What it means to be an Environment Artist

It is one thing to understand the theory and a completely separate thing to apply it to your actual workflow.

The research I have done so far give me an insight and a general plan on how to achieve progress,but I need to translate that to actual, daily tasks.. I have to bridge theory with practice.

Now, one of the key things when it comes to environment art is to really make it look awesome. It needs to capture the viewer and set the mood. In order to achieve this link with the viewer, the work has to be top notch. Because of the technical possibilities out there, there is no excuse not to create something amazing. Everything you create has to be top notch, end of story.
How to make something look and feel "top notch"? Well, you need the theoretical knowledge, color theories, rule of thirds, composition etc. but the technical realization of the work has to be top quality as well. Especially when it comes to games because of the hardware limitations.
Achieving something with the less possible resources and as FAST as possible. Now, becoming fast and effective is all about practice and an open,free, creative mind.

When you are professional, you take into consideration every small detail of a work. That is how you have to do it, make everything look amazing. But, because of this need for quality, sometimes it's very very easy to get hung up on insignificantly small details and waste time. I have experienced this in the past several times.
It's very important to take the time you are given and use that time to focus on the MOST important elements of your work, which are the shapes (silhouettes), textures, color, lighting and effectiveness (resource usage). When you take 20% of the time to focus on an object in the background which is barely visible and not so relevant to the final outcome, that is not effective time-management. I have to prioratize the global, most influential elements of the work over small details. It takes practice and experience to learn this, so.. keep on practicing.

At this moment I will look at the art that interests me the most. That is the Warcraft universe art style, but any environmental work as well.
I will examine a host of concept arts and based on them decide which will best suit the purpose on developing myself in the right area.
I will examine these concepts, take a look at which one provides the best challenge for me that fits into the time-frame I am given for this project.

Here are some of the concepts: