Drawing landscapes, and backgrounds in general, can be a big challenge! but let's look at some techniques that help us build backgrounds with spatiality and make them very believable!

 

Additionally, you have the video that shows step-by-step each concept and part of the process of the images that make up this tutorial:

Basic Tips and Guides for Background Study

The first thing is to look for references similar to what you want to do. Look for color palettes, styles, viewpoints, examples of architecture, plants…

-FROM WHOLE TO PARTS: Once you have more or less defined what type of landscape you want to create, consider making several small sketches combining elements and viewpoints to define the most interesting one.

-FULL AND EMPTY AREAS: Since too much information will cause the important point of the image to be lost, balance spaces with a lot and little information, or develop a color structure that helps not to lose focus. This is about CONTRASTS (full and empty, light and dark, detailed and plain, etc).

-EYE DIRECTION: Related to the previous point, full and empty spaces in the background help direct the gaze to scan the entire scene. Considering this greatly helps to form a narrative within the background, telling us about the type of landscape we are in and giving us clues about what might happen there. The goal is to make the image as easy to read as possible.

-THE RULE OF THIRDS: is a composition scheme in which the sheet is divided into 9 equal sections, resulting in 4 points where the lines cross. Ideally, the points of interest should be on or near one of these points. Let's look at these examples, where the points of interest would be an explorer and the ruins he is heading towards, crossing the jungle.

Don't forget to balance the image, trying not to put all the important elements on one side.

Distance, details, and color

 

Small, very effective resources and guidelines for creating a sense of depth and distance are:

 

A) SIZE REDUCTION: where more distant objects appear proportionally smaller than closer objects, and vice versa. If you combine this with a diagonal ground, it will look even better!

B) OBJECT OVERLAP: An object that completely hides the view of another object will give us the impression of being further forward and closer. If you combine this with a diagonal ground, the effect is enhanced!!!

C) LOSS OF DETAIL: An object that is far away will have fewer details and less sharpness than one that is close.

D) COLOR AND ATMOSPHERE: If elements are drawn at a great distance (kilometers away), they will be tinged with blue due to the atmosphere. For example, in a mountainous landscape, mountains will appear increasingly blue and diffuse as they recede.

Merge all these features to create a perfect background with size reduction (A), overlap (B), loss of detail (C), and color distortion due to the atmosphere (D)!

*To further study the connections that can be established between different shapes and elements within a composition, you can research the "Gestalt Laws"

What Image Planes Are and How They Work

Along with perspective, planes are the most basic and important elements for building any scene, whether exterior or interior. Planes help us construct the scene in order of importance and, at the same time, direct the gaze to the points of interest. The plane closest to the Viewpoint is called the Foreground; an intermediate plane is called the Midground, and the furthest is the Background. There can be more or fewer planes than these, but this simple structure is the most common and easiest to visualize.

It's good to think before drawing about which plane the point of interest will be on, in order to use the other planes to direct the gaze towards that point. The differences in size, color, and texture that these planes have will provide depth and a sense of distance. The interplay of opposite directions and prominent elements in each plane will form a path for the eye.

 

ATTENTION! Keep in mind that the visual flow of an image also depends on the reading direction ingrained in your culture. In my case, the reading direction is from left to right and top to bottom. But these rules adapt to any reading direction; let's see how a couple of the previous examples would look if they were constructed to be read from right to left.

Creating a Background from Planes

One of the simplest ways to compose a background is to start with the basic plane structure I just developed. In my opinion, the easiest way to start with this system is to make a small drawing with simple values, which will also help to establish a basic light structure and eye direction right away.

Then I painted with simple colors using a flat oil brush, which is very useful for working with a bit of transparency to make the colors and textures more interesting.

What I wanted was to draw a desert landscape with some grass, viewed from very close to the ground and from the top of a small hill. In this case, I had to correct the size of the grasses in the foreground and midground, because the sizes did not match the presumed distance. Remember that the same object, repeated in the distance, diminishes in size.

 

 

 

Then I added texture and color on normal layers, and lit the scene using an orange tone in “Overlay” mode.

Then I corrected the lights and shadows a bit more, highlighting the foreground and taking some definition away from the midground (by adding a layer of brown tones with low opacity below the foreground and above the midground).

