A Concept Art Session (Session) is a period of time in which you are challenged to communicate an idea through art based on a set of tags. These tags are randomly generated, so you can't start before the actual Session starts! The Sessions are there to simulate your future job as a Concept Artist, where clients will ask you to sketch out their vague idea for a meeting that will start in just a few hours.

While logged in, go to the homepage and start a Session by choosing a topic, time limit and Tag count. When the timer starts, start drawing in your favorite tool (e.g. Photoshop) and base the concept of your drawing on the Tags that have been given by the site. Make sure you upload your work within the time limit!

But of course! Why can't 3D, traditional, clay or other work serve as Concept Art? The idea is communicating a concept through art. While different methods might be slower, they could help to come up with new innovative ideas!

Professional Concept Artists are constantly faced with short time limits to finish their work, so why not practise in these conditions? Short time limits give a great rush, making you less critical about your ideas. In addition, the time limits make sure you finish your work.. skipping the hours and hours we put into pieces that we never finish.

Yes, you can! Using photos and/or textures can be a great way to enhance the level of detail in your piece without having to invest a lot of time into it. There is of course a limit. It is not allowed to upload a standalone photo or use recognizable parts of someone else's artwork.

That's unfortunate! But rules are rules.. if you did not manage to finish your piece within the chosen amount of time, your piece cannot be submitted as a finished Session! To still share your piece and get feedback we advise you to start a Sketchbook thread on our Forums and post your results there.

Yes, but it is not enough! Of course, practising drawing by doing Sessions will improve your skills.. but what Sessions can really teach you is what you're doing wrong! By asking feedback from fellow artists you can find out your flaws. Taking your time, doing studies and focusing on your flaws in between sessions will improve your shortcomings and will drastically improve your skills and results along the way!

To share your portfolio, go to your Account Settings by clicking on your avatar in the top right of the site and selecting Settings. There you can enter your portfolio URL as your Punchline. Make sure you save your Account Settings! Hovering your name or avatar will now show your portfolio URL along with your work on CAS!

No! CAS has been set up so everyone can enjoy all of its features. All server costs are paid by us.

That's awesome! We've created a presskit for this, where you can find pictures, screenshots and extra information. If you want to interview us, please contact us on our Facebook page!

The website has been made by the couple Isabella Koelman and Joris van Leeuwen (that's us!). Together we've invented and developed the entire site and side functionalities. Joris is a full-time Game Programmer and loves to bring new ideas to live through code. Isabella is a full-time Game Artist who is communicating her ideas through art on a day to day basis. If you want to contact us to ask questions and/or show your support you can do so by sending us an email at contact@conceptartsessions.com!

The first mockups for CAS were made on August 24, 2012! Development for the first prototype started soon after, it was called "ProTopics" back then.

CAS has always been our spare-time project. Around this time we were both studying game development at the HKU. Although we had experience in developing games, it was the first real website we would develop ever. The core foundation of CAS was tested in the first prototype with a small private group, already having functionality like starting a Session and uploading paintovers. It soon became clear we wanted to create a place for artists to learn and improve.

A big problem of the first prototype was that it looked butt-ugly, so we decided to remake the entire site. We made a lot of thumbnails and wireframes deciding what colors and layout to use. But when development started in October 2012, Isabella went to L.A. for 3 months to study at the Concept Design Academy, and Joris was left alone to implement all the designs. Needles to say.. the website again didn't make it to the visual level that we wanted to achieve.

When Isabella came back Joris had grown a lot technically, and we soon started to make new mockups that were more simple than ever. We started development from scratch again and made the site that we know today! This version was tested heavily in a private beta group for almost a year.

On November 2, 2013 we set our Facebook page public and went into public beta, making the site accessible for everyone. During the public beta we've added a lot of new features, and even reprogrammed the entire site to meet new technical standards.

The site has grown a lot since then, having all tags generated by users themselves and having over 2500 hours of art submitted. On November 23, 2014 the site had been stable for over a few months, and we decided to remove the beta sign of the site! We're very content with how the site turned out and still excided to implement new features in our spare time!

If you have a question that you think should be on this list, please send us your question at contact@conceptartsessions.com. Or if your question is very specific, you can post it on our Questions forum!