How do you go about incorporating backgrounds into your comic?

smokesalty · Sep '22

It seems to be a running joke that a lot of artists don't like to draw draw backgrounds, but I feel with comics it's very necessary to have them! (speaking as a person whose paintings are just adding a black background and calling it a day!)

I know people go about adding backgrounds differently, whether it be drawing it themselves, making the backgrounds in an app/game such as the sims as reference, taking irl photo, using 3D assets ect.

So, how do you go about adding backgrounds into your comic? And also- how often do you show them in the comic?

For me, I spent a little less than a year 3D modelling all my backgrounds for my comic I knew I was gonna be lazy with drawing them myself so I thought what the hell I'll model them instead since I have a very specific idea of what I want them to look like. I fight laziness with more work somehow

E.g. mozzie man's fancy office which I would not have the energy to draw the details for the life of me. Now I don't have to worry about consistency, which is very nice.

I collect a large amount of reference images for my backgrounds so that I can have a clear view of what I want and model things more accurately.

These are created and rendered in blender, as I have better control over the quality and lighting than in Clip Studio (the textures mess up on there anyway.) I render the backgrounds based on what angles I need for the week's pages, with the colours and lineart seperate to allow for easy fixes.

I don't include backgrounds in every shot as it can be very distracting, but I'm able to include them often because it doesn't take long for me to render them, which I'm very grateful for.

Ofc, with incorperating them into the comic, I make sure to add shadows to where the characters are standing, and shading the characters to fit the background definitely helps a ton. The backgrounds use thinner lineart than my art, so it helps still distinguish the characters from the background.

darthmongoose · Sep '22

I generally only draw backgrounds once or twice per page if I can help it. They take a fair bit of work and sometimes add distracting detail.

Most of the time, I'll use either a stock photo or 3D model as a starting point, trace over it by hand and often add a lot of flourishes and stuff to make it feel more organic. The hardest scenes are always ones where the only models I can get just don't feel "British enough". So places like the Chapter House Lounge, which I wanted to look like a pub, or Subo's lounge, are made out of assets and then a lot of building everything else from scratch in Unity. In the case of the Round Table, I had to build that table and the chairs from scratch in Blender because I couldn't find appropriate props. Then I stuck it into some catacombs from the Unity asset store, set up cameras, traced and painted it all from scratch....

So the final panel here is obviously done using the above 3D image from Unity... The second panel was using a generic castle hallway from Clip Studio's asset store, and the first panel, I started with a stock photo of Edinburgh (because it's a city with grand architecture dominated by a castle) and then just started going wild with lots of hand-drawn details and referencing Roman architecture to give Camelot a distinctive look.

UrMom · Sep '22

I just draw mine. Normally using a grid layout, add in the horizon point(s), and free hand if from there. Sure, I could setup 3D models for reference, and I'm sure it would look much better, but in the time it takes me to make one I could have just drawn out the background. I just don't got the time for that. Personally I'm not a fan of drawing certain setting, specifically urban areas since they have too many straight lines, and buildings are just a pain. I've improved a lot since I started though, I've gotten much faster and it's become much easier to draw these environments... Even if my perspective and design are still pretty catawampus.

When doing backgrounds the amount depends on the scene and panel size, but I normally have them in at least 2-3 panels a page. Sometimes the whole page has backgrounds, my characters are always interacting with their environment so it's hard to not have them in without it looking weird.

JoblessInUSA · Sep '22

3D ALL THE WAY!

Im new to drawing, I can’t even draw my own lemons so I use free ones from SketchUp.

I designed my own kitchen and it was a disaster. I take a bunch of free crap from sketchup’s warehouse and turn it into my background. I keep messing up the walls tho, they turn into crazy triangles and it drives me nuts.

