Concept Art

Course overview
As a concept artist you illustrate ideas for use in films, games, animation, comics, and any other form of visual media. Concept art focuses on the pre-production process of a visual project. Your role as a concept artist is to visualise the look of characters, creatures, props, environments, and everything else to help a production team create a rich and exciting world.

Concept art can take many forms, and on the course, we explore these through a variety of creative briefs:

Pre-Production: Challenge yourself to create art that follows a brief, used in all types of visual media, from games and animation to advertising and illustration.

Narrative and Storytelling: Develop your inner storyteller by creating artwork that captures a rich and impactful story, seen through storyboards for filmmaking and panels for comic books.

Production Art: Capture an audience’s attention through beautifully crafted artwork, creating high-quality visuals for book illustration, splash screens, and board games.

Your time on the course will be split between learning traditional drawing techniques through practical workshops and developing your industry-relevant skills through practice in digital and 3D tools, such as Adobe Photoshop and Blender.

We are Europe’s first Adobe Creative Campus, giving you access to the suite of Adobe Studio tools and resources to help you develop your digital skills.
An optional work placement year is also included, at no extra cost.

Top reasons to study this course

• Taught by professional artists: learn from practising concept artists who have worked on a variety of art projects for clients such as Double Eleven, Archvillain Games, Sony, Formula 1, Hasbro, Activision, NetEase, Square Enix, Holovis International, Yamination Studios, and Shanghai Media Group.

• International acclaim: ranked 20th in the world in the Animation Career Review International Animation School Rankings 2025. (Top 50 International Animation Colleges – formal degree. 207 colleges considered). (tees.ac.uk/source).

• Industry links: take part in Animex, our annual international animation and games festival featuring experts from Rockstar, Pixar, Disney and Sony.

• Employability: 95% of BA (Hons) Concept Art students agreed that the course has developed knowledge and skills needed for the future (National Student Survey 2025, tees.ac.uk/source).

Employability
Developing your Artistic Vision: Professional concept artists require artistic and communication skills, and creativity. The course is structured to highlight, develop, and refine your unique creative style and guide you in building a workflow suitable for the industry you wish to pursue.

Graduate Destinations: Our graduates have started careers as freelance artists or gone on to work or undertake placements for studios such as Atomhawk, Sumo Digital, Jagex and Frontier Developments.

Networking Events: Our ExpoSeries of events are an opportunity for you to interact with employers. Each event is open to the public and industry guests, for you to showcase your work and skills to peers and potential future placements or employers.

Animex, our international festival of animation, concept art and games, is a fantastic opportunity to meet industry experts and experience a wide range of talks and workshops, introducing you to different careers and skills across the entertainment industry.

Course Modules

Access course information through Teesside University’s website using the course page link provided (or visit www.tees.ac.uk).