How to Get Better at Concept Art. Really.

The journey to becoming a professional creative comes with plenty of ups and downs, and creating art can honestly just feel really hard sometimes. It can take a lot of time and effort to see meaningful improvements—but thankfully there are tons of resources, processes, tricks and tools you can use to dramatically level-up your work in a short amount of time.

I've distilled years of successes and failures into a short video on how to learn effectively, and set yourself up for success; these skills are the things that really successful art students seem to have in common.

Spend a very chill 15 minutes to learn effective techniques for improving your Concept Art skills,
as a cool painting takes shape and let's chat about gaining them skills.

0:00 - Intro
1:07 - We Learn to do by Doing
3:09 - Consistency 2.0
6:56 - Perfect Imperfection
9:42 - Comfort Zone
12:06 - Support/Accountability
13:24 - Finished Painting/Wrap Up
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PAINT YOUR WORLD
Hardy Fowler is a professional Digital Painter with work seen in productions for Disney, Games Workshop and Neon District among many others.

Hardy's online academy, Digital Painting Studio, teaches the master-level skills, process and mindset he's learned from decades of experience as a professional digital artist.

CONNECT

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[cory]

It's taken me an embarrassingly long time to understand "art imitates life" and "make what you love" but until I actually learned it for myself after bashing my head against the wall for years it didn't truly stick. Now art is exciting again because I see an infinite expanse of inspiration and potential.

[tripplejaz]

In the same vein of embracing imperfection, I adopted a similar philosophy over time: "learn to fail privately"

I think it's really important to reclaim the ability to make ugly art and be a novice. The problem is a lot of artists think like content creators instead, but not every sketchbook is for the public. Make ugly drawings for yourself.

I don't have pretty sketchbooks anymore. They're mostly exercises, perspective and shape studies and anatomy breakdowns. Usually if I sketch it's on my iPad but pen and paper are for fundamentals.

[HalfWarrior]

I was on my art journey a few years ago and I was really improving; doing good … then (record scratch) I had a stroke; I was left handed before, but now my left arm is paralyzed; so now I’m right handed wether I like it or not. I’m trying to retrain myself to keep doing art but with my right hand. It’s not easy, but I refuse to quit. Great video BTW!

[BogRtM]

Excellent point about the importance of rest. One has to remember that as you practice, your body is building real, physical neural pathways, and just like building muscle, this process takes time. You need to give your body time to internalize all of these concepts!

[cr]

This is a nice detox from bad habits of thinking. The point you make on ‘painting for you’ has been the most debilitating struggle as I’ve always fallen into overthinking to the point that the idea of a ‘bad’ drawing is too intimidating - impostor syndrome has been the bane of my creativity as I try to learn from other artists but my mind then quickly turns it into comparing myself and, obviously, deciding I’m not good enough.

[Sandokqn]

There is a great old folklore saying about little habits that turn into great knowledge which leads to masterpieces (in any domain) and that is: "Drop by drop the sea is made".
Everything you said is true, especially in the beginning of the video with "learning by doing". I'm a true believer of that.
I'm so happy you keep going hard on the youtube videos. I love your art and teachings. Thank you again for your hard work and for this awesome video!

[KelseyRodriguez]

god that first point about revelations happening when you do the work, regardless of whether you went to university of studied art YouTube, is SO true. We learn the important lessons ourselves by doing the work. Thanks for the shoutout Hardy, I really appreciate it! Maybe we can collaborate sometime :)

[Squidcvmmm]

this is singlehandedly the best art advice I've ever heard. I feel really inspired now, thank you!!

[thunderhouse]

Your art and how you word your advice brings me to tears

[NickTerryArt]

So many pieces falling into place lately, I'm feeling more invigorated by art and learning than I have in a long time! Much love, Hardy!

[maxtheawesome]

The crazy thing about academic Art is that it's the only subject that requires you to be good at the subject to enter, and the only subject where a teacher won't teach you a thing. Being a messed up teen I could never get over this...

