Okay, today you’re in for a lecture. It’s OK. I got this one long ago, and it’s short and worth listening to.

BACKGROUNDS! BACKGROUNDS! BACKGROUNDS!. No more “Critters from the VOID”.

This is what the editor of a fanzine I was doing work for told me, back when I was a young ‘un. I had a knack for drawing, did it a lot, but had pretty much stuck with doing the figures on a white background. Until said editor mentioned this little “problem” of mine, I hadn’t really thought anything about it. I drew a pretty something-or-other. That should be fine, right?

Well, not really.

I hated doing backgrounds at first. So much work for something no one’s going to pay any real attention to. Filling up all that white space on the page. I was doing pen and ink at the time, so the work involved was considerable. Especially since I figured if I was going to do them, I’d do them right and put as much effort into them as I could.

Thing is, he had a point. A good one.

The more I worked on backgrounds, the better I got in fitting my characters into the environment. Though for a while it was an enormous struggle every time. Especially when I switched from ink to paints. Deciding on the backgrounds was tough too, until I began thinking of each piece as a world of its own. The trick is that the characters and the background and setting should be as one. Each should complete the other. Neither should really be an afterthought. The concept of the setting should begin with, or shortly after, the concept of the subject matter.

The better I got at fitting the characters with their backgrounds, the easier it got to make the lighting, perspective, and other problematical elements correct. Then I began to see how the background can actually work with and enhance the subject of the piece. And eventually I began to see the light. Literally. I began to see the subject and the background as light effects. The shapes and colors that the light makes, and less as lines making up an object. And now it’s easier to set mood and tone in the pieces.

Admittedly, this took a long time, but it was one heck of a breakthrough when it happened, and this new way of looking at things has helped me immensely. I still get my lighting wrong sometimes, and sometimes my perspective can be a bit off, but the more I work at it, the better I get at figuring it all out.

I’ve also figured out a couple of other things. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to make a background. Sometimes all it takes is a little bit of light and color. And every now and then, it’s OK to let things float in the void.

--NOTE-- I will be updating this with some more practical tips in a later article. If you have any questions that you would like me to address in further articles, please contact me through the "contact" link to the left or below.

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