Concept Art Process - Part 1: Sketching

[@xiliuv]

I am an extremely introverted person. This video made me feel great because I resonate so deeply with everything you said. I feel a little less alone now knowing that out there is someone who understands me at that level. I wish I could find the social energy to try and meet other artists, but my social battery only lasts for like 30mins max. I am very thankful for this video.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much for sharing this. I am the same way :) I am really glad you resonated with the video, I'm sorry it took me a while to respond to this.

[@dennisquaidsleg3820]

You seem like a genuine dude, clicked for the art, stayed for your personality and attitude towards art

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much, means alot :)

[@humanharddrive1]

same

[@vekkdrums]

sometimes i just play your vids and just listen to you while i draw something totally unrelated. I find your voice calming and the music is great. Awesome content dude. much success!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks! It's nice to hear, I've always been a bit self-conscious of my voice haha

[@rinkana8143]

Love when artists post stuff like this

[@tripplejaz]

Thanks for taking time out of your busy professional schedule to educate us. I'm learning more and more to be fascinated by thought process and design thinking than raw rendering power and end results. So thank you!

[@gradyfrederickart]

My pleasure! I just want to share things that I learned in my earlier years which may help someone avoid some of my mistakes all together :D Thanks for this

[@RyanBylPaints]

Really happy how you talked about how you aren't trying to reinvent fantasy, and how much you like grounded and already established fantasy worlds. Been feeling self conscious about my designs and that maybe they weren't creative or innovative enough. Really helped me feel a bit more self-assured with my vision and ideas around fantasy. Thank you! Always excited when you have new videos to watch. You have quickly become one of my favorite youtube artists and just fantasy artist in general.

[@RyanBylPaints]

Also getting over "clean" and precise sketching, Design>Ego really hit home as someone who is not the most amazing at sketching but can always polish something with time. Another huge thing was how the struggle doesn't stop even when you're a professional. This was really mindblowing and comforting to hear since I always give myself a hard time for struggling, when in reality great art is hard and it doesn't stop being that way!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thankyou so much! Yes I realized this when watching some of my favorite movies and shows like The Last Kingdom, The Witch, Outlaw King etc. and came to understand that even the historical and grounded production design and environments are extremely beautiful and inspiring. It is a liberating feeling knowing we can present those simple grounded designs which draw from our own already beautiful and rich history.

[@gradyfrederickart]

@@RyanBylPaints Yes the struggle never stops! But we just learn to love it after we experience the breakthroughs that follow :)

[@barryjack3025]

After so many years, every now and then I try to force myself to draw something new, and failing that go back to something I did 15 or 20 years ago and redesign it. Better than giving up. Thanks for the great vids. Still motivating!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for sharing, yes that can be a nice comfy exercise to fall back on when it's hard to move forward, but I encourage you to keep trying! (But only if it makes you happy)

[@morezombies9685]

As an artist only on my 3rd year I find your comment interesting. Maybe it's because I started drawing at 28 years old but damn near everything I draw feels new even after drawing daily haha. I wonder if the feeling will ever leave.

[@iokhufu]

i love how you guide me into the mentality that i need to keep when persevering to pursue art. thank you very much.

[@ExtremeNeoclassical]

Love the idea of breaking down each step of the process. This channel is gold.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much! I'm glad you like it :D

[@ELPHENlX]

Your channel is a perfect mix of chill and skill bro ! Keep going it’s so cool. I really love your style and the way you’re creating ! ❤

[@ephemeralina]

I am obssessed with your videos !!! I am beginner concept artist and listening to u on background is everything

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thank you so much 😀 I wish you the best in your pursuits. Stay patient!

[@lucaskremerart]

I love the format of these videos, and the pacing of this one is spot on.

[@Tabaluka777]

Thanks for all your calming, deep and very enjoyable videos.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for the kind words :) I'm glad you are liking them

[@MrExcaliburg]

I really appreciate the sentiment behind this video and I feel more embolden to keep pushing and working with my fundamentals while not being too caught up with it always being "pretty"

[@ilsh0064]

thannkyou sharing your thought, I always learn soemthing new from you sir!

[@miubhoh1596]

Thank you for the education! It feels so much easier to understand this way

[@electra6821]

Wow. You've made some useful observations: like how it's better to generate lots of designs/ideas, rather than get hung-up on how professional and polished your work looks, and also how it's often best to push further toward a more extreme design because others will often like them more than you do. I can see how I could apply these insights to my writing work as well as my drawing. Thanks!

[@FalconerCG]

So glad I found your channel. I can tell it will help my personal art but I'm sure it will help my job as a packaging designer too. Thank you for sharing your experiences!

[@LatticeMage]

thank you for this series, i want to learn more about concept art.

