Do I Need to Worry about Backgrounds & Everyday Objects for My Comics?

[ToxicRamen]

I really want to get started on my webcomics however I'm not good at drawing backgrounds and vehicles including spaceships since two of them are sci-fi comics. I notice that some comics don't have much backgrounds or the way that everyday inanimate objects(including vehicles) are drawn are simple and not in full detail.

Do I need to worry about having detail backgrounds & everyday inanimate objects for my comics OR should I just draw my comics regardless of backgrounds & objects?

[beta1042]

I mean try to have an establishing shot if you change setting? but you don't need backgrounds in every panel.

Also I like the tips on this article:

Art tutorial: 5 hacks for drawing backgrounds quicker - Comics for Beginners

Also for objects you can always trace over some photos of things if you really need the object but just can't draw it yourself. I recently did an episode with an instant pot, I totally took a bunch of photos of my instapot and traced over them XD

[Moxxi]

Full backgrounds aren't always necessary, but it is good to once in a while challenge yourself and portray the areas your characters inhabit to some degree. Sense-of-place can only help to immerse your readers into the world or universe you've created. If it helps, think of the background or objects as characters in themselves, requiring a certain amount of representation alongside your actual characters.

[ben]

I think knowing how to balance when that stuff is necessary and when it isn’t is super important.

Comics with no backgrounds are a huge turn-off for me personally. But also its a really good way to just practice the stuff you’re not confident in. Its allowed to be bad and get good over time. Comics are one of the best art teachers if you’re not cutting too many corners.

[skicoak]

Yeah, you pretty much need to do it for establishing shots and when you want to portray a mood/atmosphere throughout a scene.

It's best to just jump in there and start taking big swings at the stuff you identify as a weakness. You get better by always challenging yourself.

[catluckey]

That was really, really nice! Yep, I've done all of those in different ways. Backgrounds can be backbreaking!!!

[catluckey]

Yep, I agree with what everyone said. Also you can add this. Get some great drawing programs like Sketchup that allows you to create great backgrounds (houses, buildings, etc.) with a push/pull drawing system. It gives you perspective and everything you need! CATCH WORD: Learn!

You can get it free! Here's what a tutorial helped me with!

[droidmonkey1]

As a rule of thumb for myself, I draw details only if needed.
1.the background establish location.
2. the character interacts with a background
3. their other things happening in the backgrounds.
else I give only impressions of the background
applies to other things.

[joannekwan]

Please do try and at least draw establishing shots!
I've seen 'little to no backgrounds' a lot on people's comic pet peeves lists! And it's true. Backgrounds are necessary to tell the reader where scenes are taking place, otherwise one could get lost when reading a story, particularly when you jump scenes to a different time or another set of characters.

And you can only get better if you practice drawing those tricky objects!

[skicoak]

I've been studying a lot of Mike Mignola backgrounds/atmospheres lately.

With a economy of lines and bold shapes, he does some incredible things.

[Cavechan]

Hi. I had the same dilemma with my current webcomic. I had never drawn a spaceship before and my comic is a spaceship battle comic.My advice is to practice drawing as much as possible beforehand and to try a bunch of different designs before settling on a design. And maybe try to make them in Sketchup as someone mentioned. I end up just drawing mine by hand (digitally) every time, but it's difficult to get them looking consistent between panels.

As others have said, you definitely should have some backgrounds and it is something that does unfortunately come with the territory. If you use a program like Clip Studio Paint, it is much easier to make a background than doing it by hand with pen and ink since it draws a line in perspective every time so you can ink as quickly as anything else.

I think a general rule of thumb, at least for manga style comics, is an average of 1-2 backgrounds per page. But some pages might be just dramatic close ups and some pages might require more backgrounds so the amount of backgrounds will vary.

Also, readers LOVE backgrounds. Striking characters, poses, and expressions are nice, but readers will also be wow'd if you have a really nice, detailed background once in a while.

[Kelheor]

Lots of great commentaries above, so I just want to say that please, don't be afraid to draw backgrounds. You shouldn't draw it in every frame, but most of the time not so great background is so much better than none at all.

And really, they will become better! It is hard, but don't forget to use references, color palettes and other helpful stuff.

I'm saying, because when I started Hexameron I just didn't draw any backgrounds before in my life, maybe one or two. Still not a fan, but they are worth drawing

[ble]

This post was flagged by the community and is temporarily hidden.

[cleo_san]

Deoends on the type of comic, although I go by the rule, that at least 1 panel per page has to have a background. Otherwise people get bored looking at faces all the time. (I'm drawing a Manga, not short comic strips, but even there you can have som pretty badass backgrounds)

[MST3KFan]

When I started my comic, it was influenced by newspaper comic strips as the comic was originally planned as a "Gag-A-Day" strip, but it changed quite a bit to where it become more of a slice of life comedy, so I started needing backgrounds to set scenes up.

I've been thinking of maybe drawing up backgrounds to paste into the backgrounds using SAI or Photoshop to help on that a little.

POW! Right in the Nostalgia | Tapas

[Luminosophy]

I'm a bit of a stickler for if you're going to do story driven webcomics, you should really get comfortable drawing backgrounds. The good news is, if you spend even a little bit of time watching some tutorials on the rules of drawing in perspective it's an extremely easy feat to achieve. Simply having a horizon line and vanishing points will take out all of the guess work for you. And if you want to get really fancy, you can make a scale (real world inches of your furniture dimensions to measurements on a physical ruler) and mark out height and widths of objects to make everything look very realistic.

You're not required to draw intricate BGs every single panel. But it is plainly obvious when an artist is avoiding them, just like having character's hands behind their backs to avoid drawing hands. It can really hold your work back, because your characters start looking like they only exist in a floating void and it's uncomfortable experience for people to read through. It's like writing a novel but refusing to ever mention where the story is taking place.

I recommend Mark Crilley's tutorials to start with, he's got a playlist of very basic introductory concepts.

[mrtoontastic]

You took the words right out of my mouth.

[yondoloki]

You don't need to worry about them, but do keep them in mind. If you are not good at environments at this point, there's only one way to go and that's just to do your best. You will learn it as you go.

One of the reasons I started my own comic was that I didn't like doing environments either, but it forced me to do them, and improve.

It can be very daunting to start, but a very helpful tool when I started was the 3D program SketchUp. It's free, and it enables you to look at objects from all angles, and help you find perspectives and such.

[Kittosaurus]

I think a lot of people have already summed this up very well. But yes, you do need backgrounds in your comics. Not for every panel but you do need them!

Backgrounds are also my weakness! But I haven't let that stop me. I am currently trying to figure out better ways to incorporate them/ make life easier for myself!