honestly, backgrounds, landscapes and all that stuff is the most enjoyable part of drawing for me so i'm gonna share how i do it
if i do a photo study, i try to make the whole piece less detailed and more based on recreating the colours and shapes that would make up the general vibe i'm aiming for rather than copying everything that is visible in the photo
(or even if i'm not doing a photo study and try to draw from my imagination, it's better to operate with simple shapes and then add details gradually)
so, when it comes to planning out the whole background, i usually focus on those simple shapes and skip the sketch phase cause it actually makes it more difficult (at least for me)
SOMETIMES though, i do a sketch but only when i have something else in mind and not only the basic landscape, like adding some characters or animals or other important objects
...but more often than not i add them later cause my process of thinking when drawing is really chaotic so i usually decide to add something in the middle of creating (like here) if a random idea suddenly pops up in my mind lmao
after drawing those basic shapes i add more and more details, shadows, lighting, etc... at this point i merge all of the layers if i decided to start with a sketch; if not - i draw everything on only one layer from the very beginning (but it's just my personal preference and also a matter of habit ig)
i like to make some aspects of my backgrounds more vibrant and saturated so that they can stand out more and the whole background isn't that dull; i usually do it with clouds, lighting or smaller details, like here
also! a little tip on blending colours and drawing a basic lighting from me - if you use this more saturated colour for, let's say clouds, blend it a little with the base colour of any object you want to put lighting on. the new colour can be used like that, it's slightly less saturated and fits better
i've probably mentioned that some time ago but i play A LOT with saturation and darkness of the colours during my process of creating cause i feel like the colours i pick at the very beginning are a bit too dim and muted to my liking and making them more vibrant makes the whole piece more interesting imo
and that's it! it's really not that complicated, mainly just playing with shapes, colours and their saturation and depth;>
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2. How do you do colouring? Like with Violetpaw, who's described as a black and white cat. I literally thought she was purple initially, but I realised cats can't actually be purple. I saw your Die Young animation before actually reading all the books (there are like a million books, and books are expensive, please bare with me). Anyways, I love your style! I think your Violetpaw design is really cute:)
QUESTION 1: (i also answer the second Q its just at the end of the post!)
If you had asked me about how to do backgrounds like a year ago I wouldn't have answered because I didn't really have a process besides fiddle around and hope and pray LOL but! now I've figured out a way I like to do it so here we gooo
I'll be using this commission I did as an example! I've also JUST posted a speedpaint of it here (lucky that i was working on this bg heavy piece when i saw ur ask!)
Cont. under the cut! âŹď¸
commission info || ko-fi (tip jar)
I used to try and paint my backgrounds, aka no lineart straight to colours, but i always hated doing it so I ended up thinking. why dont i just treat my background like im lining+colouring a character. and now it feels way more do-able!
sketch
lineart (I've been trying out using a different more textury/pencil crayon type brush to differentiate it more from my character lineart brush and i think it looks good yay)
flat colours (here the moss/leaves are on diff layer above the trees, and I'll put more layers behind for the middle trees/back-most trees/ground etc.)
Painting! aka shading. yes I still do some painting lol cause i really love the look but for me I found it way easier to paint within the structure of a lined object
colour the lineart; for backgrounds this is usually as simple as making it dark brown, but if it stands out too much (aka is distracting from the characters/main focal point) I'll colour parts of it to make it 'disappear' more
And here's my painting process, which! also goes over how i choose colours for painting:
your lines+flat colours
choose like 3-4 colours to do shading/lighting v roughly with a textury brush, make the colours overlap
Now colour pick as you paint! This gives you a much wider range of colours than the 3-4 you chose in step 2, but its much easier than like handpicking all 17 or whatever of these subtle variations.
I don't quite know how to describe painting any more than that orz so for more painting help look into yt tutorials / do studies to observe how lighting/shading affects an object
Here's a shitty phone recording of me doing step 3 in real time:
My final stage of backgrounds/the entire piece is what i call finishing/final touches. This is for atmosphere and to make every layer feel even more like they're in the same scene.