[@marcelfreyer4259]

Awesome talk and sketches, Grady! Super insiering, thanks so much!!

[@Lenemos]

Thank you for creating content like this. Too many video's these days are sensationalist or loud, and since I enjoy having a video on while working, this fits perfectly. Kudos to making it a step by step mini series, rather than jumping straight to final artwork and skipping everything inbetween. I love seeing the process and how other artists work. So keep it up (: Don't be afraid of longer video's every now and again as well :b

[@jonnaarendse5888]

Thanks for the video I learned a lot and the sketches are stunning. I really liked your tip for opening and closing the reference gonna try it out

[@Reacher101]

Man, i love your videos pleaee keep stuff like this up i love seeing the sketch process. Gives us beginners something to strive off

[@ZombieBubble324]

These videos are my go to way to relax after work and after a long day. Anything you put out, I will always watch!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thankyou so very much!

[@wilbertoosterom]

These thumbs are absolutely beautiful man. Loving these videos! Thank you for sharing your thoughts, experience and wisdom with us :)

[@sago59]

Grady, thank you so much for that video and words you've said, these conceptions really make feels moving forward and trying and practicing I was listening and every topic yo've said echoed in my soul, what you saying about the ego and liberating feeling was so liberating! - my biggest problem which's pulls me back is i'm spending too much time to try fixed and solves all problems and this takes me soo long, like endless - now it'll would not!; the thing you're saying about differences between professionals and not - just opened my eyes Many stuff you've said just feel the same way for me, so it's a really good feeling to hear like a very kinda close soul w/ mindset what responds Thank you again, really beautiful works you create and worlds you've built, so wish you more inspirations and awesome feelings while creating! Hopes my eng ended up being readable, I really wanted to write you words of gratitude and firmly shake your hand

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thankyou so much for your comment! I'm glad you connected with the content, your comment means alot :)

[@Overcraft17]

Thanks again Grady for sharing your thoughts and process, it's always great to watch your videos. Thank you

[@gradyfrederickart]

My pleasure :) Thankyou

[@ZiCell]

Thank you for encouraging words about overcoming failures. I needed that. You're awesome, man.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for this, I'm glad you found it helpful in some way :) Best wishes

[@StarsandCastles]

This is an amazing video, I learned a lot! I love your sketches and art and can't wait to see more.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thank you so much!

[@garyfrederick8419]

awesome as always!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks Dad!

[@LateRush]

Love your videos man!

[@fowlerillus]

Your channel and your work are fantastic Grady. Thanks for these!

[@bastienchapitaux4500]

Awesome video man! Your art definitely inspire me! Can't wait to see more

[@ZekeFaust]

Really love the density of this video, just hit after hit of actionable artistic wisdom and advice with no fat remaining.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much :)

[@Neo-iz2fx]

Very well explained video! also i gotta know what that background music is called, its so nice.

[@OxySteve]

I would love if you did more of this. as a student this kind of stuff is really helpful

[@gradyfrederickart]

I'll upload as often as I can! Thanks for watching :)

[@thorkhen9915]

Great video as always, I very much enjoyed the format and seeing your process :)

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks :)

[@Mr.Architecture]

Wow, I really like your design process, dear friend... Good luck

[@fuckboi4852]

Im an artists myself tryna break into concept art. your videos have helped me alot with building my portfolio

[@gradyfrederickart]

I'm very glad to hear that :) Always nice to hear about new people excited about joining the field!

[@PotatoSalad-fy2od]

Only just found out about you. Really love seeing this process with your insight. Definitely excited for more videos.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Awesome! Thank you!

[@drawyourway3820]

love your content Grady. Really appreciate what you are saying in this video about exploration and style. Wonderful. Keep it coming!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Much appreciated :)

[@kad_2000]

loved this! super helpful thank you! cant wait to see more from this series :)

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks very much :D

[@kaitlynroseart]

Thank you for the breakdown! It would be dope to see what you think is considered a good reference to use, like what do you mainly look for in a reference photo? specifically architecture, environments, props.

[@karlhauser893]

Dude, I love your style

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks man :)

[@Cryptic_Pie]

can't wait for the next video! Amazing work.... this is so helpful. You could, once in a month maybe, do a live stream. It's an idea, just sketching away and talking to chat, talking and explaining your process.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks! I have some ideas, I will share in the near future!

[@MrGiraeff]

Thank you so much to doing this! I want to be a concept artist and its so helpful!!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks to you! I wish you the best :)

[@carlfolmer]

Cool! Enjoyed this video alot :)

[@ErethilClaw]

Inspiring and didactic as always, lot of your teachings are aplicable to edit photography

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks! Very cool, never really thought about that :)

[@Spauts]

Hi Grady, thanks a lot for the video. Really helpful! :D One thing that would also be cool is if you could make a walkthrough about how do use reference and why do you gather some references and others don't. Also some of the websites you use to gather them would also be cool :D keep up the awesome work, love your castles!

