Categories for Concept and Production Art

When deciding which area to study and develop your portfolio consider your strengths.
Are you good at ...
Environments or Characters or Props (assets)?
Action or Portraits?
3d or 2D?
Cute or SciFi?

Concept Art Categories

3D and Special Effects - Film and Advertising Concepts
3D Video Game Concepts
3D Animation Concepts

2D Video Games Concepts
2D Animation Concepts
Theme Park Attraction Concepts

Toy Design  Concepts -hard and soft goods

Costume Design  Concepts
Pitches for all of the above

Production Art Categories
Book Cover Art
2D Video Games (backgrounds and characters)
Board and Card Game Art
2D Video Games- asset creation

2D Animation- asset creation

Matte Painting for games, films and theme parks

Miniatures for film sets

Retail Merchandise Art (greeting cards, gifts, etc)

The differences between concept and production art:
Concept art is a form of illustration where the main goal is to convey a visual representation of a design, idea, and/or mood for use in movies, video games, animation, or comic books before it is put into the final product. Concept art is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design. -source Wikipedia
Concept art is not usually fully rendered.


Production Artists will take the idea that the concept artist created and flesh it out technically- they will render the images, create the environments, characters, assets that were developed by the concept artist. These images will be seen in the final product. They will often work under the direction of concept artist or Art Director. Production art is fully rendered for final display.


A Concept Artist Job Description:

Job details

source: Juju  

Posting Job Title	Senior Artist, Concept
TimeWarner Division	Warner Bros. Entertainment Group
WB Business Unit	WB Games
Industry	Film Production and Distribution
Location	United States - Washington - Kirkland
Requisition #	113768BR
Position Type	Full Time
Posting Job Description	SUMMARY OF POSITION Monolith Productions, a division of WB Games Inc., seeks a Senior Concept Artist to be responsible for generating a variety of images to clarify the artistic vision of a given project. This artist will work closely with the Art Directors and leads in order to assist in the development of the project and as an advocate for the art quality of the game. The Senior Concept Artist will create sketches and digital paintings of environments and characters. Senior Concept Artists help define the artistic vision for websites and marketing materials. JOB RESPONSIBILITIES Fully realized inspirational paintings for the team and marketing. Environmental studies, mood pieces and screen paintovers. Sketches of props and individual environmental elements. Character sketches and creature studies. Detailed drawings of weapons and armor. Communicate with production artists to help clarify concepts in order to achieve milestone objectives. Participates in meetings to share personal ideas. JOB REQUIREMENTS BA in art or related field or equivalent experience. 5-8 years working as an Artist, Concept Artist or Illustrator. Previous game console development a plus. Strong portfolio demonstrating ideation as well as high quality images of character art. Experience with rapid-iteration of drawings and paintings suggesting atmosphere, lighting and form. Interest in costume design. Strong understanding of anatomy. Creative problem solver. Excellent communication, interpersonal and organizational skills. Outstanding traditional art skills. Ability to work well under pressure and deadlines. Passionate about video games. Must be proficient with 2D applications such as Photoshop, Painter, etc. Understanding of modern real-time 3d engines. Self-motivated.