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What does a concept artist do, exacly?
Hi Kienan!
I have recently been heavily considering becoming a concept artist. I'm currently about to graduate from high school and as I'm about to go to collage I'd like to be sure that what I am choosing is right for me. So, I was just wondering what a concept artist does more precisely. Ofcourse I'm aware that a concept artist has the primary task of bringing forth ideas and visualizing them. But what does the average day look like? I'm just curious as to what you get paid to do, and how the whole conceptart process works, and is there a diffrence if you decide to freelance?
TL;DR: Would you mind running through the daily life of a concept artist? (From your perspective ofcourse)
Thanks for all the great videos, I've been progressing so much faster with my art since I found your channel. Keep it up!:)




Great question, answered on Today's question catapults: https://youtu.be/IWnkLoKIhlk?t=19m50s
Every company is going to have a different idea of what their concept artists do. Also, what you may consider a concept artist position might be called something different by a company, or for a more specific role, so always read the job descriptions for all artist positions at a company. For Riot, and a lot of other companies, a concept artist is going to do a lot of character sheets like what Kienan showed with the Taric VU video. Some companies will have stricter formats for producing concepts, others will be more lenient as long as the ideas come across clearly enough for the next stage of development (such as pre-production concept art positions for movies).
Generally a concept artist needs a strong grasp on principles of art so they can quickly and efficiently bring ideas to visual life. Usually, high rendering skills are not a requirement, so long as the image is clear and concise.
Some smaller companies have their concept artists wear many hats to fill in more of a production pipeline; Three Rings had a very small team for Spiral Knights in the beginning, and a single person (like Ian McConville) might have to work on concepting creatures one day, animating the next day, splash art the next...