picture from a story im working on; damn evil ninjas >:-(

[elsolo00]

i really need some crit on this cause backgrounds are my weakness. i love drawing figures but when it comes background time... nothing. mental block city. so i just end up doing some variation on a nature scene. (cop out)

where do i start with backgrounds? please help. ill take any tips at all.

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q51/elsolo00/inikoFINISH.jpg

[Uziel]

look up some BG's and try to immitate in your own way// just try something and if that doesn't work try something else, sometimes it's better to learn some things yourself...:D -> here's some stuff that could help
Good luck

photoreference? (http://images.google.be/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~ranb/Tibet/horiz/himalaya.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cs.huji.ac.il/~ranb/Tibet/himalaya.html&h=1110&w=1710&sz=159&hl=en&start=79&tbnid=T8gjvcUMPR6XZM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=150&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhimalaya%26start%3D63%26ndsp%3D21%26s vnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN)

other comics (http://perso.magic.fr/relet/Himalaya/Tintin/himalaya.jpg)

other CA artists

[elsolo00]

DAMN! thats badtimes for my man.

good advice tho i guess good ol' trial and error is the best teacher.

[Izi]

Get a photograph of an enviroment you need and study the color, light and shapes. Should teach you enough.

Also note how most artists avoid the use of stark white and black, and instead, use milder versions of color. This creates a more lifelike appearance. Monochrome with color makes your painting sink like a lead weight.

So like, instead of black mountains, you could go for what you see in life, in nature...dark and light blues for ice, brown and green for forested mountains, subtle purple for distant evening mountains...etc.

Same with his hair and tabi.

Hey look at those pinks, blues and purples on the mountains in the example. Those are great.

One of the best places to study backgrounds from is a school called The Barbizon School. They were a bunch of painters who were in vogue a century or two ago (forget which) and had some really great techniques for capturing long views across an enviroment. You can find a bunch of their paintings on Google.

[elsolo00]

good point ladyh. i was taught that before (about not using solid black) but the solid white thing is new to me. i just dont use it much but ill start again, and post my results.

good lookin out tho.

[IKV Nexis]

I'm no expert but one thing did catch my eye. I like the style of the backgroud. The entire world is in franetic motion of the attack but the central character is a solid force in the eye of the huricane. Make the attackers more defined as figures but keep the essence of the motion of the attack.

[elsolo00]

i hear u, mang. everybodys opinion is valid when its intended to help. i sort of threw the backgound together in about 10 mins. so u have a point.
i was also kinda experimenting with the digital watercolor. i havent figured out how to use the layers with digital watercolor. this picture was done all on the canvas.