educational

Are you ready to begin your career as a concept artist in the video game industry but don't know where to start?

The Big Bad World of Concept Art for Video Games: How to Start Your Career as a Concept Artist is book two in the Big Bad series, delving deeper into the subjects and topics explored previously in An Insider's Guide for Students. Going beyond the amateur level, this guide prepares the upcoming professional, or any other artist, for a future in the entertainment industry. Whether you are a graduating student joining the workforce, a young professional who has just broken into the job market, or even an existing professional frustrated with your current situation, receive help figuring out what comes next for a fulfilling career.

Eliott Lilly is a highly sought-after concept artist with over a decade of experience in the video game industry. He has worked for such prominent game companies as id Software, Treyarch, and Activision. He has contributed to several popular franchises, including Rage, Doom, and Call of Duty. Also an educator, Eliott teaches introductory concept art classes to university students.

With his firsthand knowledge of the ins and outs of the video game industry, Eliott Lilly is an exceptional guide who can help prepare you for the rewarding journey toward realizing your ambitions.

The Silver Way: Techniques, Tips and Tutorials for Effective Character Design by Stephen Silver offers invaluable instruction from one of best teachers in the industry. Whether you’re a professional artist interested in improving your drawing skills, or an aspiring designer fresh out of high school looking to add to your portfolio, The Silver Way will help you build your confidence and strengthen your work in order to successfully design characters for any project, in any style. Chockfull of helpful—and entertaining!—drawing techniques and easy-to-follow tutorials developed through his decades of experience as an artist on popular animated shows (Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, The Fairly OddParents) and as the owner of Silver Drawing Academy, The Silver Way is the kind of educational art book you’ll revisit again and again for guidance, encouragement, and inspiration.

Perspective is a discipline often set aside when it comes to general art study, though it is essential to master in order to produce any piece of art that is and feels realistic. As intimidating as perspective may seem to aspiring artists, celebrated artist and author Marcos Mateu-Mestre takes the mystery out of understanding and applying it correctly with his highly anticipated two-volume collection, Framed Perspective.

In FramedPerspective, Vol. 1: Technical Drawing for Visual Storytelling, Mateu-Mestre equips artists with the technical knowledge needed to produce successful visual storytelling–related drawings: from understanding the basics of the space around us and how we perceive it, to more sophisticated endeavors such as creating entire environments that are believable.

Sure to be one of the most popular books in your art library, thanks to Mateu-Mestre’s thorough step-by-step explanations and awe-inspiring illustrations, Framed Perspective, Vol. 1 will train you to enjoy every curve and slope you see in the world and, more importantly, translate that vision into art with a solid comprehension of depth and proportion—in short, accuracy. Your perspective will never be the same!

Building on the foundation established with Framed Perspective, Vol. 1: Technical Drawing for Visual Storytelling, artist and best-selling author Marcos Mateu-Mestre delves deeper into particular elements that can make or break an illustration with Framed Perspective, Vol. 2: Technical Drawing for Shadows, Volume, and Characters.

Here he covers such challenging tasks as projecting shadows in proper perspective on various environments and depicting characters in perspective set in different situations—and makes them less daunting. You will also learn how to effectively observe a model or object in order to extract just the right amount of information to then translate it into an impactful graphic and visual image, the goal of every visual storyteller.

Only in Framed Perspective, Vol. 2, will you find Mateu-Mestre’s imaginative scenes explored in great detail, revealing invaluable drawing techniques—from how to capture the essence of a character with one gestural line, to using clothing folds to further define the shape and volume of a character—to help you drastically improve your drawings. It all depends on your perspective!

Do you dream of becoming a concept artist in the video game industry but don't know where to start? The Big Bad World of Concept Art for Video Games: An Insider's Guide for Beginners gives aspiring artists an honest, informative, and entertaining look at what it takes to do just that. Author Eliott Lilly will help you on your journey from finding the right school and how to get the most out of your education, to preparing your portfolio to land that first job. In addition, renowned concept artists—David Levy, Sparth, Stephan Martiniere, Ben Mauro, and Farzad Varahramyan—share their own dos and don'ts to making a career in the video game industry a reality.

This book is about the fundamentals of light, shadow and reflectivity; the focus is firmly on helping to improve visual understanding of the world around and on techniques for representing that world.

Rendering is the next step after drawing to communicate ideas more clearly. Building on what Scott Robertson and Thomas Bertling wrote about in How To Draw: Drawing and Sketching Objects and Environments from Your Imagination, this book shares everything the two experts know about how to render light, shadow and reflective surfaces.

This book is divided into two major sections: the first explains the physics of light and shadow. One will learn how to construct proper shadows in perspective and how to apply the correct values to those surfaces. The second section focuses on the physics of reflectivity and how to render a wide range of materials utilizing this knowledge.

Throughout the book, two icons appear that indicate either “observation” or “action.” This means the page or section is about observing reality or taking action by applying the knowledge and following the steps in creating your own work.

Similar to our previous book, How To Draw, this book contains links to free online rendering tutorials that can be accessed via the URL list or through the H2Re app.

Graphic L.A. is part practical instruction, part guided meditation on the importance of color values and objects in art. The reader is led by the professional instruction of Robh Ruppel; instructor at the Art Center College of Design, Gnomon School of Visual Effects, and Concept Art Academy. He is also a multiple award-winning art director of video games.

By reducing environments down to basic shapes and colors (or “symbols”), Robh builds astounding images. Robh documents the progression of building an image while referencing basic techniques. By using color with surprisingly bold brushstrokes, he produces images of incredible depth with intricate handling of light and shadow. It is a rare exploration into simplicity without resorting to minimalism.

Readers will be certain to take away both a sense of admiration for Robh Ruppel’s work and a greater understanding and appreciation for the importance of color value relationships in all forms of art.

Art of the PaperBlue is a must have art book for artists, entertainment designers, and anyone who wants to learn to paint creative environment paintings. PaperBlue shares his knowledge of creating environment conceptual paintings for movies, games, and other entertainment industry fields. This book shows more than 10 full-length step-by-step tutorials with detailed explanations and hundreds of stunning art works and numerous quick sketches. In addition, PaperBlue shares his techniques of using custom brushes, smudge tools, color theories, compositions, and many other techniques helpful in creating imaginative art works. This book features Sci-Fi environment paintings, fantasy paintings, vehicle designs, Mechs, ships, fighters, aircrafts and more. Get ready to be inspired by the gorgeous artwork of PaperBlue, all while learning his painting techniques via step-by-step tutorials.

Monet in the Digital Age

Luminair presents a collection of digital life paintings by noted concept designer, Nick Pugh, who has developed this novel approach to traditional representational art. Painting from life, Pugh’s canvas is the laptop computer screen and his palette is the multitude of colors available to the digital artist.

Traveling from his home in California to rural New England, Europe, and South America, he has painted a variety of appealing images that capture the light and emotion of the scenes. For aspiring digital painters, a helpful guide to the process is included. Luminair is a lovely, unique book for artists and those who love art.

In The Future… showcases the first student work created in the new Entertainment Design program at the prestigious Art Center College of Design. Entertainment design requires strong industrial design, architectural and illustration skills, as the designers create characters, environments, vehicles and props. Examples of class work from such courses as Originality in
Design, Character Design, Architectural Design, Visual Development and Color Theory are presented.

This stunning collection of sketches, renderings, and models created by the inaugural class of entertainment design students is a “must-have” for any fan of entertainment design and for those who have enjoyed the first Art Center student book, The Skillful Huntsman.