. Not about design itself.

There is a lot of information out there on how to use cutting edge tools and techniques (Zbrush, Blender, 3D Coat, Octane, VR Sculpting) The list goes on and is ever evolving.

But these will change over time. The best way to understand why tools and techniques are used is to understand the needs of your project… to understand why there needs to be concept art or design in the first place.

If you build your base design skills and understanding then you can adapt to whatever tools come along (if you want). Because the base foundational design techniques don’t actually change that much. It’s still about solving problems and being useful.

There are 4 main areas of design which I have found it useful to separate… as it helped me to work on them in isolation and not get stuff mixed up.

The First is - Design Ethos or Theory

The Second is - Research

The Third is - Technique and Process

The Fourth is - Industry Requirements

Once I got these ideas straight in my head it became a lot easier to work on my design skills without getting sidetracked!

Happy Drawing!

Tim Mcburnie

[sailorsue]

This was extremely helpful. Thank you so much for explaining it this well!

[DrawingFromImagination]

Something I often see underrated in the learning process is the translation step of converting the knowledge into a form that is useful for you. I'd argue it isn't just design, but every form of knowledge that benefits an observation from a novel (and not directly useful) angle. The work to transform that knowledge in my experience enhances both memory (the concepts stick easier) and creativity (How you apply the information is something you yourself come to). Great video!

[SketchPLAY]

More design talks would be awesome. Thank you!

[ImperiusRex]

Thanks for the great insight and advice as usual. Your perspective is always greatly appreciated.

[Obhin]

This is amazing, Tim. I can't thank you enough for your fantastic videos :) I've been in the industry for about 7 years now, but I still have a lot to learn.

[Notanotherninja]

This video is really great! One thing that pops to mind, you mention that research is one of your strengths, and while its very much tailored to the individual, it’d really cool to get an even deeper dive into how you approach the research component of concept art; some sort of generalised framework or a sequence of steps in order that you follow, or the sorts of questions you’re asking and where you’re looking for answers.

I know you mention that blindly following process can be counterproductive, but in my case, disorganisation and inertia is a bigger problem! When it comes to research I get overwhelmed and don’t know where to start or to look. Grabbing a whole bunch of refs from pinterest or google images offers the path of least resistance but it feels like ‘fast food’, rather than solid research. Having a sort of general workflow for approaching research, that I can further adapt and change to my needs would be really helpful!

[pantheraleo]

Seven is probably the best experience I’ve had at the pics, still one of my favourite films. Also, dusk til dawn, as the audience were bonkers and really got into it

[Nohzana]

I never really considered this points when it comes to working with the design/concept industry, so this video is really awesome to see, and getting to understand how everything works depending of what you wanna work with its an important step, it would be nice to see more videos about it :)
Thank you for making this, its really helpful

[dakotagarcia]

Do you believe it’s best to create work that has depth and expresses a personal message or just create cool looking design?

[jhnnnde]

and once you learn all that. AI will take over majority of concept art jobs in the industry :(