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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 established in the first frame.

structure-background

2: Silhouette

The outline of whatever is behind your characters can be quite enough – and a LOT quicker to draw!

silhouette-background

3: Shadow

Some shadows – from a window, a tree or other objects nearby – can give off the illusion of a world just outside the frame.

shadow-background

4: Gradient

A color gradient – or in this case just a grayscale one – can sometimes make it out for an actual background.

gradient-background

5:  Riff

A “riff” is a graphic shortcut. Every artist has his 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.

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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Filed Under: Art Tutorial, Pro Tips Tagged With: art hacks, 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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