In this tutorial, I'm going to teach you 3 tips that will make your backgrounds level up and make your characters stand out.

Let's get started!

 

1. Point out your focal point

First of all, we are going to draw with intention. What does this mean? It means we are going to draw knowing what the focal point of the drawing is, and we are going to make sure the background doesn't overpower it but rather complements it. In this case, our focal point will be the character(s).

 

Now, what does it mean to point out your characters? How do we do this? Simple, we are going to draw the background elements in such a way that they are pointing towards our focal point. Are we going to literally use arrows? Nope, we're going to be subtle.

We can use anything, from clouds, branches, among others. We can also take advantage of the natural lines of the drawing to continue guiding the viewer's gaze towards the characters.

Another way to point out your characters is by: Scale.

 

The elements we use for this either increase or decrease in size in an orderly fashion to draw attention to a specific point.

 

 

In the following example, you can see how the scale of the flowers guides the gaze to the character.

2. Apply Contrast

Contrast is equal to difference, so if we can create contrast between the background and the character(s), we will make them stand out.

◆Contrast by Luminosity

It consists of making the background lighter or darker in such a way that the character stands out.

The main tool I use to work with luminosity is: the Tone Curve, working in RGB. In this mode, we can easily modify the lights and shadows of a drawing.

 

The line we use to create the curve represents the tones of the drawing (A), the upper point representing the lightest and the lower point the darkest, with the mid-tones in between.

 

The upper half (B) represents luminosity, while the lower half (C) represents the darkest areas.

 

Therefore, when we move the curve, the point we are altering will become either lighter or darker. If we want to make a general correction, we move it from the mid-tones. If we want something more specific, such as darkening the brightest part, we lower the light. If we want to lighten the dark parts, we raise the darks.

◆Contrast by Temperature

In this type of contrast, there is a change in the color temperature between the background and the characters. We are going to use this to our advantage to guide the eye towards the characters.

To apply it to our drawing, we can do color correction with the tool: Tone Curve. This time, we will use the tool in individual color modes: Red, Green, and Blue.

 

If we go to specific tones, we can modify reds, greens, and blues separately. The advantage this gives us is that we can change the temperature in a very clean way.

 

When using the tool on a specific color, what changes is that the upper half of the graph (A) means more of x color, and the lower half (B) means less of x color. When lowering a tone, it is replaced by another. The change occurs as follows:

 

•Less red = more cyan

•Less green = more magenta

•Less blue = more yellow

*To see this tool in more detail, I recommend checking out the video tutorial.

◆Contrast by Saturation

In this case, contrast is created when the character is more saturated or desaturated than the background.

We can achieve this effect with the tool: Hue, Saturation, and Luminosity. As the name suggests, we can modify these three attributes in a single tool, which will allow us to play with these elements to highlight the character.

 

The tool has 3 sliders, each representing hue, saturation, and luminosity respectively. In this case, I will focus on saturation. If we slide the bar to the right, we will have more saturation, and if we slide it to the left, less saturation.

◆Contrast by Detail

In this case, it would be to put a lot of detail either in the background or in the character to create contrast.

 

We can make drawings with simplified background elements, so that it is understood what we are drawing but without adding much detail to highlight the character, example (a). The opposite would be a drawing with a detailed background but a character with a simpler coloring (b). This type of contrast is widely used in anime.

◆Contrast by Focus

This is, I believe, one of the simplest ways to make the character stand out from the background, and it is to use blur in areas where we don't want attention (background) and thus the characters will stand out.

 

 

We can use the blur tool found in the filter menu > blur > we have three types: Gaussian (1), Motion (2), and Radial (3).

Gaussian blur is the one I use most frequently. I use motion blur and radial blur on occasions when I want to add dynamism and movement, for lack of a better phrase.

 

*To see this tool in more detail, I recommend checking out the video tutorial.

 

I do blurring in two ways: a) TOTAL and b) PARTIAL

a) Total blur: the background is blurred in its entirety.

 

B. Partial blur: in this case, I blur with more or less intensity depending on the areas of the drawing. This even includes parts of the character, all to draw attention to the action the character performs or their face.

 

 

For total blurring, we will use the Gaussian blur tool, combine the background into a single layer, and apply the filter.

 

For gradual blurring, we will use the blur brush. We combine everything we are going to blur into a single layer, and gradually, by playing with the intensity of the brush, we blur.

 

*For a more in-depth explanation + examples, I invite you to watch the video tutorial.

3. Frame Your Characters.

With this term, so to speak, I mean taking various background elements and consciously "framing" the characters, doing this in an organic way to guide the eye towards the character.

We can place the elements in front of and behind the character, as you deem best according to the composition of your drawing.

 

Frame with various elements that help you create visual variety.

We can use brushes to frame the characters; we can use simple brushes (a) or more detailed ones (b).

If, when using these brushes, you feel they don't quite fit your drawing, we can modify the color and luminosity with the tools I explained previously. Now, if you need a specific color palette, you can always choose the tool: Gradient Map.

 

What this tool does is replace the original color palette where you are applying the gradient and replace it with a color palette (in the form of a gradient) that you create. The right side represents the lighter tones and the left side the darker ones.

You can create one from scratch or use the predetermined ones in Clip Studio, or even download from the assets section.

In case there are several elements in the brush and we don't want the gradient to apply to everything, we are going to create a mask that allows us to see the gradient only where we want it. With the help of a mask, the gradient map automatically creates a mask, so we can edit it manually with a brush, and that's it.

This, however, can be complicated if there are many elements and would consume a considerable amount of time. Fortunately, we have a life-saving tool: Select Color Gamut (or Select by Color Range).

 

Go to the menu: select > color gamut (or color range), and in the window that appears, make sure you are using the eyedropper that allows you to select more than one color. Now we can start selecting what we want. Once this step is finished, we create the mask based on the selection, and done!

End and Acknowledgments

Thank you for reaching the end. I hope the tutorial has been helpful, and don't forget to check out the video where I go into more detail with the explanations and there are many more examples.