How do y'all draw full-looking backgrounds without losing your will to live?

[jermajay]

All of my backgrounds end up looking super empty, cos I have no idea what to put in them. Especially interior shots - outside environments aren't so bad because I can just add like, a shittonne of trees, but what do you add to interiors?? I end up defaulting to houseplants (and kicking myself when I have to draw all the leaves ;_;)

[katewindloft]

I drew my main Ines before I started my comic, and I saved them. So when doing my comic, 90% of the time I just used background I have already drawn. Then for night scenes I just darken the saved background.

[hockeywebcomics]

I don't, actually. I always lose my will to live, but gotta draw them
What I try to do sometimes is:
draw a "rich" background once and in the following panels, a background with less stuff or no stuff at all, considering that reader already knows the setting.
Something that helps is drawing a key element on the background and in the following panels just repeat this element (and nothing else)
Also, something that gets me to the nerves is that sometimes I draw a background and the speech bubbles cover it.

[jermajay]

Like a 3D model or something? Drawing the main parts are fine, like say for a bedroom drawing the actual room, the bed, the nightstand, etc is fine, it's just putting stuff on top of that that I struggle with.

[LunarScyphozoa]

I make them in sims, take a screenshot, and trace it

[jermajay]

Oo yeah, so instead of drawing everything from the panel, you could just draw like the mailbox and the reader would fill it in? That's a good idea!

Also same, I just spent ages drawing a brick pattern only for the speech bubble to completely cover it

[katewindloft]

In clipstudio Paint they have a perspective ruler which is very helpful, but for the most part I just free hand it. Do a sketch layer, then ink it.

[jermajay]

That's actually really smart haha.

[soulskrobak]

Hey, i'm doing comic from 1930s and thats much bigger problem! Like what the hell they had on their tables, walls, etc...
But if you draw something from this time, just look around you Or you can get inspiration from another comics, movies, photos
But yeah, i'm often stuggling with the same problem

[hockeywebcomics]

Another thing that helps me is drawing the background and the characters apart and only mix them when assembling the coming. And I can repeat the background in some panels, although I avoid doing this too much.

Interiors are a pain in the ass not because of the composition. I like to put elements on the walls and stuff, although I'm very bad with perspectives. I do the best I can. The problem is consistency. Like... uh... was this bed right here? Is the wardrobe on this side or that side? What about this poster... was it on this wall?

Keeping track of every element sucks.

[GumshoeComix]

i honestly could say the same thing for people who enjoy coloring @.@

but a good tip is literally just to trace backgrounds and change them up a bit
drawing from real life is nice but sometimes it doesn't fit where your setting in the comic is
and stock images dont always have the right angle so try to use 3D models

It's not cheating trust me, I got a pal that works in the industry as a character designer and they say people trace all the time especially with anatomy and backgrounds. Use any kind of help you can to make your work easier basically.

Also for the speech bubble issue people keep having-
try typing your dialogue out before inking, It helps you know how much space you need for the bubble and how much you actually need to ink

[AilyneGouveia]

I use a lot of references for inspiration, then I just imagine what angle I need to put the camera in for a good mood and off we go. I learned a lot about vanishing points and perspective to improve them more and more ... I still don't like doing them, but bakcgrounds are just mandatory to create the right atmosphere in a scene.
Not to mention that they show the readers where said scene takes place.

[N1ghtm4r3]

i usually try and do different angles to keep it interesting, and yeah at times i can miss details but you got to trudge through the thickest stuff sometimes to get places

[DokiDokiTsuna]

but what do you add to interiors??

I think an easy way to solve this is to just go look at interiors, in movies, TV, or even just Google Images, and pay attention to what you find. Save pictures to reference/trace later if you have to; it's allowed. ^^; I mean, if you don't know what to add to a room, you won't suddenly start knowing if you don't go and get that knowledge.

Here's a nice one I found on Google. You can see a lot of basic living room elements, including the houseplants you mentioned. But besides the archetypal couch+carpet+coffee table, there are plenty of decor items to take note of.
The little side table with the lamp, the table in the back with the more traditional lamp (and other little knickknacks) that hugs the wall, the well-placed picture frame up above it...the auxiliary chairs that help fill up the space and help define it as a 'sitting area'.

And if you look closer, there are smaller accessories to notice too. There are books (or at least book-shaped items) on both tables, and all the houseplants are varied in size-- some are big enough to take the place of furniture, and some are tiny enough to sit decoratively alongside the books and lamps. There's also a few more random items in there, like the basket, and that thing that looks like a candle on the table.

Random character-related items are also an important part of room-building...although that alone is no substitute for knowing how to furnish and decorate a room. Maybe your character is a mercenary who leaves weapons and maps lying around, or maybe they're a student and they've got textbooks and sticky notes all over the place. But it'll look more natural if all their clutter is lying on top of tables and chairs and hanging off shelves, rather than just scattered across an empty floor.

[FafasMcMelt]

those look great! Awesome stuff

[Darth_Biomech]

I cheat like there's no tomorrow.

[jermajay]

That's super helpful, thank you!!

[Freemints30]

No you will always lose the will to live

Usually I just search up something like "city" and attempt whilst adding my own stuff. If Im lazy like with this piece I just colour monochrome to save time

[noenoh]

maybe until I learn how to use CSP properly I will continue dying every time I draw bgs in SAI (at least Im used to draw this kind of architecture)

still have to do some research and take references cause yeah, I wish I would avoid bgs/enviroments as much as possible but the most I can do is to use them in key panels?? and everything ends as walls and trees at the end xD

[samiluu]

I have just seen this and I literally spent all the afternoon doing this

I personally enjoy drawing backgrounds when I can invent them, but it's true that it takes a lot of effort and hours and hours. I've just spent arround 6'21 hours on this, and I still have to paint it
In the end it's just drawing the perspective lines in a first layer and then search for references and more references that can help you finish it. In complex backgrounds like this one here I make different layers so I can draw them without obstacles and then later sort the different elements and make the complete lineart.
But I honestly draw while I watch series or shows, so I'm entertained, because it's very boring to just draw during all this time without doing anything else, I think that's my trick, maybe it helps too?
I'm gonna post a video on how I draw the background on the next days, maybe next week? if you want to see it, you can follow me on instagram https://www.instagram.com/samiluuofficial

I take reference on pinterest photos but furniture magazine can also help a lot for more casual backgrounds. Just think about your character's personality and the kind on places and enviroments he moves on. In this case, for example, I had to draw the palace of a prince of hell considered the greed demon, and I take influence on ancient egypt to draw him. He also loves cats, so cats are like gods on his country - then I search "egyptian houses", "pyramid", "gold", "bastet statues", "egyptian furniture", "egyptian hotels", etc, etc and I play with gold too to give it the vibes of the demon. I think on how people lives there, what kind of people lives there, what they do,etc.

Sorry for my super-long comment but I think it can all help?