On a few layers above of almost everything else, I'll go in with an airbrush on whatever blending mode looks nice (usually overlay n multiply) with a "lighting" colour (so in this scene its like sunlight orange-yellow), and brush over areas where light hits most. And then same with a shadow colour (and/or sometimes just a unifying colour e.g. if the background is mostly red i might airbrush a bit with a red cllr if it looks good)
textures! these are ABOVE EVERY OTHER LAYER! I got my textures from CSP assets here . I'll use em with the soft light blending mode and usually turn the opacity down to 30% or lower? to make it p subtle. I usually stick with just 1 texture but this piece i went with more lol just felt like it. I also like to add some colourful noise also at soft light blend mode. (photoshop had an effect that could just Make it but csp doesn't so tbh I made it in photoshop and then exported it and have been using that same colourful noise jpg for my projects since lol n it works. u can download my noise jpg here if u wanna use it)
Also btw it's not that backgrounds without lineart are bad, far far from it, I just didn't have whatever skill possesses those background painters lmao they look so pretty n that's why I had always tried to do the same ;w; But I've managed to figure out a way that works for me and I can still get that painted look in there! So its always good to experiment and see what process works for you C:
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QUESTION 2:
For your second question honestly I'm still kind of in the winging it stage lol; but I did make a small colour tutorial here
I will say about my Violetpaw: She is kind of purple in my design, which I chose specifically because of the 'violet' in her name. Or rather, it's a purplish grey that just looks white in comparison to the dark parts of her fur (which is also just. a really dark purple)
Colour is all about contrast and how it looks darker/lighter/more green/more red etc etc etc. next to another colour!
I try to avoid using pure white/black in my colours Especially for character designs because I think the tint of the "white/black" colours can add to the character's vibe/personality
But truly a lot of my process is just keep putting colours together until something looks good LOL and sometimes I'll put like a blue colour on overlay at 50% etc to see if that makes the colours work together better and sometimes it does n sometimes not
I know I've uploaded full speedpaints of stuff before, but in case anyone was curious about stuff like bricks/floor boards specifically, this is pretty much how I do it. First strong gradients over the surface and then I add some smaller gradients at the bottom of each brick/board, trying to add a different amount each time so they never look exactly the same color
I am of the belief that you can cram as much stuff into a characterâs house as theyâll allow and still make it look good, so as you read this, keep that in mind. As with drawing, I also believe that you can draw nearly anything and make it appealing with small adjustments.
So I know you didnât want a tutorial on how to do backgrounds but I feel like thatâs a part of all this so Iâll just give a quick rundown and get everyone on the same page...
Design floor plan. This is a top down view of the space with all the furniture represented by simple shapes. Usually in my head I already have a pretty good idea of what the Trying Human characters' homes and rooms will look like before I get to this point. If you need help with that, I just do Google searches for things like âeclectic bedroomâ or âmodern kitchenâ. This also helps with getting an idea for set dressings (books, pictures, lamps, room clutter, etc.)
This is FJ12 and Pigmentâs apartment from Trying Human. The first sketch was done on a scrap of paper, scanned, and tightened up in a second pass.
Model room in 3D modeler of your choice. I use SketchUp (https://www.sketchup.com/plans-and-pricing/sketchup-free) since itâs made for this kind of thing. Thereâs also a ton of free plugins and resources out there to use when modeling as well as a large concise tutorial community on YouTube and The SketchUp Essentials (http://www.thesketchupessentials.com/). I think seeing something in 3D that you can really visually interact with helps you to decide if a room is âworkingâ.
Hereâs the model for their home. Iâve only modeled the front room area because so far those are thats the only area thatâs been featured. Technically there is a hallway and stairwell model for the scenes that took place outside outside of their apartment but theyâre not connected and a seperate file. I also make the walls easy to hide so I can get my camera in there. Itâs kind of like working with a digital dollhouse. Â
Tip: Donât bother modeling/staging anything that wonât be shown or the characters wonât interact with. Half the time that kitchen and dining room set arenât in the model because you just canât really see them. I also remove props from the background if I find it too distracting.
For example:
Rose is in the same location in both shots but in only one shot do I actually show the kitchen behind her, albeit blurred. Itâs very faded and washed out to help push that depth of field. Rose also has the effect applied near the bottom of her body in the second panel to help force FJ12 into the foreground and put some distance between their bodies.
Here is the same depth of field effect applied to the wall, shelves and far part of the couch.
Here are some different techniques for making backgrounds âworkâ:
Blurring - This is the quickest way to move a character forward. I wouldnât use this effect in this panel however as Rose is about to interact with the background element by putting her book away.
Outline - A faint outline around a character of a neutral color in the room is a nice way to bring a character forward without sacrificing the clarity of props and sets.
Rimlight - This is similar to the last one except the outline is now built into the characterâs shading.
Fading/Fogging - This adds atmospheric depth by setting the background and props further back from the more richly colored and saturated foreground elements.
Watch for tension between foreground and background elements. Even word balloons and sound effects should be considered if youâre staging for a comic.
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Iâve had a few asking how I do these backgrounds, and I finally remembered to save the time-lapse for it! Sorry for the choppiness, I tried to slow it down a bit to be easier to see
