4 Ways to Improve your Concept Art Design Skills

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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

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