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Art tutorial: 5 hacks for drawing backgrounds quicker

by Palle Schmidt 8 Comments

Do you have to draw backgrounds on every panel? The short answer is no. If you start with a good establishing shot and learn these 5 hacks, you can get away with very little background drawing!

1: Structure

If you place your characters against a wall or another big surface (like the sky!), a few rightly placed lines will give the illusion that we’re still in the place you showed us in the establishing shot (usually a wide shot in the first frame to establish the room or setting we are in, who is present, where the door is, stuff like that).structure-background

2: Silhouette

The outline of whatever is behind your characters can be quite enough – and a LOT quicker to draw! So if the scene takes place in a living room, just black out the shape of the lamp and a couch, if it takes place in the woods, black out tree trunks and leaves.

Pro tip: If you let elements poke in from the sides it lets us know there is more outside the frame. It’s a cheap trick but it works every time! Hint or show part of an object or shape and our minds will fill out the rest.

silhouette-background

3: Shadow

Some shadows – from a window, a tree or other objects nearby – is a great way of showing us what is outside the frame while avoiding to draw it all together. Don’t try to think realistically of where the light would be coming from or how the perspective would look, just treat it as a nice shape to liven up your drawing.

shadow-background

4: Gradient

A color gradient – or in this case just a grayscale one – can sometimes make it out for an actual background. It’s perhaps not the most sophisticated solution, but it makes the character “pop” and that’s often all you need.

gradient-background

5:  Riff

A “riff” is a graphic shortcut. Every artist has her own. Sometimes a riff is just some shapes/lines, not a realistic rendering of anything. Make your own riff or copy from another artist whose style resembles yours. I think I lifted this one from Mike Mignola, a brilliant background artist to steal from – because he rarely draws much and has a superb sense of graphic storytelling.

riff-background

Again, you need some background, at least in one or two frames per page, so the readers know where the characters are. But once you’ve established the world around your characters, it’s OK to cheat a little on the rest of the page. And now you know how!

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If you want to know more about background drawing and perspective, check out this episode of the Comics for Beginners course.

Filed Under: Pro Tips Tagged With: art hacks, Art Tutorial, artwork, backgrounds, comics, drawing, how to, learning how to draw, making comics, pro tips, storytelling

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kelly Kennedy says

    February 24, 2014 at 8:50 pm

    Love these tips! So helpful and encouraging. Thanks!

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    • Palle Schmidt says

      February 24, 2014 at 8:59 pm

      Thanks, Kelly! Appreciate the feedback.
      -Palle

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  2. Gutto Paixao says

    March 12, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    Awessome

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    • Palle Schmidt says

      March 12, 2014 at 4:59 pm

      Thanks, Gutto. Your background on that profile pic is pretty awesome too!

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  3. Frans Hasselaar says

    March 13, 2014 at 9:30 pm

    That silhouette one is a real eye-opener, Palle, Thanks!

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    • Palle Schmidt says

      March 16, 2014 at 10:04 am

      Yea, comics take a LOOOONG time to make, so any little short cut is welcome 🙂

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  4. Shawoon says

    February 22, 2016 at 11:32 am

    Thanks for the nice tips! Really Helpful!

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  5. Kirbyfan says

    May 29, 2016 at 10:13 pm

    Great stuff!

    Do you have any info on the drawing of silhouettes in comic art?

    I’m not really talking about how to draw them, but when to draw them, what kind of background should go behind them, what should go in front of them etc. Couldn’t find any info about this on the internet?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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