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Nov 2020

IDK about y'all but backgrounds have always been something I've admired when I see them done, but dread the thought of doing them. I used to think it was a universal dread, like knowing you will have to get over the aversion to drawing hands, but have found out that's not really the case. Some folks really go ham on backgrounds and love it.

I knew that in making my comic I'd have to draw some backgrounds, even if they were just in establishing shots, so I tried my best to find any program or tool that would help make it easier on me for creating that which I dread. I've found a few neat things that have helped me with interior design like using Planner 5D for structure layouts and rooms (It's a pretty baller program by the way for folks who could use a lil assist in room layouts, but don't want to completely build something from scratch like in SketchUp.) and well the Sims 3...back in the day when it there were tons of mods and support for it.

I've found that drawing backgrounds or landscapes is something I don't mind doing when they are stand alone (and not based off of anything to grounded in reality), but when they have a reason to exist due to characters and being interreacted with I'm like...do what now? I know it's something I'll get more accustomed to as I do it more, I mean Chapter 1 of my comic MagicalMashup!11 starts with a house exterior in the middle of the woods as the first panel (that was a journey). Anyway, I'm curious to hear how others tackle the subject.

TLDR: Backgrounds are work. How do you approach backgrounds and settings in your comics or do you just not? Any tips or tools you'd recommend? Wanna express your joy or dread over making backgrounds? I'm all eyes heh.

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There are 61 replies with an estimated read time of 13 minutes.

Bumping and looking as well. I know another artist who is currently struggling with this as well, so keeping my eyes out :eyes:

I used to dislike backgrounds alot as I imensly struggled with perspective. But as I started to focus more on them I started to love them. What helped me is to simply draw some different tropes, like chairs from a magazine, lovely structures when I walked through some nice city (ok Aarau has some impressive old buildings) and so on. I think the struggle origins from the lack of pictures in your head, your artist-library. Even just looking at structures and examine them can help alot, in my experience.

I actually went quite oldschool when learning how to draw backgrounds and perspective. Let's say I quite learned it the hard way (and I'm still learning hahaha). I went from studying the basics of perspective on a book to urban sketching. Have you heard of urban sketchers before? If you haven't, you could give it try! It's actually quite fun and I feel like it has helped me a lot with my background design choices. Like, in drawing a background, it is very important to determine which part of it is going to be the main focus and then leave the rest aside, like, you don't have to put too many details on everything but on that you want to focus on.

Also I remember there was one website about drawing backgrounds which went a little further, like, a background can help express an emotion and if a character is in it, it can also help show his/her personality. I just can't remember the website's name but I thought it was really interesting.
There was even an exercise of describing a character through drawing his/her room!! I think that's not only a good way to learn the technical things about backgrounds but also to have fun while learning them :slight_smile:

I have a love hate relationship with them (as do many others, I'm sure!)

I actually really enjoy drawing backgrounds. I think it's cool to maintain a nice level of grounding in a comic and when done well they look really cool!

But I dread how long they take to line and render properly. Especially with lining... that's just an art issue I have in general. Inking is my least favorite part of the comic making process because it feels redundant and tedious to me (despite loving how my line art turns out when done properly.... so I'm not interested in shifting to a lineless style tbh).

This is probably one of the most intense panels that I've ever drawn and this thing took like hoursssss

Lately I've been trying to play around with ways to make the backgrounds simpler but still substantial. Especially for panels that aren't establishing shots but still benefit from having context. For example, I'm pretty satisfied with how loose I can draw trees like these and still have them look good enough given that they're a background element xD

That's one thing though- I use rendering as a huge crutch. My line art pre-color honestly doesn't look that good @u@ which runs slightly contrary to what I said above but I still stand by it haha.

As for making them more enjoyable, I've found in recent years that I have a lot better time drawing backgrounds when I'm not shy about finding references to help construct them. I still make up a fair amount of things, but it's a lot easier to make a believeable looking scene if you populate it with reasonable details. I like using these 2 panels from TreasureHUNT!! as an example.

