[MarshallX]

What im looking for in this post, is some help on concept art, I have been trying to do line drawings that I can import into my computer and airbrush, but they always turn out to look too realistic. I have a Manga drawing book but those are too comicy, any tips on drawing line art to look "cool" if you know what I mean by that, like Joe Madureira's drawings, they look so dynamic, how to I get that kind of effect?

[Novacaptain]

I don't really see the problem with realistic concept art. Much of the concept art created for Disney's Tarzan, for example, is very realistic indeed - and that's still "just" a cartoon animation (simplified characters and objects).
There is a lot of cartoony stuff too.

The concept artwork itself is, in my view, not as important as the idea behind it. To express an idea well you need detailed artwork but it's secondary to the proper concept that you wish to illustrate...

I'm no concept artist so I don't really know how much the actual production (style, technique, process) of the artwork weighs in the evaluation of "Good concept art".

[tek9z]

personally I think your first concept designs should emphazise on 'atmosphere'
and the overall 'feel' of the project.
That's why it's better to do complete images
with characters and backgrounds first..
you want to sell a full rendered world
(ofcourse you still need to design your
main characters)
If the story is quit dramatic, don't hesitate to go realistic
and don't be afraid of not getting everything perfect. It's 'only' concept-
people after you will try and improve it
or put it in the chosen style..

[nova]

Novacaptain said it pretty well. Concept art is all about communicating and describing, so whatever way communicates and you like the best is the way to go.

I'm not exactly sure how to answer your question, but I'll give it a shot.

Concept art in general isn't too dynamic, unless you're talking about some designs themselves. It's true that an art director may ask you to draw a front, side, and perspective view and then draw the design in action, like spaceships in battle, and you can make it dynamic.

Anyway though.. it seems to me you're asking more about technique. Joe Mad's stuff is usually inked, where an artist goes over the pencil drawings with ink, and then hands them to a colorist to color them. Feng Zhu's concept desgns are dynamic, i think and are some of the coolest looking out there. His site is www.artbyfeng.com and there's a technique section here: http://www.artbyfeng.com/studio.htm Your question isn't easy to answer, and I'm not sure exactly what you're asking. I guess a lot of it has to do with style with technique and design style, but to make something look 'cool', you should have a solid design and a good line quality. Here's another link about shapes and stuff : http://pub51.ezboard.com/fconceptualdesignfrm1.showMessage?topicID=1041.topic

Another way to make stuff look better than it does is working with line widths. You draw a thicker line around something that is in the foregound, or over another shape. Like if you were outlining an arm/hand hanging down in the side view of a person, you'd make the details of the hand like fingers held next to each other.. the inner shapes of the hand drawn in thin lines, and draw a thicker line around the entire hand and arm. This looks cool and describes what's going on better.

Anyway, i've talked too much.. I hope some of this makes sense

[ December 30, 2001: Message edited by: Nova ]

[dave_baer]

Well, one good method of learning a technique that impresses you is to trace another artists' drawings. Now, this isn't to say straight up copy their style, but by tracing their images, you will get the feel of how they lay their lines and forms.

For example, take a MAD drawing and trace it a few times. I mean trace it once, start again, trace it again and again and again. Then, once you have traced it enough times and have the feel of its form, place it next to you and try to draw it freehand. Do this until you have something similar to the original. Again, do this a few times to familiarize yourself with the task of drawing forms and figures on your own. Then, once you have that method down enough, get rid of the drawing entirely and draw it from memory. After drawing and redrawing it enough times beforehand you should have no problems drawing it from memory, unless you are simply not artisticly inclined at all. =)

A good majority of comic artists will tell you they at first copied their favorite artists style by copying pages of comic books or covers to learn how to draw comics. Then took what they learned from the copying and developed their own styles, which is the key to becoming a well known artist, developing style. As you can tell the differences between the old DC comic style compared to say McFarlane. Developing style and technique is the key.

What's the moral of this whole thing?... PRACTICE.