Games Design - Concept Art

Concept art is a MASSIVE part of the games design process I wish I was good at it and can produce some amazing pieces of work. I absolutely love concept art to be honest. I have a subscription to a monthly magazine about concept art called Imagine FX and every issue is just filled with great work. But back to the main point! Art! Concept art is what game developers will look at and work around for creating characters, levels, in-game objects, vehicles and many other parts of a game. It can vary from small sketches to a fully fledged work of art.

A concept artist's job is to bring the what is in the imagination onto paper and show it to the developers so that the next phase of the game can begin. Artist's wont just make a few sketches of a character and then move on. They will make possibly make 10-15 sketches and drawings of a character because they will take the first drawing to the developer and get feedback and refine it and this process will happen many more times before they come up with the final image.

The image that is above is a piece of art from Guild Wars 2. I cannot put into words how much I love that piece of work. I really can't. I wish that I could draw and paint to that level of skill although I know that it's nigh impossible :c

It is designs like this that will be used for the game and will be taken by the animators, created and rendered and then put into the game. All of this spawns from the image that is given to them by the artist.

Concept art comes in different styles and can vary from landscapes to vehicles to guns to characters to in-game paraphernalia. An artist that I follow on youtube is a guy called Feng Zhu. His work is just fantastic and covers anything from characters to level design. He has a unique style that I really enjoy and the final piece of work really looks spectacular and is something that I'd strive for if I could draw to that standard of work. His work is what I would love to be able to take inspiration from and be able to draw in a similar style. 

Below is just a snapshot of Feng Zhu's work.....its god damn beautiful.