The first time I drew the street that the guild hall is on, it's just... very very basic. The buildings have minimal texture and details and the street literally has none. It's okay, but not great

When they return to the guildhall at the end of the story, I tried to apply some of the new detailing touches that I had picked up over the course of the story. The new street design is something that I had adopted much earlier (cobble stone middle with the green stone edges), and the buildings are the same but I tried to texture the two in the foreground a little more, and I added sconces to the guild hall entry because... just like exterior lights on real buildings that are open late, it just makes sense? It's still not the best that it could be, but it hits a lot better and even though the extra detail took more time to draw, it was also more fun :raised_hands:

I use the good ol' perspective rule when doing backgrounds. I go about creating backgrounds depending on the setting; I start by putting up the basic flat background, then add upon it on a different layers. Though in parts; like doing one thing in the mid ground, to the characters, then the background and etc., It helps keep the tone and everything consistent.

I don't mind backgrounds. it's sometimes nice to just live in the moment and draw perspective, youknow? Even though it's a little hard.

So for what I do, I like to think about the camera angle first, and I tend to do interiors of buildings based on 90 degree angles, so that way I don't have to worry about too many curves in perspective (so I nix most round windows and round things unless I have to.) I also take advantage of organic parts of backgrounds that lend themselves towards stamp brushes. Especially for things like trees and grass and foilage, there's so many good brushes out there that can help scatter them around for you. It's still work, and you still have to plan it out, but it nicely fills in space and can cover up a lot of sins. (and anything to fill space is super nice when you're doing a scroll format comic, that often shows passing of time through scrolling)

So I only outline the things that aren't going to be rendered out with brushes. That way I get kind of a blend of both a painterly landscape, and then the comic linework where it needs to be there since this is a comic and so...I kinda want to spread the linework throughout. Like they do in most cartoon animation. Kinda like this?

And like doing it this way is never going to be the same amount of control as drawing every leaf and branch but like...I got a deadline, youknow? It saves me time, and the stylization of the foilage stamps is something I like a lot.

The dread of drawing backgrounds is there for me too, but there’s definitely not as much now as when I started my comic a few years ago.
Part of it was because I didn’t have that much of a grasp on perspective (it’s still not my strong suit!) Another part was a lack of visual reference. I mostly went off of imagination at first. Not much came through quite like I thought it would. I ended up making albums of images that inspire the look of certain places in the comic. Now I’m kinda excited to get to draw them in the future.

What helped me most is to think of backgrounds just like characters. Your hero’s house can look just as strong and upright as them with the right colors and shapes. Like Dreams-of-Gaia said, the way a character keeps their room can tell you so much about them. Once I started thinking of backgrounds in that way, I became less averse to drawing them.

I love painting backgrounds! They're one of my favorite things but that's because I write/draw a sci-fi series. I like showing off the world. No... definitely not easy though haha. It takes me forever but I insist on doing it lol. I just approach it with all the typical things - perspective grids, sketching, then painting over it. Also, I'd always recommend Clip Studio Paint. Awesome program!

I have no talent or imagination for backgrounds.

Most of the time, I draw the characters, and in a different layer do some vertical or horizontal lines that I threat is as.."well...that's the floor, and that's..a wall, I guess that counts as background".

I like or hate drawing backgrounds depending on setting, and how many times I've been drawing it. I really like drawing organic stuff like forests, and drawing expressive living areas is fun when you don't have to do it too many times. Cityscapes, most interior places, anywhere with a lot of technical straight lines I really hate doing. I'm not very good at scaling, and they're a pain in the ass.

How I approach backgrounds, I just do it? Like, I draw out a grid, and the 1-4 perspective points so I won't have to use the ruler throughout sketching the page. I draw the foreground, then background, ink, color, and I'm done. Sometimes I study a bunch of city pics to get a good idea of what I want, or objects like crosswalks, cars and public trash bins.

