Q&A: Style, process and UI art

How hard is it to work with different styles for so many different projects?

Working with multiple different styles definitely presents a challenge and can occasionally lead to tonal whiplash is you are moving from something dark, realistic and gritty directly to something sweet and cartoony!

In my experience, being able to make that switch takes practice and does get easier with time. I find it helps to have slightly different workflows for each style and to always have the references of the style you need up at all times.

– Drew Whitmore, Art Director

I’m interested in exploring UI art more. Where’s a good place for me to start to learn more about the medium?

If you want to learn more about UI art, I recommend looking around at UI artists online and seeing what kind of work catches your eye and gets you excited about the medium. There are tons of talented artists on ArtStation who do more than just illustration, and it’s where I like to browse for inspiration. Pinterest also has a fantastic range of content, as well as more dedicated sites like HUDS+GUIS.

For those who want to learn how to create UI art, I recommend looking up tutorials on YouTube, you’d be surprised how many amazing tutorials are on there for free! There are also a few paid courses on LearnSquared for UI that are designed to take you from a beginner to a professional.

– Mike Howie, Senior UI/UX Designer

Does the process of creating concept art vary from video games to film work?

• The process varies considerably depending on what the client wants! But for our average project a rough process is typically:
• Briefing and referencing: An artist will get to grips with the requirements of the project and go over references provided and search out others if necessary.
• Sketching: Typically most projects (though not all) will start with rough thumbnails to generate ideas for design or composition etc.
• Sketching / Refining: We’ll start to move forward with whichever elements from the thumbnails are working best. We may also implement 3D depending on requirements and the individual artist’s process.
• Refining: With a solid direction we can start working up the design by refining it and adding detail etc.
• Colour: We take the final design through to a finished colour piece.

– Charlie Bowater, Lead Artist

Do you have any questions for Atomhawk artists? Leave them in the comments and we will do our best to answer them in a future Q&A!