A Beginner’s Guide to Environment Art

Created by Sarah Choi (prompt writer for ChatGPT)

A Beginner’s Guide to Environment Concept Art: Designing Landscapes with Imagination and Skill

Environment concept art is an exciting, ever-evolving realm that allows artists to create entire worlds from scratch. From sprawling fantasy vistas to haunting sci-fi wastelands, the possibilities are endless. If you’re here, it means you have a passion for painting landscapes, exploring new places in your mind, and building worlds nobody has ever seen before. This guide will provide you with an approachable, comprehensive look into environment concepting—alongside encouragement to keep learning and improving every step of the way.

1. Embrace the Journey

Before diving into techniques and processes, it’s important to celebrate your enthusiasm for environment art. Concepting landscapes is not only about drawing lines or applying colors—it’s about harnessing your imagination to craft worlds. Every brushstroke, every reference photo you study, and every doodle in your sketchbook leads you to a deeper understanding of art fundamentals and storytelling.

Remember:

Everyone starts somewhere: It’s completely normal to feel a bit overwhelmed at first. Embrace the challenge; it means you’re growing.
Enjoy the process: The road to improvement is not a race. Each project, practice session, and even “mistake” is an opportunity to refine your skills and vision.
Stay inspired: Look at other artists, watch tutorials, and surround yourself with references and materials that stoke your creativity.

2. Approaches to Beginning Your Concept

When starting a new environment concept, you can either:

Work traditionally in a sketchbook, where you freely explore ideas through pencil, ink, or other analog mediums.
Work digitally, where you can rapidly iterate, take advantage of layers, and use a wide array of brushes and tools.

2.1 Sketchbook Explorations

Thumbnail Sketches: Create multiple small, quick drawings to rapidly explore composition, shapes, and ideas. You might use pencil, pen, or markers. Don’t focus on fine detail; instead, capture the essential “read” of the environment—large masses of rock, horizon lines, key focal points, and lighting ideas.
Value Studies: Use different pencil strengths or grayscale markers to block out the dark, mid, and light tones. This helps you see whether your composition is balanced and where your viewers’ eyes are likely to focus.
Texture/Detail Doodles: Practice textures, such as rocky surfaces, tree bark, or cloud formations, on the side. This helps your brain build a “visual library” to pull from later.

2.2 Digital Concepting

Layer Management: Working digitally gives you the freedom to separate elements onto different layers (foreground, middle ground, background). This makes it easier to edit or adjust individual components without affecting the rest of the painting.
Digital Thumbnails: The same principle applies as in a sketchbook—start with quick, rough sketches. You can create multiple digital thumbnails rapidly using broad, textured brushes.
Color and Lighting Experiments: Use adjustment layers, gradient maps, and blending modes to rapidly experiment with mood and color. This can open your eyes to unexpected color harmonies or lighting conditions.

3. Starting with Imagination First

Although references are extremely important, there is also great value in starting your concept purely from your mind’s eye. Sometimes, it’s helpful to sketch out a vague shape or silhouette of a landscape and allow your imagination to fill in details like cliffs, waterfalls, or alien vegetation.

Shape Language: Let interesting silhouettes or shapes guide your initial idea. You might start with a large triangular mountain, a sweeping circular valley, or a jagged chasm.
Mood & Story: Ask yourself what the vibe of the environment is. Is it tranquil? Chaotic? Magical? Post-apocalyptic? Allow that mood to inform your composition and color choice.
Initial Color Blocking: If you’re working digitally, lay down large swaths of color to capture the overall atmosphere. Alternatively, in a sketchbook, a light wash of watercolor or marker can ground the piece in a certain mood before you begin detailing.

By starting purely with imagination, you can create something truly unique—an environment that doesn’t rely too heavily on real-world references early on. Later, when you combine this imaginative approach with references, you’ll strike a balance between originality and believability.

4. Using Real-Life References and Extrapolating

After you’ve done some imaginative sketching, incorporating real-world references will help ground your designs in reality. Real-life references add believability, texture, and detail that your environment might otherwise lack.

4.1 Finding References

Photography: Search for high-resolution photos of natural locations, or take your own pictures while traveling or exploring your neighborhood. Even a photograph of a small creek or city alley can spark new environment ideas.
Documentaries/Nature Videos: Documentaries provide clear, stunning footage of diverse biomes—from tundras and deserts to hidden rainforest canopies.
Stock Images and Online Resources: Websites like Unsplash, Pexels, or ArtStation can offer photographic references and concept art inspiration.