Assuming you're a digital artist I can't really give you any useful tips, I draw everything traditionally so we pretty much live in totally different worlds. (What is easier or me may be hard for you, and what is easy for you is 98% impossible for me. Lol) I guess for general stuff, do a lot of studying and practice perspective, the more you do it the easier it will get. If you're having trouble coming up with stuff draw your living areas, go to the park (if you can, given current circumstances) and draw, maybe draw different areas of your town. Stuff like that can be intimidating, but as your experience grows so will your confidence.

I try not to go crazy with backgrounds. Mainly because I'm drawing by hand and it uses a lot of ink. But, when I do do a background, I try to establish as much of the scene as possible. Then let the reader's imagination take care of the rest in the following panels.

I also hate drawing backgrounds, lol. I know enough about perspective to be able to make stuff work together. If it's not organic, I lean very hard into 3D and photobashing. These days I spend a lot of time in 3D to make a scene, especially if it's one I need to draw over and over, it's too complicated to free hand, or I need different angles. Then I dump the models into Clip Studio, make lineart out of them and then draw and embellish those lines.

I think having a bit of background is good and ground the character but like not every panel needs it.
just when you feel somethng important is nearby draw that. or if theyre gonna interact with a thing draw that. we dont need every single tree in the forest but haha.
heres my very basic examples admittedly.
first panel (what hes there to do)


Last panel used so the reader gets a sense of kinda where theyll be in the world, a mountainous town

This is for reinforcing the feelings of the character.

usually when I put in the effort to do BGS im asking Why is it here? Am i trying to show or express something? or just to look cool?
looking cool is a totally valid thing btw. but dont beat yourself up over not having them lots have little to none and they still work.

I think you are pretty correct there. I really don't think of much when I try to think of buildings. I love art history, but every time we had to cover architecture I'd fall asleep XD. I wish there were more cool structures where I live, but everything is so flat here :V. I do look for neat architecture online and in magazines sometimes, but like trying to find multiple angels of a building on a picture is rough. Hmnnnn, focus on increasing my artist-library for backgrounds huh? It seems so obvious, but I really don't pay nearly enough attention to studying setting elements as I do with say characters lol. That's pretty solid advice that I will try and be more conscious of, thanks <3.

~Ohhhhh, I haven't heard of Urban Sketchers, but I am looking them up now and color me intrigued! Very solid advice as well. That's probably the one thing I have started to do more since it's kinda fun and shows personality and that's drawing characters in there rooms/homes.

That setup in the Power of Coffee is wild!! I know that had to take a long time, but it looks real good in all it's destroyed glory. I'm loving that treasure chest Guild Hall too. Like the only time I can somewhat deal with architecture is when it doesn't look like a straight up building. I totally see what you are talking about for the textural differences too, really brings the place to life. Rendering also helps me feel a bit better about my backgrounds too. since in my line work for the comic, there isn't much variation in line width, so color to the rescue haha.

I found these really helpful tutorials and they really broke down perspective and made it understandble:

(This one you have to put the English subtitles on)

both these channels are really helpful too!

Edit:
one thing i forgot to add is that some comic artists use a programme called Sketchup to make sets and backgrounds.
I found this tutorial on it.

In my comic I made a quick dining room set in The Sims 3 so that everything was consistent in the many shots, but I'm going to use both The Sims and Sketchup for my comic backgrounds.

I also have a whole playlist that I filled with different comic videos I found if you want to see that:

I'll take your word on it bc architecture in perspective makes me sweat haha. Yasss I love it! Keep it simple, but still has a clear point. I totally dig convenience brushes and need to try making a few of my own, I color my comic pretty flatly, so I need to try making my own to be honest so that the style matches. Though I definitely think painterly landscapes are the bees knees and a lot more fun to do over straight up line art illustrated ones.

Fantastic job filling your vertical space! I haven't tried making a vertical scroll comic yet, but I'm sure I will eventually.