Planning Ahead - The Way of the Concept Artist

Time to repeat the mantra: Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance. For some time now I have always been told to plan my approach before tackling any task or assignment, be it an essay or an art project. The planning procedure is often taxing and may seem to be counter-productive especially if one spends too much time doing so without producing a good final product. Should anyone find themselves to be in that kind of situation then they are doing it wrong. It takes good planning to get good results and one has to be wary of what they're doing to ensure that they don't use all of their time working on one thing and then ignoring others.

Recently I read an essay/tutorial by an concept artist known as Merekat, where she explains all the processes and procedures she goes through to produce a final concept drawing. As the opening paragraph may suggest the majority of the essay is made up of the planning process, emphasising the importance of good planning. The work of professional concept artist will always be the result of a evolving series of ideas, all quickly drawn out and repeatedly edited and redone to produce more ideas. The new ideas then can be analysed and then selected for particular features such as composition and arrangement or what objects to include and reject from the scene.  This is one of the many things that currently separates me and a whole bunch of art students from the professionals.

Another important part of the planning is the use of references. I have never considered producing a mood board before but now I'm beginning to see how useful and potentially important it is when it comes to producing ideas. At my course I am encouraged to go out to find my references as opposed to using the internet to search them up. I wholeheartedly agree with this notion as experiencing something something up close is far more meaningful than it is to look at them through a backlit screen. "Can't find what you're looking for? Search harder then!" I am sometimes told.

"Yes, I'm well aware no one taught you. No one taught me. I didn't 'get it' until after college,
so I understand it takes time and sometimes it takes a certain mindset in order to fully apply the concepts."

Having read the essay in it's entirety I am now attempting to follow suit and hopefully develop the mindset needed to become a good concept artist. Practising to constantly and consistently produce ideas through a series of sketches sounds like a hassle but hopefully this will train the ol' noggin and hands to adapt. So to conclude the planning process is pretty damn important. Do it right and you will save yourself alot time and effort and produce better finals.