#jellietext

Not sure whether this will be temporary or permanent, but I’ve kinda lost interest in Tumblr and don’t really see any point in posting my art here anymore.  I’m pretty active on both Instagram and Twitter and you’re more than welcome to follow me there if you’d like to keep up with my work  (๑•͈ᴗ•͈)◞

Thank you so much! 💕

Backgrounds are actually a bit difficult for me as well, but I’ll do my best to help you out!

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The first step is to understand what elements make a good composition~

- Basic shapes

- Implied lines

- Focal points

- Rule of thirds (Please use this!)

- Odd numbers (Remember that odd numbers are everywhere in nature, like a group of three flowers, for example. An odd number of things is pleasing to the eye since it’s so natural. Even numbers make things look too mathematical and perfect.)

- Color, Value and Contrast

- Angle

- Positive and Negative Space

There are probably a lot more I haven’t listed, but there are plenty of resources around the web that can help if needed

For me, the hardest part of creating a background is getting the character(s) to fit into it without looking wonky. Color, value, and contrast are major factors in this, but if you’re not yet confident in those, you can try what I did.

Instead of creating an actual scene for the background, I mashed a bunch of similar elements into a sort of collage. This way everything in the piece was related yet separate, all the while working together to complete the feeling of the piece. I know I’m horrible at explaining this, so here are a couple artworks of mine to kinda show you what I mean~

Doing backgrounds like these really helps with understanding shapes and overall flow of the piece. If you’d rather just jump into working with scenes, remember what makes a good composition and study the elements like your life depends on it!