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Klaustasya
Mar '19

Hello there!
For the past months i've only focused on drawing people so i studied a lot of anatomy and drew nude models from pictures (cause i couldn't find real life figure drawing courses) but i'm still in the learning process of this.
So i started feeling tired of always drawing people or anyway characters, and thought that i should improve more into drawing perspectives and backgrounds as well. How though? Any suggestions?

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    Mar '19

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    Mar '19
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KoreanTacos
Mar '19

Go outside and sketch the scenery. The art classes at my school will often send their students to town to sketch various locations and have passes to go into buildings to sketch in different angles.

Though some might argue the teachers are just lazy for doing this, but whatever...

Memai
Mar '19

So! Because we're all doing comics here, let's get this out of the way: If you're doing backgrounds for comics, don't be afraid to try and use shortcuts or minimize the details of your background (half the time, readers aren't really paying attention to that. It's a great way to establish a scene, however!)

That being said, one of the things I've done to try and do more backgrounds is to just... do them. They're not always perfect but they get the job done.

Couple of things I would recommend:
- Use the Sims as a background/room generator. Draw over it/Reference it and try adding characters into the scene or personal belongings. This helps you figure out which angles work best and how to 'dress' your scene.

  • Paint along with Bob Ross. You'd be surprised at some of the techniques you begin picking up from painting along with him. If you're doing a lot of outdoor scenery, this is a great way to get your hand used to the strokes and techniques a lot of painters use. It translates pretty well into digital, and once you get the hang of it, you can start on your own!

  • Can't go outside? Visit free stock image sites like Unsplash for high-res photos of cities/landscapes/etc. These make for fantastic references for practice, and if you're coloring along, helps you figure out how lighting/reflections work too (and also building up a neat color scheme, as a lot of the photos lean on the artistic side).

  • Start small: Draw a couple of pieces of furniture together, say an armchair and a side table. Then expand towards the rest of the room.

  • Perspective can be tricky: And what I've learned is that sometimes what is right tends to look wrong. Don't be afraid to skew the rules just a little so the drawing looks more aligned.

I hope these tips will help you! Good luck ^w^/

KoreanTacos
Mar '19

That's actually a really creative idea I never would have thought of. Finally a good excuse to buy that game.

Memai
Mar '19

I'm actually surprised a lot of people haven't tried! I've been using that technique since the Sims 2 came out and it's been surprisingly helpful when I cannot for the life of me figure ANYTHING out.

I'd suggest Sketchup but as I understand it, it's not necessarily free anymore. Might as well get a game out of it too :stuck_out_tongue:

IdiotWithPencil
Mar '19

go into google, look up "landscape" choose one and start drawing it in detail, no bs here this is the best way to learn how to draw anything

Kittosaurus
Mar '19
Memai

Haha I literally created my character's entire apartment in the Sims for reference! But the ironic thing is, after the first episode I jump to a fantasy world so I've barely spent any time there and most of backgrounds I've had to create them from scratch...

mariusthered
Mar '19

I build a library of backgrounds for my comic that i can drop in quickly building it up as i need a new room or location. it can save bags of time. outside you might need to do day and night versions.

VibrantFoxRegular
Mar '19

I've sometimes used Minecraft to build out certain settings if I feel like i can't find a certain reference or have a specific building design in mind.

Also like people above have said taking photos of your own and using those as ref works as well as referencing photos from places like Unsplash or looking at google

I also found this thread kinda useful:

There's definitely cases where you'll have to fudge perspective because what is accurate doesn't look good but that note on drawing pieces of furniture or objects with/without the characters interacting with it then building out works.

indagold
Mar '19

Idk I've always struggled drawing people not backgrounds but some tips to get a good background:

  • atmospheric perspective, have things closer be darker and things fading into the background be lighter
  • this seems pretty obvious but make your backgrounds have depth where things closer are bigger and things in the back are smaller
  • organic backgrounds are easier, you can cheat pretty easy with them. Just look at a real landscape and doodle around, you might get something interesting
Merle
Mar '19

You can definitely take a reference Picture and try to transfer it into a different style (comic, for example ;D), use the same method as for figure drawing to get a feel for it (1 min sketch, 5 min sketch, 10 min sketch).
I´d also recomend to learn perspective, if you haven´t and learn it again, if you ahve :smiley: There´s a lot of things you need to understand to put them into good practice.
Also, if you still would like a free figure drawing curse, this YT channel uploads one every Sunday, and has a libary of over 300 sessions, all for free: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAZZ8kXStsAD_SJS9LWNdEQ37
Good luck!

dojo
Mar '19

When I draw a room I literally just draw a bunch of boxes in perspective and then just keep adding details to said boxes until it looks like a room. Obviously reference and whatnot tends to get involved as well (especially if I'm drawing a location I'm unfamiliar with), but yeah, I've found the best way to draw backgrounds "accurately" and quickly is to save details for last. That might help with interiors and geometric outdoors scenes, since they tend to give people the most trouble. (also fun fact, the more details you add, the more you can hide any weirdness with your perspective. Adding detail can sometimes be more of a time saver than trying to make sure all your perspective is completely on point.)

SNOWDON
Mar '19

I've taken to using Blender to create simple box-based environments, which I then render out and use as a guide for drawing my environment in the comic. Makes it really fast and easy to knock out some great perspective shots. But you still need to do the actual drawing with this method, so definitely study up by doing still life, landscapes and practicing with understanding 1, 2 and 3 point perspective. For the different types of perspective, there are some fantastic tutorials on YouTube. And if Blender intimidates you, Sketchup works just as well. And there are tutorials for both on YouTube.

Luminosophy
Mar '19

I hardline encourage starting with 1,2,3 point perspectives and so on. It looks daunting but when you try the exercises and follow YT tutorials you'll be surprised at just how easy everything is. It also takes the guesswork out of fiddling with angles of objects and trying to get them "looking right". Start technical, save time, build through your 3D objects and save details for last like dojo said. Building on these foundations will start to eliminate the need for 3D programs because you'll draw faster with these foundational perspective skills drawing custom environments rather than spending a lot of time sink on setting up scenes then exporting to filters/ tracing/ rendering.