How to draw Backgrounds | Tutorial | DrawlikeaSir

[intro music] Hi guys. My name is Marcel and you are probably watching this video because your backgrounds look like this. But after watching this video, they will hopefully end up looking more like that and be noticeably better drawn. Basically, what I’m saying is today, you are going to learn how to draw backgrounds…

“Say the line!” like a Sir. So yeah, I’ll show you how to draw some 3D backgrounds, how I’m drawing my backgrounds for concept art and manga pages, and some tips about creating your very own background.

So you definitely want to watch till the very end even if you already have some experience with this. I also have a lot more to say about image composition, coloring backgrounds, and background effects. I think that’s a really fascinating topic, but I don’t know if you actually care about all of that.

I’m making all of these videos completely on my own. They are an immense amount of work with all of the editing, and this usually takes several weeks. So I’m only going to make more videos about backgrounds if– well, if people are actually watching them.

Also, a like and a subscription would be really appreciated. That way, you can support all of the work I put into these videos. So I’m giving it a shot. Here’s a tutorial on how to draw and design backgrounds. Let’s get going. Now, when I’m having a cool idea for a background,

I do not start out by drawing it right away in detail. Instead, I usually start scribbling a sketch first, but you already know that when you’ve watched some of my videos. This is just about roughly constructing your background by blocking out the buildings, so nothing detailed yet.

And after that, you can roughly add some stuff like doors or windows. Now, I think at this point, you already know what a vanishing point is. It’s like a magnet where all the lines in this direction point towards. When drawing backgrounds, I’m always making sure my lines end up there.

And in case this doesn’t fit on your paper, you can always do it the old Minecraft method and just extend it. And if you’re now confused as to why I’m using two vanishing points when other artists sometimes use just one vanishing point or three vanishing points,

Well, you’re in luck because I’ve already made a tutorial about vanishing points and how they work, just in case you’re still struggling with that. So what I’m doing now is to check if all the lines I’ve drawn actually point towards their respective vanishing points.

You know, all the lines that go to the left have to point to the left vanishing point, and vice versa for the right vanishing point. Okay. Now, that’s a very rough background that just contains a couple of boxes. If you now want to add more components like humans to the scene,

I would suggest you do not start out by drawing people right away. Instead, try adding another block instead of a person. This way, you can measure if the height of this person makes sense in this scene. For example, this person right here obviously has to fit through a door.

So let’s take a look if that checks out. And yeah, this person can indeed fit through this door, so the size does make sense. And now, if that’s the case, we can now finish drawing this person in here.

Actually, it doesn’t matter what you want to add. I would always suggest blocking it out first, like a street sign, for example. As you can see, I’m always drawing a rectangle first, and then I try to turn it into the actual sign I wanted to draw.

This way, it looks a lot more accurate. Let me tell you, you don’t have to do that. As you can see, I’m also not doing that for every object, but it’s a nice way to help you out with drawing things in perspective in case you’re still struggling with that.

And now, all that’s basically left to do here is to work in the details like this window, for example. And drawing all of these lines can get pretty messy, pretty fast. But in order to prevent that, the only thing you have to keep in mind is that

All the lines that go in this direction go toward your vanishing point there. And the same goes for this direction. All the lines that go here are drawn towards your vanishing point over there. And the vertical lines obviously go straight up in this example.

So as long as you can count to three, you’re good to go. Now, when you’re finished with all of these steps, there’s still something left you could add. That’s right. I’m talking about shadow. Right now, it looks like Arizona’s just floating there somehow. So let’s add some shadow here

To give your viewer an idea where exactly the character’s located. And yes, that goes for pretty much any object in your background since you always need to be able to pinpoint which object goes where. You can see this kind of technique in manga a lot. Since it’s completely black and white,

These manga artists have to give you an idea where everything is located but without the use of color. It’s quite a lot of work. I’ve done this myself for six years now, but I can say it’s totally worth it. When I started adding shadows to my backgrounds, I think it improved a lot,

And that’s why I really wanted to include this tip in this video. By the way, everything I showed you up until now doesn’t only go for houses and outdoor locations. Here’s an artwork I’ve drawn last year that takes place in a coffee shop.

