Do you have any practice techniques or advice for those who would like to learn environmental concept art, in addition to what's taught in school? What type of references do you look for when making something like the crazy worlds of Rick and Morty?
good question! i’m glad you asked because this is something i’m seeing a lot of in student portfolios these days, which is very competent and technically well drawn/painted layouts that are sort of missing…atmosphere and feeling.
so let’s say you have a solid understanding of the basics: perspective, composition, value and color, etc. i think the most important thing when it comes to environment art is ~story~ which lends itself to the second most important thing, which is ~feeling~. story is always the most important thing in visual storytelling of any kind because everything is driven by the story and if something doesn’t work with the story or for the story, the viewer’s experience suffers for it.
feeling is the second most important thing because art is subjective, and viewing art reminds us of things we’ve done, seen, or experienced. there are tons of ways to make a viewer feel a certain way, and figuring that out is actually one of my favorite parts of environment design and particularly why i love it so much!
let’s take a quick look at the movie tekkonkinkreet (it’s one of my favorites and i happen to have a ton of backgrounds from it).
how does this scene make you feel? take a moment to think about it. to me, it feels safe, light, airy. notice how the playground is near the top of the frame, closest to the sky, literally rising above the sad, dirty city below it. it has brighter colors and more friendly shapes than the rest. it is framed by two trees, the only foliage in the whole layout. compositionally, the sanctuary of the playground is cradled by these nasty abandoned buildings to reinforce that it is, in fact, a sanctuary and a safe place.
here’s another one. how does this one make you feel? it evokes a feeling of warmth, safety, and closeness. having a fire almost always makes a scene feel cozy because most of us have memories of feeling that way around a campfire. warm oranges and a warm purple sky make this scene feel just as warm, despite how cold and industrial the actual place is. the car is also under an overpass type thing, which is literally protecting it. because the car is in the bottom half of the frame, the viewer also feels protected by the overpass.
now here’s a slightly different scene. think again about your immediate reaction to it. if you’ve seen the movie, you know the scene that takes place here is pretty hopeless, and this scene definitely feels that way. there are sickly green and orange tones, and the blue lights from the street lamps make everything feel cold and unfeeling. there’s no nature anywhere in this scene, it’s all manmade. the angle is also really important, the viewer is low to the ground and the angle is tilted. low angles often leave the viewer feeling overwhelmed in one way or another, and the tilted angle makes things feel unsteady and unsafe. imagine that you’re in this scene, if you’re laying on the ground and things look tilted, you’re definitely in an unsafe position.
i’ll answer your question regarding rick and morty! there’s a good example of what i’m talking about from this episode. originally, the jungle was described as feeling tropical, exotic, and weird. we stuck with bright colors, not very dark shadows, and a feeling of openness. however, there was a clarification from the writers, and we had to change it so that the jungle actually feels dangerous and full of deadly things, and the city in the dome is the only safe haven. so we added the mist, darkened the shadows, and lowered some of the saturation.
composition, color, value, design, every single part of a painting can lend itself to the mood of a scene and that is integral. a person should be able to look at an environment, even without any characters in it, and feel something, even if they can’t explain why. reverse engineer your decisions, ask yourself “what do i want my viewers to feel in this scene?” and work from there. if you want a scene to feel happy, what makes YOU feel happy? when you feel sad, how do you see the world? there’s a reason sad parts in movies usually take place in the rain and with a grey palette P:
some other random advice. take a plein air painting class, or teach yourself. learning how to traditionally paint will help you soooooo much even though most of your work will likely be digital. it helps your color and lighting knowledge so much. trust me on this. i didnt take painting in school and im teaching myself now, and i regret not starting back then.
also study study study media you like. study what your favorite artists do and figure out why it works and why you love it so much, then use it yourself.
looking up reference is a whole nother thing, and i could probably write a long post about finding good reference but in the end it sort of comes down to what you prioritize. most of my reference folder (which is huge) is full of photos with great lighting, color, and mood because that’s what i prioritize in my own art. maybe you really like shape design or perspective, so you look for reference around that.
i look up reference for pretty much everything. it’s important to know what your goal is so that you can be accurate with your reference. keep it to a narrow scope if you want things to look like a real world equivalent. for this episode i was primarily looking at north american deserts, i specifically didn’t research deserts from other continents. they look different! or like, for this piece i only looked up japanese forests because i wanted it to be distinct and not just “a forest”.
sometimes you don’t need to be accurate! for this piece i didnt need the environment to feel like anywhere specific, so i drew from a lot of different things. the statue is based on one i saw at a church once, the hanging vines are from gardening photos, and the pond/rock part is based on some photos i saw of cool rock formations in a lake. so like, look for stuff that you really dig and then save it so you can use it later. surround yourself with things you find interesting and you’ll never find it hard to be inspired.
learning how to draw and paint is really easy, but making informed decisions about what story you want to tell with your art is much harder! but also more fun!! so i hope this was helpful or at least a little thought provoking (´•.̫ • ⋈)
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