Concept art is a great way to feel your way into a story. I’ve been experimenting with different styles recently, mainly as a way of growing into the skin of some tales in the Echoes series, featuring Hunter and Bain. In Gallery of Undead the main characters find their way into a listing hulk and encounter a ghoulish gallery of undead creatures.
I used to paint primarily with watercolours and, separately, illustrate using pen and ink. It seems so old-fashioned now; digital art is much more flexible. However, I find it hard to start from scratch on screen and prefer to pencil sketch first, then render on screen. I’m close to finding a style I’m happy with, by formulating a clear idea, using found objects and photos for textures, scanning in a pencil sketch then building the image on screen.
I’ve abandoned a rough texture paintbrush style and found that layering with a wet edged digital brush (adapted to work in a similar way to my old watercolour days) is beginning to create the sort of art that might be work for the dark fantasy and science fiction I’m writing at the moment.
So, here’s another infographic with a series of steps to show how this piece of digital concept art was created.
Writing Tips
- From The Writer’s House, a useful article on structuring a novel, here.
- From spiritauthors.com, some great advice for all self-publishers, here.
And some other posts on this site you might be interested in:
- Writer’s Journal: The Struggle to Write
- Writer’s Journal: The Time vs equality Equation.
- Writer’s Journal: Character Sketches 01
- Other writing links in These Fantastic Worlds can be found here.
Do you have other ways of creating the mood for your stories? I’d be interested in your comments.