Finally, I corrected the direction of the rock's shadow in the background to match the rest of the image, and added more detail to the foreground grasses. I softened the shadows of the midground stone a bit, so that the brushstrokes would be less noticeable. I also reduced the intensity of the shadow on the grass on the right, as it was too dark.

However, this method is so simple that it can be a bit difficult to adapt to a more complex composition. This difficulty is especially apparent when working with higher viewpoints, where the separation between planes is not as clear. To solve this, there is Perspective!

Perspective and vanishing points.

Even when drawing a natural background, perspective is useful for making the background credible, properly placing characters in space and establishing the correct size relationship between one thing and another. The same object can appear larger or smaller depending on the viewer's location and position, and perspective is the method that allows us to represent this in a two-dimensional drawing, giving an illusion of distance and volume!

 

While there are different types of perspective, I believe the one most similar to reality is built based on Vanishing Points. In this mode of representation, each element is drawn considering three dimensions: Height (A), Width (B), and Depth (C).

 

The Perspective technique involves constructing an element on the plane by relating its measurements (Height, Width, and Depth), the Horizon Line (blue line), and the Vanishing Points (red dot). The combination of the Horizon and the Vanishing Points helps us calculate the height of elements based on their Distance, with the aid of guides.

 

The Horizon Line is the limit of what can be seen of the ground on which elements rest, and it is the line that indicates the height from which the landscape is observed.

The Vanishing Point is where the lines that construct the object converge.

 

First, choose the height of the Horizon according to what you want to show. If you need a lot of ground, the Horizon should be very high; if you need to show the height of trees in a forest, the composition will work better if the Horizon is low. Use the Rule of Thirds to place the important elements of the composition!

 

 

Each object within an image can be affected, depending on its position, by one or more Vanishing Points, so let's see how it works.

 

1) "FRONTAL", "PARALLEL" OR "ONE-POINT" PERSPECTIVE: In this scheme, we see the Height and Width measurements of objects without distortion, but the depth lines all converge to a single point on the Horizon.

 

2) "OBLIQUE" OR "TWO-POINT" PERSPECTIVE: In this scheme, we don't see the object head-on, but from a corner. In this way, the Height is NOT distorted; but the Width and Depth vanish to a different Point each on the Horizon line.

3) "AERIAL" OR "THREE-POINT" PERSPECTIVE: In this case, Height, Width, and Depth each vanish to a different Point. Usually, the Vanishing Points for Width and Depth are on the Horizon, but the one for Height is either far above or far below that line. This effect is used to calculate the deformation of elements from overhead (high-angle shot) or worm's-eye (low-angle shot) viewpoints.

-Perspective Rules in Clip Studio

Select the tool. Click on the canvas and hold to adjust the height of the Horizon. Click and hold again to adjust the location of the Vanishing Point. You can add more Vanishing Points on the same perspective layer.

 

These rules make all lines straight and automatically direct them to their corresponding Vanishing Point. Perspective rules are applied to a new layer below all others, but they affect all layers above them and can also be activated and deactivated like any other type of layer.

In the following examples, I started designing from the rule of thirds scheme, deciding both the height of the horizon and the vanishing point(s) in each case. I drew directly with the help of the perspective rules to place the objects and calculate their sizes.

• EXAMPLES OF NATURAL LANDSCAPES WITH 1, 2, AND 3 VANISHING POINTS

• EXAMPLES OF URBAN LANDSCAPES WITH 1, 2, AND 3 VANISHING POINTS

Building a Background from Plane to Perspective

Sometimes it's complicated to directly plan a space in perspective... I have two methods to offer, perhaps a bit long, but also easier to understand.

 

1) THE WALL: Especially good for drawing cities! Draw the buildings head-on, thinking about their details and everything. Then, modify that plane to adjust it to the Vanishing Point you need.

 

Then, you can help yourself a bit more by using Clip Studio's Perspective Ruler and making it coincide with the Vanishing Point you've given to the plane where you drew the buildings.