[@davidfernandez4851]

great video, very helpful. I enjoyed the format.

[@gradyfrederickart]

Awesome, thank you!

[@antjonesuxgaming]

Thank you so much for sharing!

[@DavidWoodArtist]

Yep, this format works well. I was wondering if you are also thinking of how lighting is going to interact with the shapes at this stage? I see some elements are put in shadow and you colour the each design as a silhouette.

[@gradyfrederickart]

This is a bit hard to answer as I'm honestly just winging it in that regard. I'm mainly focused on making major shapes read and be interesting, and I definitely experiment with shadow shapes to that end along with just the overall shape/silhouette of the design. Ideally I can create a compelling silhouette and overall shape, and then break it up into nice groupings of shadow and light using extrusions, recesses, negative space etc. but this is more of the "second step" after I have scribbled a general thumbnail which I find cool enough to proceed with. I hope this helps!

[@taiyowest9495]

I love your channel and what you post. I am a art student and this really helps me. thanks :)

[@gradyfrederickart]

I am glad :) I wish you the best in you studies!

[@taiyowest9495]

​@@gradyfrederickartthank you very much

[@DreamOnASMR]

Thank you !! Love this format 💙

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for watching :)

[@AhsanKhan-ty8gl]

This video was very useful.❤

[@aSillywizard]

I love seeing the process and slower paste videos!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Okay good to hear! Thanks :)

[@aSillywizard]

I think i can speak for a lot of people here, artists love to listen to other artists while working. Especially when it's calm and in depth. I think there is such a thing as to much in depth but you def cought that golden time :) Keep up the great work. Really appreciate being able to watch these video for absolutely FREE!

[@SergeyPereskokov]

Great sketches! Thank you for the process and thoughts!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for watching :)

[@Zurdosuave]

Big W on this

[@jamesmacdonaldartist]

Great video, Grady. Keep up the good work. Subscribed 👍

[@vinesdesign]

Yes! Thank you so much for making these videos! Always so encouraging. I love this "broken up/series" format a lot. :) I'm gonna leave these questions here that I thought while watching. Please know that I fully respect your time and this is not in any way an expectation for an answer(s). You certainly don't owe us anything! haha Just leaving because you never know if an answer will come or not. :) Thanks again for making these videos for us! 🙏 - You say that you realized that you were weak as a designer and that your designs needed a lot of work. What was your process like for targeting that area? I feel I'm in the same boat. - When it comes to worldbuilding, I tend to get trapped in "If I don't know the details like culture/climate/etc., how can I design something?" But it sounds like you use visual design as a way to learn more about or "discover" those elements of your world (@2:38 - 3:56). Is that right? If so, how do you manage designing for a personal project without first knowing hyper-specifically what it is that you're designing for?

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thankyou for this! As far as improving my designs, I sought alot of feedback from others and learned how I could push things to be more interesting/unique. Also when watching movies or playing games I began taking a more academic look at things I found appealing and trying to understand why. I know that sounds pretty nebulous, but it really just came down to focusing on pushing my ideas, rather than mainly focusing on finished quality. In terms of worldbuilding, I heard a great mantra from James Gurney when I was at Lightbox. He said "most of world building happens in the audience's mind" and that really resonated with me. It's okay to create some compelling "breadcrumbs" and let the audience follow those to their own conclusions even if you aren't clear on it. The theatre of the mind is very powerful :) It's okay to have those questions unanswered at the beginning of the process. World building is just a process of raising questions and answering them one step at a time. And it's okay to have a very basic set of pillars to get going - "It's cold, it's high-altitude, it's harsh and icy" and start sketching and answering those questions. Think about something like Lord of the Rings: It has a very VERY rich and complex lore and backstory, but we as the reader don't even need to know about any of it to enjoy the book. Most people think Gandalf is just an old man, and that's fine with them ;) I hope this helps. I plan to talk about worldbuilding in some videos, so keep an eye out! Best wishes

[@vinesdesign]

@@gradyfrederickart Thank you so much for taking the time, homie! 🙏I'm at a point where I'm definitely starting to understand how nebulous improvement can be at times, so no worries there. And the world building advice is just the encouragement I need to give myself permission to "start before I'm ready" with "enough" information, if that makes sense. Yours has quickly become one of my favorite art channels, so I'll certainly be on the look out! :) Thanks again.

[@piergiacomomacri492]

Thanks again Grady for sharing ..amazing

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for watching :)

[@vuthanhtu3067]

thank you for your deep explain, I've learn many thing from your vids

[@gradyfrederickart]

My pleasure! Thanks for watching :)

[@hulk10086]

This was so great! Really awesome format!