I didn't think I could be good all by myself, I felt I needed a teacher's direction to be good. Every time I scouted a college I asked "What will you teach me?" and every time the teachers would say something like "it's more hands off" "it's more self-taught" I thought it was so backwards. The answer to be good is already be good. It's a big reason why the unartistic call it "talent, " because that's how teachers treat it. It's infuriating. So I never did Art academically. I still wish I had an Art mentor, but I've not managed to get good enough to warrant it. Which is insane. Anything else works the opposite way. I still feel like I did as a teen, and so I never got good. I feel hopeless. The school I need requires me to be at the point I don't need teaching.

The amount of people who never became artists simply because nobody planted those seeds in them must be in the millions. It's not magic, it's a skill like any other. Such a messed up system to inspire the next generation of artists.

[artemisiou]

I learnt more from Youtube tutorials and studying from books than I ever learned from art school. I was a little bit ahead of my class so they were telling me stuff I already knew and was already applying to my art.

[LeonardoOliveira-yfxt]

(In advance i'd like to apologize about the length of this commentary) This video made me very thoughtful about my relationship with art, i consider myself as a beginner because i started only 2 years ago, and i improved a lot, i really grinded since i discovered the art world, i didn't like art classes very much when i was in school, i thought it was boring and pointless, but i liked to write things sometimes, create stories and worlds in my head, and when i graduated from high school i started to think what i wanted to do with my life, and i got really into story writing, then i wanted to do an animated movie or series about my characters and started to look at art on a different way. I was never presented to art in terms of production, and when i discovered that i just fell in love with the way the story is told through images, and, at that time i still didn't know what i wanted to be, so i hold on tight on art, because that was the only thing i loved that could become a profession, i didn't like to do anything else, so art kind of became an excuse to not to do other things and i decided to be the best i can be on art, and that's what moved me throughout this 2 years, i want to be a professional artist so i don't have to do something i don't like doing. And this can be very frustrating because i keep pushing myself to create something fast, and improve fast, so i can start make money and don't need to work on shitty jobs, but still art for me is very volatile, if i decrease the time i spend on art, to work with something else, i'm 95% sure i will stop thinking about and eventually i will quit art. I'm in a situation where, i know the things i have to do to make good art, but i don't have the practice time enough to do it fast, i keep taking all the long ways to do something, and i don't think i have the mindset yet to be a professional concept artist. I don't know, sorry about this HUGE ASS TEXT talking about my problems, but if anyone read this i would appreciate some advice.

[Hitezaruki]

The consitency-rest part was so spot on, Hardy! I finally learnt that after a bad time.

Last year I was overwhemmed with so many jobs (a few concept art related but others don't) that I didn't have any kind of rest for several months.
I didn't have time to practice for myself, rest or unplug, do some hobby, etc.
I ended up totally burned out, being anxious, losing my self-confidence and I wasn't enjoying drawing or designing anymore at all.

This year I quit some jobs to just focus in just one, but especially to focus on me, in my practice, recover my energy, the love for drawing and actually have a good rest!!
What I have learn this few months, is that consistency also helps you in your confidence and taking weekend breaks helps you to refresh your mind and refuel energy, and in a way I don't know how to explain helps you to have that "revelations"... I would say I feel I'm improving more in these months than in the last year.

So yeah, consistency is important not only in our work and training but also in your rest, talk with friends or other people, and other activities besides art.

Thanks for this video Hardy!

[spade]

I was very impressed by the sentence ‘There is no perfection in art’. The other sentences too. Thank you very much for recording this video.

[BVK.]

I'm too worried about the whole "A.I Art" thing, and forgot that art isn't art without humans being involved.

Such a right timing, thanks to the recommendation.

[yourpersonalrobotwaifu]

I feel like I got a lot of determination in me after your video.
You're a great teacher.

[wojoworks]

2:30 this is so true, you really need to figure something out for yourself to truly understand it, this applies to every topic and skill

[marcus_ohreallyus]

I went to art school, and I've been working professionally for about 25 years. When I look back, I don't think I needed art school...as I think most artists don't. Especially today with so much access to information easily. If you have the ability to make art that people will respond to, you don't need a school. And today, you don't really need a boss. You can make your own job. Not to minimize how hard that can be, but its more possible than ever.

[yyg]

I love that we can not only learn from your voiceover, but also from the beautiful paint through.