Words to Worlds

Video game art books give insight into the creative processes behind the creation of characters and worlds in video games. With concept art and detailed processes, they bring a new perspective for gamers who find themselves wanting more from the artistic side of video games. Concept art is also used to visualize ideas that may otherwise be hard for others to understand through words alone, allowing developing teams to build-up their worlds from brainstorming words to images that can be used as groundwork for developing a video game. 

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The translation of a abstract words to conceivable pictures made me wonder if it would be possible to create concept art for fantasy and science fiction books in much the same way art books art made for video games. I’m sure fellow readers have found themselves re-reading descriptions of environments or technology in these books trying to understand what was being said. Others may have read a descriptive passage and wondered how such an environment would look if it were right before their eyes. I believe art books and concept art for books can answer these questions and create an experience much like that of video game art books.

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Fellow artists, now's your time to get involved with your favorite authors. Follow along the process of transforming words to worlds as I create concept art for Red Rising, one of my favorite science fiction novels. If you're unfamiliar with the Red Rising series, I recommend clicking the 'About Red Rising' tab to read a short summary to understand the context of the drawings. To see the art pieces and the steps I took to recreate the Red Rising environments, use the drop-down menu on the 'Environmental Concept Art' to click select a painting to view.