Guide To Become a Freelance Concept Artist

Concept art is as it sounds ‘art for a concept’. It is an illustrative practice, a newer form, used to convey

ideas in films, video games, animation, or comic books before the final printing, or unveiling. As a

freelance concept artist, there will be many concepts you will help sketch, literally and figuratively.

Technology has only brought about certain revolutions to its practices and tools; faster graphics and

graphics tablets have replaced the paintbrush and the pencils.

Why you chose to freelance is a question best answered, by self-introspection. Of course, there are

other reasons like freedom, independence, and convenience; your reason might be an optimal mix of, a

combination of, or simply one of the three. However, the amount of money you can make as a freelance

concept artist can make it a viable and comfortable option for you.

Job Duties:

As a concept artist, you will be required to essay many roles in your organisation, or in your work

engagement. The term concept art is a relatively new designation popularized by artists working in the

automobile and video games industries. Your duties as a concept artist will include:

Second to none concept skills

Create accurate, visually interesting, functional, stylistically accurate asset sheets for all levels.

Create colour moods that capture the feel of the locations.

Paint master concepts that not only show a general feel of a location, but also describe enough

detail to inform an asset list. To be able to paint these master concepts quickly.

Able to work with level teams to help illustrate any areas that require development.

Work closely with the Art Director and Lead Artist to maintain aesthetic continuity across the

levels.

Masterly colour awareness.

Excellent spatial awareness.

Wild imagination capable of visualizing the fantastic to the everyday, giving equal importance,

flair and aesthetics to either.

Fluent with either Photoshop or Painter.

Passion for the craft, able to revisit work without being too precious.

Solid understanding of all the different surface treatments one would expect to see in a detailed

world and the ability to depict them accurately.

Passion for conceptual tasks.

Strong traditional art skills and good knowledge of human anatomy.

Excellent technical drawing and vector art work skills

Flexible with art style and can work in multiple genres.

Ability to take direction well

Motivated and driven to face challenges.

Ability to hit tight schedules as required

Ability to create detailed and believable visuals based on real world settings.

Produce art ranging from rough thumbnails to print quality images.

Strong focus on character concepts.

Ability to communicate effectively with member of all teams (design, programming, and art).

Skills :

To be a good freelance concept artist, you must develop many skills, some of them a bit more intricate

than sketching, and colour schemes. You will be responsible for coming up with innovative, eye-catching

art for video games, comics, books, and even stand-alone art, continually liaising with the creative team

to aid in visual development. Some of the skills you must develop include:

Anatomy

Perspective

Life/Still-Life Drawing

Drawing & Painting w/Reference

Colour Theory

Light Theory

Drawing & Painting from Imagination

Conceptartworld, blenderartists, Conceptart forum, Conceptart.org and Guildwars2.com offer many

resources for you. You can develop and hone your concept art skills by logging on and learning from the

comfort of your couch.

Being Successful as a Freelance Concept Artist:

More often than not, talent does not singly determine success in any sphere. It is possibly truer for

concept artists, with the freelance market insisting that talent combined with the relevant experience

attracts generous prospective employers.

Hence, to be successful initially, you could:

Offer to do projects for minimum fees, sometimes for free

Bid the lowest for a project on freelancer portals

Get good testimonials for guest blogs, recommendations for work

Start a blog, back link it to more visible blogs

Create a website, or at the very least, a web page

Advertise your services on social media platforms

Understand the product or service intimately

Be able to sketch simple and even overly complex designs

Most of the revenue generated by you will depend solely on your ability to market your services and

your credibility with previous employees.

Average Remunerations

Usually freelance portals offer various kinds of payment models. In the fixed-price model, the price is

usually pre-determined. The hourly model is the most popular and employers usually pay a

predetermined sum per hour. Finally, in the project-budget based model, you often need to auction for

such projects. Usually a fixed price model may range from $20- $200 and upwards, while you have to

pitch for hourly projects, and budget payments, which usually range from $5- $35 an hour. As a

freelance concept artist, you can usually earn around $22 an hour.

Finding Work:

It is not tough to find work as a freelance concept artist. There are jobs aplenty for concept artists like

you. However, the best course of action is to take the extra pain, go the extra mile, at the start of your

career, at the least. It is important to remember that you are entering a market, as a freshman and thus,

you must be willing to put extra efforts.

Websites like Odesk, Elance, Guru and Peopleperhour offer many jobs to freelance concept artists like

you. Therefore, if you have been thinking of where to find work, rest assured that there is an abundance

of work online.

Resources:

There is an abundance of resources to learn online. Conceptartworld, blenderartists, Conceptart forum,

Conceptart.org and Guildwars2.com offer many resources for you. You can develop and hone your

concept art skills by logging on and learning from the comfort of your couch.

For more information on Freelance Concept Artist please visit www.careerlancer.net