As you can see, everything from the table to the chairs goes toward this vanishing point in the back. So this is an example with just one vanishing point instead of two. Like I said, just watch my tutorial in vanishing points if you want to get a grasp of how many you should use.

So yeah, anything from walls to the picture frames to the table always points towards this vanishing point. And now, I think this artwork is actually a pretty good example on how I come up with my backgrounds. This delves a tiny bit into composition,

But when I’m making a bigger artwork, I always make sure to have several layers in mind. Here, let me show you what I mean. And this artwork right here has its main layer – the actual coffee date that’s going on.

But in order to give this artwork more depth, it obviously needs a background layer. This background right here is still very simple. You can make infinite background layers if you want to in order to make it seem more 3D. I just went ahead and made like three or four different background layers,

Just so it’s not like a plain wall back there. But this also goes for the foreground. So that’s why I added stuff in the foreground as well – just to have this whole artwork seem a lot more dynamic. So as you can see, adding more and more layers in different distances

Can give you a lot more depth in your artwork. Even if it’s just a plain scene in one single room like this coffee shop, you can still add several layers. It doesn’t have to be a big landscape in order to seem appealing.

When it comes to arranging these elements and layers, this is a whole topic for itself. This artwork, for example, loosely follows the rule of thirds. This is why I spaced the main actors so far apart. Other than that, something that’s always a good idea is to use your foreground elements as visual containers.

And this subconsciously makes your viewer focus on the middle of the artwork instead of just letting their gaze wander off somewhere uninteresting. Composition is a topic that never fails to interest me. And like I said, if this video here does really well, I’m also going to make a detailed video about composition too.

Other than that, I think it’s also helpful to look up landscape photography in order to understand things like composition a bit better. You can even practice this yourself just by going outside and trying to make some interesting composition with your smartphone camera. Though, this would require you to… well, touch grass.

Now, let’s put this knowledge we’ve learned up until now to use and invent a background together. You can pause this video and draw along if you want. For our motive, I thought of something like a town up in the mountains. I think that’s a good mixture between nature and architecture.

I don’t know where this could be. Maybe some beautiful vista in France or maybe Switzerland. To all the confused Americans, uh, those are the names of countries in Europe, uh, and Europe is– imagine like a second America where being bilingual is nothing special. Oh, and also without guns.

Now, the first step would be to scribble down a rough idea without any vanishing points, just to brainstorm a little and get down the general composition. This is where I plan everything out and I try to apply all the tricks I talked about earlier with composition and multiple layers, and so on.

So maybe there’s like a hill and the town is on top of that hill. And for the foreground, we want a character and maybe he or she is walking towards that town or something. As for the background, I think I could just add some mountainside.

Also, why not add another layer in the foreground in form of bushes and leaves. Now, since I want this town to look more believable and 3D, I’m using at least two vanishing points for this. You could also use just one, but that would look pretty flat.

I’m also checking this artwork with a composition technique called the Fibonacci curve. This basically tells you where to spread the weight of your artwork. And it pretty much checks out. I’m just going to add some more trees so that my artwork more resembles this curve.

And that’s step number one – planning out your background with a thumbnail sketch. The rest is pretty much by the numbers. So let’s sketch everything down in a bigger fashion. We’re going to use vanishing points from here on out just so your buildings are correct right from the start.

And now, we can start blocking everything out. I’m mainly talking about the town we’re going to draw. The next step is additional objects and characters. And now, let’s get detailed. We can add a lot of details, especially into the houses and architecture.

And now, but not least, the shadows – just like I said at the start of the video. Now, when it comes to things like trees or grass, you can add shadows just by drawing in more details like I’m doing right here. And now, that’s basically it. That’s how you draw a background.

And just for the future, always remember these steps when you’re drawing a new background. I’ve made a handy little cheat sheet for you that you could use when you’re drawing so that you have a nice overview. Now, you’re free to screenshot this checklist. Everything I want from you in return

Would be a like on this video. I think that’s quite an adequate payment, but if you want to leave a tip as well, I do have a Patreon where you can support me because these videos, let me tell you, they are not easy to make.

And if you want to support me making more of them, you can. You could also take a look at my other videos if you wanna. I do have a lot of them on my channel already. They are on screen right here. Just click them.

Well then. My name’s Marcel and I’ll see you guys in my next video. Good bye!