Publication Date

Spring 5-3-2026

Document Type

Presentation

First Advisor

Martens Kimberly

Degree Name

B.F.A. (Bachelor of Fine Arts)

Department

School of Art and Design

Abstract

My capstone captures the different processes behind creative visual development through the creation of conceptual art and character design. The layout of this kind of work begins with a cognitive construction of an idea, usually a narrative to be told that must be done so through visual means, as understanding an idea of the bigger picture of a project helps enlighten pathways of how to approach the beginning creation phases. Next comes the research process, from searching up history that might pertain to their project or simply finding guidelines or references to help structure the design. My process here took me to research other character artists within an industry that I seek to be involved in for my career, which is the industry of video game creation. I researched artists that worked for Blizzard Entertainment for one of their video games called Overwatch. I note the way that different artists follow a similar methodology to create cohesion in their character sheets with the intention of following the same process in my own creations. Character artists here consider how their visualizations will be interpreted through the choices in pose, clothing, personality (and how to depict it visually), as well as which colors to represent those choices. Then it’s time to put those ideas and research into practice by beginning the creation of the designs. This part of the process consists of many iterations of designs by visually deciding how to put the different choices together, creating multiple rough designs and trying out different color schemes before deciding on one concrete design. The finalization of these processes leads to a final design of one character sheet per character, ending the character’s visual development process.

Comments

This is a study that delves into the process of visual development for concept art and character design within the video game industry to gain an understanding of how an artist in this field designs their creations.

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