BoomerZ · Sep '22

Backgrounds are overrated other than establishing shots and to let the read know where you are. Look at just about any movie. Once the dialogue starts, the background goes blurry (from depth of field), and once the action starts, unless you are using a staged set (Jackie Chan props to be used), most of the time it doesn't matter as you will have lots of speed lines to show movement. If you have to have background, I just power through them. And add little things to make them look real. In a bedroom this includes light switches, power outlets, baseboards and door trim, ceiling lights, and the like. Make the room looked lived in. Same for a kitchen. Have a toaster oven, coffee maker, knife block, etc... not just empty cabinet tops. google stuff that door knobs, hardware and the like to know how they look. And try to not have all super straight lines of the same weight for you background. Specially if your drawing style if very loose. It gives to much of a cut-n-paste look to your comic.

DokiDokiTsuna · Sep '22

Same as I have for years now: I freehand them, and then polish them up after scanning.
Although, recently my eye for perspective has gotten good enough for me to construct some backgrounds entirely with my pen mouse, as long as they're relatively simple and uncluttered...like these stair shots, which turned out surprisingly well. I don't think I would've been able to do this three years ago:

Lately I've been trying to take my own advice and focus on constructing backgrounds to look cute and fill up the negative space in a fun way, rather than to 100% accurately show what would be around the characters from a given angle. Like, y'know, stylization. ^^;
And I think one of the reasons so many artists dislike drawing backgrounds is because that's so rarely encouraged...

Like, imagine if whenever you looked at a tutorial or opened up a comic, all the people were drawn photorealistically, with clean vector lines. And the most common advice given to learn to draw people was to just 'trace over photos of human beings'. You can imagine how many artists would be frustrated with that, and probably grow up thinking they just hated drawing people...that's basically what's going on, only with backgrounds.

And it's sad, because there are so many more things you can do...like, I have nothing against tracing/painting over 3D models, but I think the popularity of that technique has made a lot of people think their only options are to either use it or spend many miserable hours trying to replicate it. :[

Unfortunately, I myself am not skilled enough to give advice about alternatives...I think the main reason I still don't like doing backgrounds is because I'm in an "experimental" stage with them, still trying to figure out what works and doesn't work for me at this point in time. But once I get out of it, I'd like to try to do some tutorials. ^^ Color theory and shape language can work just as hard for you as a perspective grid, if you take the time to learn how to use them.

I would say "as rarely as I can get away with" but that's actually not true. ^^; I still tend to think like an animator, rather than a comic artist, so backgrounds are usually an important part of most of the shots I come up with. If anything, I often have to revise my paneling to include fewer background elements, because I know I won't have the energy to draw them all.

I think this fancomic is a good example of how I ideally 'ration out' background work:

When there are fully-drawn backgrounds, they can get a little wild (like that bird's eye-ish shot in the third to last panel...to this day I don't know why I decided to do that to myself) but most of them are minimal, and about half the panels have either basic shapes or no BG at all.* That's a very comfortable ratio for me~

*BTW, it's a LOT easier to get away with that stuff in monochrome, and if doing backgrounds is absolute hell for any of you out there, I implore you to give a B&W comic a try, at least once. Screw people who only read full-color comics; your enjoyment and comfort is more important than any 'potential fan' with such a shallow mindset...

Aleksei · Sep '22

The same than @JoblessInUSA!
I have been learning to use sketchup for my backgrounds, because the warehouse its so useful!
When that fails, I go to clip studio assets, and/or search for some free 3d assets online.

I mostly use them to position my characters in the scene, and then forget about it unless the character moves from where they are, or the camera needs to show the background for the action to be understood -like opening doors, reclining in chairs, dropping in a bed, etc.

Here is an example of what I do, Everything done by me in 3D, except the lampost, and then I extract the lines on CSP. I should detail more, though.

RedLenai · Sep '22

I use the Sims 2, I like to play home design on my free time while also being able to use it for work, not to mention that since I have a huge haul of Custom Content, I can make very personalized backgrounds for characters and such

My main rule tho, is to have the 3D background so I can place the models to later draw the characters and make them blend with the area a bit more. I also do the lineart of the background if I feel it's needed, and as well, I provide shading and lighting.