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much!

[@MarcLaisneARTVenture]

Excellent 👌

[@13zackariah]

big fan, just found ur channel dude, inspiring. im a character designer, so environment process stuff is always cool to see :) keep it up dude. do you work in the industry? whats been your experience? a video on that would even be cool as im sure your personal journey is complex(as it is for us all lol)

[@johanhjenvang2355]

Love the narrated videos, would also love to see some more procreate art if you like doing it, since I’ve been considering picking it up. Anyway really inspiring:)

[@gradyfrederickart]

Okay, good to know! I do like it, I just have to improve with it haha I'll definitely do more with Procreate though. Thanks for this :D

[@TheHelderVinicius]

thank you so much for this video grady

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for being here!

[@mtfielder90]

I have a question, Grady: Regarding canvas size/dimensions and pixel resolution, what do you prefer? Does it change from the sketch phase to the final illustration phase? Is it 300ppi on a 1920x1080 canvas? I'm always curious about that initial set-up and the reasoning behind it. It's probably less interesting or complicated than I think it is, but I'd still like to hear your thoughts on that very very initial part of opening up Photoshop and selecting a canvas size and resolution. Thank you for sharing your process with us.

[@AugustoFaccion]

Obrigado

[@Cruelriver]

Great Video, love the aesthetic

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks very much!

[@sketch2807]

Love the videos man, thank you

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks very much :D

[@hasanrazaart]

I love the way you render your sketches. How do you decide where to put dark lines and leave the area white? It more seems like a design-based decision to make some areas darker or lighter rather than based on lighting. Please if you can give some tips thank you

[@johnnyblaze373]

What is this music. Love your sharing of knowledge.

[@oversipelio983]

very very helpful.

[@marcoslubian9880]

where did you find the music? it's awesome.

[@steven-dm8bp]

Many many thanks

[@asifmuhammed2496]

❤

[@ronanmacgregor6005]

I like this format man, you give insightful and grounded advice, looking forward to more !

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks so much!

[@spreadsiteai]

respect

[@tina20015209]

I have been doing background painting and illustration for some time, but still a beginner in concept art field. Thank you for sharing so many thinking process and design process, they make a lot of sense to me and are really helpful and encouraging. May I also ask which pencil round brushes you are using? It looks very natural and handy:)

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thanks for this! I started my career as a background painter for animation :) The round brush is a custom one I made, I'll come out with my brushes in the future!

[@space_nerd9456]

your art looks so fucking juicy i love it. this is not a tutorial this is a art timelaps

[@enlighten92]

Enjoyed watching. How can a complete noob get this good at concept landscapes?

[@gradyfrederickart]

Thankyou! Study from life and/or photos, practice fundamentals(perspective, describing form, color, composition etc.), replicate the habits of your favorite artists and draw ALOT (every day)! :D

[@asfandyaralam7180]

There aren't enough videos on concept sketching!

[@gradyfrederickart]

I agree! I hope to share more of these early stages :)

[@MrAnperm]

Interesting that you said to focus on design even if your linework etc. is lacking. Not your typical art advice, which would suggest that you focus on fundamentals first.

[@gradyfrederickart]

I should have been clear about something: in order to be a designer/illustrator, strong fundamentals are crucial and they go without saying. Perspective, form, values etc. all must be solid to communicate effective designs. I was more referring to the aesthetics of loose drawing and sketches, and being preoccupied with making every sketch look "finished" rather than prioritizing if the idea is interesting in the first place. Thanks for pointing this out :)

[@asyrel6900]

do you have references open while you are doing these sketches? if not how do you come up with these designs off the top of your head?

[@nouraalnuaimi3452]

what brushes u use?

[@ameferreira]

where do you find your references? and how you search for them?

[@gradyfrederickart]

I like to take some of my favorite frames from films, or look on pinterest :) I usually start by searching for very broad things(ancient scottish ruins, iceland mountains etc.) then use the recommended "similar" image suggestion to expand my search just going deeper and deeper by clicking things that seem appropriate for my concept. Hope that helps :)

[@fuckboi4852]

anyone know the song in the backround?

[@vinesdesign]

No clue. Not even Shazam is picking it up. :\

[@gradyfrederickart]

It is a song by The David Roy Collective, but it has been slowed down :)

[@juanfieldhouse3749]

Promo'SM 😔

[@RobG95]

A good rule i was taught was that you should use only 30% of the reference - dont take the reference so literally when it comes to designing.

[@gradyfrederickart]

That's a great way to think about it indeed! I'm going to steal that ;)

[@iAdas]

Tell me the tittle of this soundtrack please😊