BECOME A BETTER
CONCEPT ARTIST
Gain insights into how Sparth creates the signature look for his concepts,
including his approach to using custom brushes and building up textures
I love everything
connected to the
crafting of ground-
breaking imagery, and
I’m always ready to
venture into new visual horizons.
I’ve always been passionate about
coming up with new digital
techniques, and pioneered the use of
complex brushes and custom shapes
in 2005 and 2010 respectively, as well
as venturing into new territories withvirtual reality painting experiments
through Tilt Brush and Quill.
For this workshop, I’ll explain how
taking a minimalist approach to a
concept art task emphasises the real-
life aspects of the scene. In this
painting, which took about four
hours to complete, I was keen not to
overdo it in terms of sky, details,
complexity and number of planes.
Over the coming pages, I’ll show
you my technique for adding texturewith a specific use of Photoshop’s
Magic Wand tool; used custom
brushes to quickly develop an
environment (these brushes are
available via the Resources – see
page 8); and made use of the
software’s handy auto correction
features (Auto Color, Auto Contrast
and Auto Tone) and how I use these
to constantly shift my scene towards
a more realistic photographic feel.
I hope you enjoy it!1
Putting down a
foundation sketch
I often start a new image with just
a vague composition concept in
mind, but it’s enough to get me
making some marks. Some of you
may already be familiar with the
fact that I nearly always block out
my initial composition in a matter
of minutes. It’s certainly the case
with this concept piece.
Here, the first element that
you’ll notice is the strong
horizontal line, which splits the
canvas along the lower third. My
composition is based on diagonals
and implied triangles that will
help to energise the f low of the
scene. The spaceship, for example,
is a large pyramid-like structure.
In contrast to vertical andhorizontal lines, diagonals are the
purest expression of movement in
a composition, and when used
correctly help to create dynamism
in a painting.
The hue, saturation and colours
of my images very often vary from
start to finish, because digital
tools enable me to generate many
variations without significantly
altering an image. Composition,
however, is a very different matter:
you have to nail the image
structure and main guiding lines
as soon as you have an idea of the
story you want to convey. Any late
changes to the composition may
affect the readability and clarity of
your image. So once I’m happy
with my base sketch, I try to avoid
making composition changes.Photoshop
GET YOUR
RESOURCES
See page 8 now!Sparth
LOCATION: US
Sparth has been a
concept artist and art
director in the games
industry since 1997, and
has participated in many
franchises such as Prince
of Persia and Halo.
http://www.sparth.comArtist
PROFILEWorkshops