It'll depend on the focus of the chapter, sometimes these are mostly characters talking so I focus more on their faces or other aspects, maybe where they're standing or sitting, but I like to provide some background shots as well for the setting.

arxianfall · Sep '22

They are 3d but i'm making an effort to not make it look 3d.

Scarlet_Cryptid · Sep '22

Oh I draw in all my backgrounds, just like everything else, since I'm doing this on dead trees with color sticks. (Paper and markers).

For good or for ill, and with few exceptions, almost every page has multiple panels with background, unless it really is just a couple of heads talking. Sometimes the background is a little... phoned in here and there...

but other times I wonder if maybe I should tone it down a little.

XiuLyn_12 · Sep '22

Yesss! I'm one of those comic artists who avoid drawing backgrounds!
When I first do my comic, I use real-life pictures, turn them into black and white, and call it a day!
It was a mistake on my part since it does not look natural.

I started using The Sims for creating a house recently, and CSP helps me a lot with my laziness in drawing backgrounds.
I'll stick with those 2 for a while, haha.

Lensing · Sep '22

Backgrounds are important for me as a reader and as a creator.
They are not over or underrated, there are just different kind of creators and readers and
what they like but I do think that they got less important for online comics compared to
printed comics. All comics that I read as a kid had backgrounds in every panel except
close ups and that´s what I like as a reader and creator.
Panels which show more than a close up and have no background look weird and empty to me.
The background can be minimal once it´s established, I also don´t care if the background changes
from panel to panel, I don´t care if a lamp appears and disappears in the background, I also don´t
care if the perspective isn´t correct

I use every tool available to make backgrounds, I sometimes use the sims, different architecture apps
like sweethome3d. When I draw nature scenes I usually take reference from Asterix books because
I like the way how Uderzo draws trees

igneriss · Sep '22

I just draw them with pens like everything else in my serie but I try to make it as easy for me as I possibly can. My backgrounds are quite simple and I use a lot of shapes that are easy for me to draw but add more detailed look.
Most of the panels on a page in my comic have backgrounds, though usually only one panel has it more detailed. I feel like after estabilishing a scene in one panel I can get away with very simple backgrounds like 'here's some random lines in the background but you already know it's a forest' or 'here's a random line but you already know that's a floor', stuff like that.
And I use 'disappearing backgrounds', so sometimes if a background has already been shown before, I just draw it in half of the panel Or panels get gradualy less and less background. Somehow it works.
I try to not leave too many panels without any background, because with a b&w comic it can look very empty. So I try to find a balance on a page.

Here, the scenery is shown in the first two panels, so other panels in that scene will get away with just part of a window as a background:

We're losing background:

I like drawing forest backgrounds...

...but hate interiors, I simplify them as much as I can:

bam, disappearing background

something like this is 1 minute background and that's enough

I'm happy how this one turned out, though it was more difficult than I first expected:

TheLemmaLlama · Sep '22

Drawn by hand - and pretty often Though to be fair, I'm kind of using my current series as practice for drawing backgrounds, since I want to eventually make a comic where the worldbuilding is a big deal, where the setting is unusual enough such that I can't get away with portraying it with standard 3D assets while still doing it justice (I guess I do also think more like an animator than a comic artist, since I like my work to have an immersive, 'cinematic' feel)

So my priorities are kind of different

Oh yeah totally; it's much easier to fudge backgrounds in black and white Idk if it's even possible to omit backgrounds in my 'colouring style' without it looking weird (since the lighting from the environment informs the colours) XD I wouldn't call people shallow for preferring (even exclusively) full colour; B&W is literally harder for some people's brains to process; but it's not like one needs to throw readers under the bus to acknowledge the importance of creators' enjoyment and comfort

TheSingularitySeed · Sep '22

I never took the time to learn 3d models so I just do mine by hand. And I only started doing backgrounds at all once I started this comic lol

I start with a master file that's a rough sketch of the background scene with all the colors and go from there.
There's usually a couple bg per page with varying levels of detail.

