How important is scenery?

[Mari]

It kind of depends. If it's fantasy/scifi/ any sort of unnatural setting, it's super important. Any sort of realistic slice-of-life thing though, I don't think it's as important. Just make sure you have a design for all revisited locations so there won't be continuity errors, and that should be enough imho.

[Chroma]

I think it also matters on what point you're trying to get across in your scenes. Emptiness in the panel can be reflective of what's going on inside your character or place more emphasis upon the subject. Whereas a really busy panel can portray confusion. So it can be a stylistic choice!

[Maps]

I had the same worry. I think it's nice to have at least one or two panels with a decent look at the surrounding scenery, and then simplifying on close-ups of the characters. Like, you can just add a small bit to the background at those points (based off the scenery panels) or just use colors/blurring.

[irohakowalski]

In general, I think that people appreciate backgrounds even if they don't pay too much attention to them. Someone once told me that most if not all panels should have a background. I think you can get away with it in situations where you need to focus on what the character is feeling like @Chroma mentioned. If it's a comedic or slice of life comic that's simple throughout I think you can get away with it but you may be limited with your visual storytelling if you have absolutely no background or indication of setting. For example: if your characters are sitting somewhere or have decided to travel somewhere there should probably be some sort of indication of setting. From what I've usually seen- comics that can get away with no backgrounds are the ones that are relatively simple to begin with and are black and white. I think if it's plot relevant you should be okay! People appreciate artistic skill but they tend to stick around for plot.

[imiogri]

Thanks for the input so far everyone but I don't think I was very clear with my problem. Backgrounds in my comic will exist and the setting is very clear, it will never just be blank. The thing is that the setting is going to be unchanged for a long period of time and I'm worried that will be uninspiring. I changed my question to "diverse environment" to try make it more obvious what I'm on about! (I can't spoil what happens in my comic so I have to be vague lol)

[Maps]

If I’m understanding, a lot of your chapters will be taking place in one setting and your worried that people will become bored with it?
I think as long as the dialogue and the actions are interesting, you will be fine. There may be some
people who want things to switch up a bit, but honestly if it’s gripping enough, I doubt many people will notice.
But I think it would be nice to switch it up every so often just for a change of environment/giving the comic a new sort of spin.

[joannekwan]

You can have panels focusing on hand gestures, body language, or objects in the setting to break up the sea of faces~

[Shanny8]

Scenery establishes the tone for your story. With that being said- if you're going to change up the mood/tone and keep it a certain way for a lengthy duration of time, then that change needs to be pertinent to the overall story and keeps the reader focused.

[JeanGuillet]

scenery is important. it's eye catching. I think it would be a bit of a shock to go from lots of scenery to none, dull black for 50 episodes, you're right to think this through carefully. Is there no way you can make the dull black a little less dull and maybe not so black? Maybe let in a little of the beautiful things that your audience is used to, just to remind them of what was lost? stars shine even on the darkest of nights.

[imiogri]

I'm keeping it very vague for spoiler reasons so it's not technically just black, the scenery has a purpose and will be spliced with flashbacks that will return to color. Your words are very inspiring though! Maybe I'll look into how to make the environment beautiful although it isn't! It's a very important setting after all.

[L2025]

That's an interesting foresight for settings. Like the way you've put it

[L2025]

Some good points on scenery man.. am quite humbled. I don't know if pathetic fallacy is an overused device/topic, but I think weather can have a significant effect on the mood of your story, weather (pun intended) portrayed through characters or what activity/event is taking place. And that being said, colour would be tantamount in conveying mood; mood colour chart..

[ble]

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[Akhdas]

It's important enough to establish a tone or environment they are in.

[SleepingPoppy]

the scenery has a purpose and will be spliced with flashbacks that will return to color.

I think the BG being monotonous without interruption can get dull, but if you have things like this to break it up, and otherwise take some care with your design of the pages, you will be fine. Just make sure what you do draw brings some visual interest, and occasionally find creative ways to break things up, and you'll get away with a dreary or samey background over a longer period of time. There are comics that do well with very minimal backgrounds, after all. ^^

[rmdooley]

Scenery is pretty important for a comic because it is a visual medium. If you are doing gag or small slice-of-life strips you can absolutely get away with simple backgrounds.

If you aren't, you need scenery. You need background not just for visual appeal but because it communicates the world to readers.

[borzoiteeth]

For myself genre doesn't matter, its how important the information is or what you are trying to highlight. I was starting to nod along to other's suggestion but for a slice-of-life Yotsuba&! would not be the powerful piece it is without its backgrounds. After establishing whatever it needs it then can cut to face panels for a tad before highlighting another background. Said background usually there to establish character's placements from each other if not establishing a new mood/scene.

Heck- even in action series where its SUPER important to know character's relation to each other in an environment things like environment can forego.

Comics that are about pushing powerful environments take steps back when the scene doesn't need to be with the character. Vinland Saga has crazy details some panels and others... just faces. Heck some panels are stronger for it because details aren't getting in the way of reading the character's emotions.

Aside from establishing setting/mood is there something about the background the reader needs to understand the character's dialogue? If not, you can simplify it or subtract it.

[Cavechan]

Just draw some backgrounds...... even if it's just a few simple lines or copy/pasted from other panels.

Unless if you're trying to just put out as many pages as possible and prefer just releasing content. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, I've been thinking about doing a comic this way too. But you really just need to consider your end goal and what you want your panels to look like.

I think it's worth drawing a background once a page or very minimum once every other page. It gets quickly confusing when the reader can't place where the characters are. At least for me it's that way.

[simplykit]

very important...

helps create the life around the characters

makes me fell part of your world

[LT1986]

The fact that you mentioned that the change will take place for an entire chapter, sealed up my view of the situation.

I think that it is a great idea. I like seeing changes in story telling styles. It shows diverse creativity.

Now if the change was permanent, I believe that the dialogues would have to be even better to compensate for the strength of scenery being taken away.