Question: what is the difference between art and craft?

Concept Art, Guild Wars 2

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This may seem to be a trivial question to those of you who are marginally interested in art; but a number of philosophers have pondered it. And with video games and MMOs becoming more visually sophisticated, their environs may be added to the mix. Michelle Gaugy--art gallery owner, author, art consultant--says on Quora:

 I recall that 50 years ago, this was a very clearly defined distinction. Craft was defined as objects that had function, and art was aesthetic objects without function. Period.  But since that time, the American Craft movement has advanced dramatically, and craftspeople have been creating many one-off objects that are clearly aesthetic and clearly evoke emotional responses from people in a huge variety of media.

Note that Michelle mentions uniqueness ("one-off objects") and a piece's ability to "evoke emotional responses. There's a good article on Art and Emotion at Wikipedia.

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Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, Fine Art America

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Philosopher Dennis Dutton addresses the question directly in The Difference Between Art and Craft on his site. There are links to some interesting pieces on the front page, including an article titled Can video games be art? In his article comparing art to craft, Dutton refers to another philosopher, R.G. Collingwood. Stanford Encyclopedia has an extended entry on Collingwood's Aesthetics that is well worth reading.

Tate Gallery hosts the discussion Tate Debate: When is a craft an art?

Of all the information I browsed, this from a site about ancient Egypt (Pharaonic Egypt) seemed to me most interesting. While we talk about uniqueness and evoking emotion, absolute skill may set a person's work apart as well.

Not always in human history was a distinction made between art and craft or were artists considered a breed apart, but Egyptian artisans - like expert workers anywhere and anytime - were certainly aware of their capabilities and their own worth and proud of it.

Chief of the artisans, the draftsman Irtysen says:
I know the secrets of the hieroglyphs, the way to put together feast offerings. All magic I have prepared . Nothing goes by me unnoticed. Because I am an artisan excellent at my craft, who has become the foremost at what he has learned. I know the ratios of fluids, weigh the amount, reckon, remove, insert the tenon into the mortise so every part will be in its place.
I know how to render the posture of a man's statue, the step of a woman's statue, the wing strength of a dozen birds, the bearing of him who strikes a prisoner, the look an eye casts on someone else and also make fearful the face of the sacrificial victim, the arm of him who hits the hippopotamus, the stance of the runner.
I know how to make pigments and incrustations without letting the fire burn them, with the water being able to wash them away.
None will know this but me and my oldest son. The God has ordained that he shall practice because it is into this he has been initiated.
I have seen with mine eyes what has left his hands when he directed the work, in all precious and exalted stones, from silver and gold to ivory and ebony.

A funerary offering of a thousand loaves of bread, beer, fowl, oxen, clothing, all the good and pure things for the blessed Irtysen, true of voice, brought into the world by Idet, true of voice.

--Craftsmen and artists

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NC Wyeth,, Ore Wagon, Fine Art America-Granger

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-- Marge

Concept art: three artists

In my view concept artists have the best of both realistic and abstract art worlds.  Good ones paint with detailed realism on topics imaginary--or derivative.  Here are three of the best.

Aaron Blaise who worked as an animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation.

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Aaron Blaise, concept/character art gallery

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Michael Kutsche does work that sticks in my mind, like this piece that I first saw on deviantART:

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Michael Kutsche, Astronauts (2010)

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Michael Whelan is a prolific artist and perhaps best-known for his illustrations for Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series.

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Michael Whelan, Death Wing

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-- Marge

Figuring out what to do next

Most artwork, unlike the goddess Athena, doesn't spring fully formed from the creator's mind.  This is especially true of sequential art, such as film and animation.  For filmmakers the process of producing a full-length film is further complicated by managing film crews, props, and actors.  Planning ahead can save millions of dollars in production costs.  Storyboarding is the answer and technique many filmmakers turn to, as explained in this video about "Lord of the Rings" and how it was planned.

For a simplified look at storyboarding, take a look at this University of Houston page on its educational uses.  Storyboarding can produce some stunning artwork but usually it's sketched quickly, in response to the need at hand.  Closely related is concept art. I'm a big fan of the artwork found in Guild Wars 2; here's a sample.

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Concept art, Guild Wars 2

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As you can see, video games as well as film use storyboarding. The site Game Design Schools has a short, but informative article, "Video Game Storyboard."

For a nuts and bolts treatment of storyboarding -- especially on camera shots, angles, and movement -- take a look at Brian Lemay's page on storyboarding basics.  At one point on the page he says:

I had a course when I went to college called "Visual Language". It wasn't about storyboarding but rather how we interpret visual input through our eyes in everything we look at. This visual input is a language all it's own. Like any other way of learning a language we need to start with the basic building blocks.

How true.

-- Marge