Does anyone have any tips to drawing backgrounds?

Xixpas 2019-12-16 13:39:51 UTC #1

Im writing a comic with someone and imma draw it, but im terrible at backgrounds so yeah, any help is helpful, specially cause we are making a story with very hard backgrounds and architecture and stuff

ninjashira 2019-12-16 14:33:58 UTC #2

My go-to trick, especially for architectural backgrounds, is to use the crap out of Google Sketchup. It's a free application you can download, and there are a TON of free 3D models in the 3D Warehouse that you can look up, all of which are free use models so you don't have to worry about copyright issues.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/?hl=en

If if you're looking for, like, a cathedral, you search it in the 3D Warehouse, download it and open it in Google Sketchup, and turn it in the program to the angle you need. Then screencap it, drop it into whichever program you're using to draw, and use that as your template for drawing your backgrounds.

Also, even if you use heavy reference like that, you still need to have a basic understanding of perspective in order to make sure your characters are situated with the backgrounds properly and that your backgrounds make sense. I personally really like "Perspective for Comic Book Artists" by David Chelsea. It's all drawn as a comic with his two characters talking about and interacting with the perspective around them. It starts out pretty basic with the easy stuff you need to know for most situations, then gets really weird and deep with NASA-levels of math at the end. It's highly entertaining.

Xixpas 2019-12-16 14:36:57 UTC #3

i used sketchup before but i triedmaking the buildings by myself, didnt work, so yeah. i dont wanna use templates made by other ppl

darthmongoose 2019-12-16 14:45:12 UTC #4

One of the best pieces of advice I've heard from various good comic artists is: "Don't think of it as a "background" your characters are in front of, think of it as an environment they're in." Often people draw the characters, then draw a background behind them, but often in establishing shots particularly, you'll probably want to sketch the environment first, then put the character into it. You'll get less flat looking scenes this way.

My other advice would be that if you've done a really good establishing shot, you should only need about one or two panels with a bit of background in per page, and the others you can get away with patterned, textures or blurry backgrounds and focusing on the characters. A couple of panels with good backgrounds are better than every panel having a background but they look really rushed and hard to understand.

DokiDokiTsuna 2019-12-16 15:15:38 UTC #5

I also suck at backgrounds, but I do have a tip: design them ahead of time.

Sketch a floor plan of the room, map out where each notable piece of furniture is; then start using it in the comic. Or design the types of buildings that are gonna be on the street around the character, and then start putting them in.

It takes the guesswork and "oh, great, what do I put in THIS panel" out of the experience. It may still be hard to actually draw the backgrounds, but now you have a pool of fixtures to choose from, and depending on where the character is in the space, you know exactly what should be seen behind them.

sarrowsmith10 2019-12-16 15:28:08 UTC #6

This is a common thread post, maybe check some of these first:

elyss 2019-12-16 16:22:49 UTC #7

Draw the background without the characters in it is my first advice. It's way easier to enjoy that way (I hated backgrounds until I did this)

Next, don't be afraid to splice images together to get what you want. I'll create backgrounds made up of like 5 different images.

Last, add some interesting things like patterns, images and such. Give the background personality

Rhonder 2019-12-16 16:53:35 UTC #8

Especially if you'll be drawing a lot of urban environments/architecture, it's really worth the price of admission to learn how to use the 3 basic types of perspective: 1 point, 2 point, & 3 point. I found while learning them that the concept is kind of easy to understand, but it takes some practice to learn how to use them properly/well (for example, since I started out doing a lot of traditional art in cramped work areas, i would often place my vanishing points for 2 point perspective wayyyyy too close together, making for a weird overly distorted look.)

I also recommend looking up Mark Crilley's (sp?) Video tutorials on how to use each type of perspective on YouTube. I found them really helpful when getting started