I use a lot of reference photos and lots of perspective grids eek

But I do try to free-hand as much as possible because it's faster.

It works since I mainly do nature backgrounds. They're super fast because you can make a lot of mistakes between panels and nobody notices lol

I might end up learning modeling once I do more city scenes...
City scenes seem painful.

toonben · Sep '22

Didn't use asset because it would make the background feel out of place. I go the old-fashioned way by drawing the backgrounds from scratch with Clip Studio's Perspective Ruler. I use Google Maps for drawing real world settings or Google images (or photos) for fantasy settings.

Lady_T_Musings · Sep '22

All y'all up in here are beautiful and disgusting with these epic backgrounds, and to y'all like... "I'd rather not" preaching to the quire hahaha." I only draw bgs if I feel it's necessary to show where the characters are in a scene, otherwise Van Gogh mystic tripper bg it is. I tend to draw characters to fill a space though, so oftentimes there ain't even space for a bg :V (that's a me problem I know, it also affects word placement haha).

Modeling all your bgs before starting is brilliant. I made a whole a$$ map for the lands, then was feeling hella smart by drawing out landscapes for each nation and the people that inhabit them lands and was like aight, "now I'll work on the Institute and the MCs home... hmnn, this a whole lot of grid to fill in". So I tried Sketchup, but like making everything from scratch in 3D was a bit much for me, then I found https://planner5d.com/#_=_1 and it was my savior. You can design in 2d and then pop it into 3d and it was a blessing

This model helped me make the scene below

Junah's home in the woods.

@RedLenai yoooooo the sims 2 was where I use to model my characters for posing, but I should have spent more time modeling interiors as they had a ton of fantastic features for doing that haha!!

Now Cityscapes are a whole other beast. Architecture is not my forte, and though I can do an organic background recreating them heifers is a pain :V. I have a city reveal coming up soon in my comic and I worked on it for weeks, it sure ain't perf or even great but wanted to move on already so got to a point I was satisfied that it showed what I needed and let it be.

I do wish I had spent more time capturing multiple angles of scenes and designing specific scene backgrounds over all these overarching landscapes I did though :V. That would have been way more manageable for me and easy to sub a background into a panel over having to refer to the location and come up with something fitting on the spot bringing my drawing flow to a sputter. Well at least I did do something for the land, so that does help when it's time to come up with something over completely being at a loss.

Lensing · Sep '22

That does sound like a pretty new fashioned way to draw backgrounds though

OohitsEli · Sep '22

I tend to take a more stylistic approach, but whenever I need to draw important and establishing shots the backgrounds as more coherent, or at least that's the best I can describe it. I draw all of them by hand and don't really think much about them tbh

Out There (animatic, Chapter 1 pt 4)

(ok I know that isn't really a page but it's part of my comic so point still stands)

Llyrel · Sep '22

I'm a big fan of Alessandro Barbucci's work as well as French graphic novels with all their incredibly detailed backgrounds, so about 5 out of 6 panels in my pages (if not all of them) have a background. Fun fact, now that I understood how to use Procreate guidelines, I actually love drawing them and tbh they're the least time consuming part for me :'D

That said, I do use shortcuts to save time. Unless I'm working with simple shapes, figuring out the correct proportions for everything still requires time, so I'll usually make sure to rebuild the exact scene I have in mind either in CSP or The Sims 3, complete with characters. Then I'll set my Procreate guidelines to match the perspective of my 3D screenshot as closely as possible and use those to draw. The final result is pretty similar to the 3D model, but with some variations:

For the cemetery scenes, I drew some assets and then recycled the crap out of them. For example... see this statue?

I swear to God, I only drew it ONCE and then pretty much never, EVER bothered to redraw it again (save for one panel where it was shown from above) XD all I did was using resize/distort/adjust colors. Same goes for the trees and bushes you can see at the cemetery. I have like... 3-4 hand painted assets I keep rearranging in different ways over and over again :'D

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