Basic understanding beetween concept art, illustration, matt painting, photobashing ? ( 100% free )

Did you ever see people using photo reference, textures in their painting ? did you ever wonder where cheating begin and where it end ? Did you wonder about the difference beetween concept art, illustration, digital painting and the pro/con beetween digital painting and traditional one. Take a look at this article !  

In this article you'll see

What is a digital painting ?

A digital painting is the digital version of a traditional artwork. When you paint traditionally, you may use oil painting, watercolor. Digital painting mean painting digitally. And in order to achieve that you need software such as : CorelPainter, photoshop, Krita, Gimp.

Digital painting vs traditional art ?

Digital painting offer you a tremendous economical advantage. You just need 100 to 200$ to start painting while you may need twice to do achieve the same goal in traditional art. Digital painting advantages : 

1. Economical advantage
2. various tools not available in traditional art (blur effects, filters, colors and light layers ) 

1. ability to create copies of your artwork and sell it infinitly. 

Con : 

1. Intimidating at first hand. 
2. lack of emotions in brushwork 
3. Lack of physical texture

Traditional art advantage : 

1. Emotions and brushwork are more noticeable. 
2. Texture of the paper create a unique feel inside the buyer. 

you cannot help yourself and it oblige you to get out of your comfort zone by learning the true art knowledges. Instead of digital painting where IA , filters and various effects can make you boost your skills.Con : Lack of possibilities and tools to use. 

1. You can spend thousand of dollars with no guarantee to become pro one day. 

What is a concept art ?

Concept art is a specific work that go beyond illustrations, it's main function is to conceptualize different elements of a game level, movie, artistic work. And resume it to it's essence. Here is some examples below to show you more accuratly the practical use of concept art in the industry. Concept art also meant at a certain time all what turned around development of visualization in traditional animations. It's far later that the industry took it and used it for movie, games and so on.

What is an illustration ?

 An illustrator know that if he want to achieve a good illustration he have to understand the overall design. What turn around the universe, the story of it. Illustration is an emotional work where you tell a story through a scene. That's the main difference beetween concept art and illustration.

What is Matte painting/Photobashing ?

Matte painting is a technique for creating landscape and scenes. Filmmakers love to use it to gain time in their workflow and convey the illusion of an advanced environment. Matte painting is a technique for creating landscape and scenes.Filmmakers love to use it to gain time in their workflow and convey the illusion of an advanced environment. Photobashing is an art technique in digital painting that consist of gathering texture, photo references and blend it into the concerned artworks. It's used to speed up the workflow and when it is something you master, it add more than it substract values to your painting.

Is photobashing or matte painting cheating ?

Yes and no. If you want to integrate an external piece to your existing artwork, you must operate some changes, that's the first point. For example, if you want to get the texture of an armor from another painting, you'll have to change the color, add additional shape so that no one ever makes the relationship. You must have a strong understanding of form, composition, color and light. Artists that use photobashing doesn't use it to paint color and light or form. They use it to speed up their workflow. So ask honestly yourself : what am i trying to do ? Am i trying to fill a hole with some stones or am i trying to speed up things.

Conclusion :

We hope you got a basic understanding about Matte painting, photobashing, the difference beetween concept art and illustration and the pro/con of digital painting vs traditional art. Here is some articles to expand your knowledges about digital painting terms. See you soon ! Digital painting : Painting better composition