Hey Kate! I was wondering if you could share your process in how you go about drawing backgrounds in your comics? Yours always look on point, Especially when it comes to the interiors of space ships which I find impossible haha. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Okay, first off... sorry this took 5ever for me to answer 😅
So, I suppose the short answer would be a basic understanding of perspective and A LOT of references. I seriously have folders upon folders full of collected photo references and a billion 3D model references from sketchfab and various other parts of the internet. They save my ass whenever I'm having a tough time figuring out a shot.
For understanding drawing perspective as a whole (and so you don't feel lost with all these references and models) I highly recommend the book 'Framed Perspective' by Marcos Mateu- Mestre. I have a copy that sits next to my desk at all times 😊 absolutely amazing. Makes it all seem so easy.
As for my process it's actually very similar to this post I saw not too long ago! Check it out down here ⬇️
https://art-tnt.tumblr.com/post/612413698481537024/indoril-niehaus-bludragongal-askoursquad
But yeah, my process for backgrounds is often pretty similar to what’s above. Find a reference, lay down a guide and then add or take away for whatever you need to. Like this panel and this reference model. I checked some angles I liked to help me figure out my grid then I changed a few things in the room, laid down my lines and added some ships and people. Very common for a lot of artists apparently.
Though I don’t always use model help. If it’s a background I’m familiar with/ have already drawn a million times I can usually do an easy perspective grid myself. Like these ⬇️
I also eyeball quiet a lot of things because I’m lazy😅 as you can tell!
A thing I also do sometimes I’d make a perspective grid around a pose. I get pretty attached to poses. So for his panel panel I took a reference photo of myself from above and built a scene around it. I don’t recommend this for beginners but… yeah it’s a thing I do still. (Sorry, I don’t have the original reference picture anymore) but I think it definitely helps anyone understand how certain angles work.
As for interiors of space ships, I honestly just see it as a lot of repeated or dynamic shapes. You don’t need to do much to make some alright sci-fi scenes. If you look through any space or Star Wars comics a lot of the time the backgrounds it’s just like “oh, they just split this wall into asymmetrical panels and added a pipe or two and some lights.” As you can see, I do exactly that ‘cause again… I’m lazy 😂
If it’s a repeated shape I just make a flat version of the pattern then transform it into my grid. Like these fucking floor oval things at are everywhere in the star wars universe.
Work smart and use all the tools at your disposal to work faster 👍🏻 if you want to see someone go more in depth with a lot of these techniques I highly recommend checking out some of Ethan Becker’s videos on YouTube. He’s a brutally honest animator and he gives what I think are some very helpful tips to people who are intimidated by the industry or furthering their artistic practice.
But yeah... practice perspective and use reference to help you understand! And also random shapes. And also don’t be afraid to fuck up! Try things! You can’t learn if you don’t fail!
Hope this helped! I’m bad at explaining these kind of things 😅