This way, you can continue working with the perspective ruler to add volume to the elements:

 

2) THE GRID: This works for any type of background, although the total size of the ground must be considered for it to be truly effective. The idea is to draw a grid that adapts to the proportions of the space you want to draw; then, elements are drawn as on a map, viewed from above and trying to respect the proportions and spaces each occupies. Then, the grid is distorted to adapt it to the vanishing point you need, so that you have the perfect guide for the scene's ground and the objects' location! (In set design, each grid square generally represents an area of 1m x 1m. This is used to create the floor plan of the stage where a performance will take place, considering the real dimensions of the space!)

 

Then, to help you draw the grid, you can use the grid available in Clip Studio's “View” menu as a guide.

Then, draw the image frame with the central vanishing point, marking perspective lines towards the 4 vertices of the frame. Place the grid resting on the bottom edge of the frame, select it, press the “Scale/Rotate” icon on the selection modification bar, right-click, and select the “Perspective” option. As you will see, the grid does not cover the entire width of the frame in this case, but you can expand it as much as you need, as long as the lines converge to the same point.

 

Add perspective guides for the elements you have drawn. The building I wanted to draw on the right (turquoise guides) is not perpendicular to the horizon line, and therefore actually needs two Vanishing Points, unlike the building on the left (green guides) which only needs one Point. To find that Point, extend the boundary lines of that building towards the horizon line to then be able to make the other guides for that building in relation to that Vanishing Point.

Don't be afraid to go outside the frame limits! they are just guides.

 

Then, you can lower the opacity of the guides and draw the final lines.

And done! By hiding the guide layer, we have a background where we know we can walk, as we left space for it in the initial map! All that's left is to add the necessary details.

 

From Volume to Plane with 3D Assets.

Assets is a library full of useful materials! Additionally, each 3D object you add will be placed on the same perspective grid. I'm sharing some free 3D objects I've found that can be very helpful when creating a natural or semi-urban background.

 

To use them, it's just like any other 3D model: click, drag, and drop onto the canvas. If you don't change layers when dragging multiple objects, all of them will be placed on the same perspective ruler. But be careful! This always places objects on a flat ground! So it's not as useful if you want to create a landscape with hills, for example.

Also, to easily create tree canopies, I use the bush brushes from the following pack:

 

Furthermore, when adding 3D objects from different sources, each one may appear with a different size than we need. To solve this, open the 3D object configuration panel, click on the “Assign” option, and modify the Object Scale.

Combining the Tools!

Let's see with an example how to combine even more tools:

 

So let's start, as before, by forming the ground grid, using the “Grid (G)” option from the “View” menu as a guide.

 

Then, using the selection transformation function “Perspective,” modify the grid's position until it matches the viewpoint we want to give it; in this case, with a very high horizon. Remember that the grid MUST coincide with the Vanishing Point! Probably part of the grid will be lost on the sides, so you need to carefully plan where the important points of the environment will be located.

The next step is to place a Perspective Ruler on the Horizon Line and Vanishing Point you have established. Then, start building the more rigid volumes with the help of this ruler, as if you were stacking boxes!

Then, by deactivating the Perspective Ruler, complete the construction of the elements in a more irregular way.

Since the base of the scene is built, you can now add 3D elements to help; for example, to create trees (remember I shared these elements above so you can download them!).

To prevent lines and elements from getting mixed up, you can temporarily deactivate the 3D objects layer and define the lines of the other elements.

 

Re-place the 3D elements and complete the rest of the lines, also incorporating more details.

Now yes! If we deactivate all guides and references, we should now have a fully constructed background. It's the best time to finish adding all the other details, such as grass and texture on the mountains.

*Remember Clip Studio's pre-designed 3D backgrounds! If building an urban background from scratch doesn't interest you, the program has entire spaces available with houses, gardens, streets, and public areas! Plus, you can incorporate extra 3D models if you need them!

 

 

 

Acknowledgments and Contact:

Well, these are some (many) considerations that can help design more solid backgrounds!

Thanks for reading and I hope it was useful!!

Don't hesitate to tell me in the comments if you have any criticism or suggestions that help me improve.

 

If you like my work, you can find me on these social networks:

Instagram: @barbara_brutti_ilustraciones

Furaffinity: @barbara_brutti

 

And I also have a Patreon, where you can support me and see all my work processes for just 1 dollar!

https://www.patreon.com/barbarabruttiilustraciones