4.2 Extrapolating from Reality

Identify Key Elements: Study the shapes, forms, lighting, color, and textures in your reference. For instance, if you’re looking at a massive canyon in Arizona, pay attention to the layering of rock, the gradient of color, and how the sunlight hits the surfaces.
Distort and Evolve: Once you have the real-world foundations, experiment! Elongate the rock pillars, shift the color scheme, or imagine how this landscape might look under alien skies or in a different era.
Hybridize: Combine elements from different references. Maybe you merge the scale of the Grand Canyon with the lush greenery of a tropical rainforest. Or add sulfuric springs inspired by volcanic locales to create a bizarre fantasy marsh.

By layering real elements onto your imaginative sketches, you can create landscapes that resonate with authenticity yet still feel fantastical or otherworldly.

5. Geographic Terms and Places to Inspire You

If you’re struggling to figure out which types of landscapes you’d like to illustrate, here’s a starter list of geographical terms, locations, and features that might ignite your creativity:

Mountain Ranges: Himalayas, Andes, Rockies
Deserts: Sahara, Gobi, Mojave
Forests: Amazon Rainforest, Boreal/Taiga Forests, Redwood Forests
Wetlands/Marshes: Everglades, Okavango Delta
Canyons/Gorges: Grand Canyon, Tiger Leaping Gorge
Plains/Grasslands: Serengeti, Great Plains
Tundra: Arctic Tundra, Siberian Tundra
Coastal Cliffs: Cliffs of Moher, Na Pali Coast
Glaciers/Ice Formations: Antarctica, Greenland
Volcanic Areas: Yellowstone, Iceland’s Volcanic Fields
Island Formations: Galápagos Islands, Polynesian Atolls
Plateaus/Mesas: Colorado Plateau, Table Mountain
Waterfalls: Niagara Falls, Iguazu Falls
Exotic Formations: Zhangjiajie (China’s “Avatar Mountains”), Giant’s Causeway (Ireland)

These terms and places can serve as a jumping-off point for your reference-gathering. By choosing different biomes or combining them in unusual ways, you expand your imagination and practice new landscapes that challenge your skills.

6. Step-by-Step Process Example

Let’s walk through a typical process for designing a fantasy canyon:

Brainstorm & Thumbnails: Sketch 4-5 small, rough ideas of a towering canyon environment. Experiment with composition (vertical vs. horizontal, vantage points, etc.).
Establish Composition & Values: Choose the strongest thumbnail and refine it in slightly bigger sketches, focusing on where the light source is and the main focal point (e.g., a massive rock arch or a hidden temple).
Gather References: Look up pictures of the Grand Canyon, canyons in Utah, and desert rock textures. Study how erosion shapes these landmasses and how light hits canyon walls.
Integrate Reference & Imagination: Combine real-world rock striations with exaggerated heights or impossible rock formations. Add fantasy elements like bioluminescent plants or floating rock pillars if desired.
Color & Mood: Do a quick color rough, testing different palettes—maybe a standard warm desert palette, or a surreal green-and-purple scheme for a fantasy vibe.
Refine: Once you commit to a color scheme, refine the details on new layers (digitally) or through separate overlay sketches.
Polish & Add Story: Introduce a narrative element—perhaps small huts on the canyon ledges or a path leading to a hidden entrance. Let the landscape suggest a story about who lives there and why.

7. Encouragement and Next Steps

Remember, concept art is a lifetime journey of growth. As you practice:

Stay Curious: Never stop seeking new references or exploring unfamiliar mediums and techniques.
Challenge Yourself: Attempt different subject matter—icy landscapes, dense jungles, or even off-world scenes—to continually expand your visual library.
Share Your Work: Post your progress on social media, join art communities, or attend workshops. Feedback (and giving feedback to others) is invaluable.
Keep Pushing: There will be times when you feel stuck or your art doesn’t match the vision in your head. Push through. Artistic growth happens during those struggles as much as in the successes.

Finally, believe in yourself. Every single line you draw, every reference you study, and every painting you create strengthens your foundation. Environment concept art is a journey that rewards perseverance. With time, practice, and a keen eye for observation, you’ll create ever more detailed, imaginative, and compelling landscapes. Keep that spark of wonder alive—you’re building worlds, and that’s an incredible, fulfilling pursuit.

Go forth and paint those worlds! Your adventure in environment concept art has only just begun. Through curiosity, dedication, and an open mind, the landscapes you create will become richer, more immersive, and truly unforgettable. Happy concepting!