Introduction

Hello! I want to share helpful tips and my own process in creating a fantasy landscape background.

Simple Shapes

Let’s simplify what type of landscape we want.

 

Personally, I believe getting too hung up on the details when you’re just starting your background illustration wastes a lot of valuable time.

 

We can prevent this by laying out simple shapes (or even messy lined blobs 🤣) for specific parts of our background:

(^^I’ve lightly highlighted and labeled my own simple shapes to give a visual understanding of how I plan out my background illustration)

 

Once you've laid out a basic sketch for your background, it’s time to move onto coloring.

The Sky

When I color my sky, I like to use gradient tools.

 

They offer a great and natural blend. Specifically, I use Clip Studio’s default “Foreground to Background” gradient tool.

 

The main color you choose will be the uppermost part of the gradient, while the sub color you choose will be the bottommost part. The middle area will be a blend/gradient of the two colors.

Using Flat Coloring

I used to be an artist who was overly strict and had a perfectionist mindset…but what REALLY helped was laying out flat colors in the shapes we made earlier, rather than trying to create the best and most detailed silhouettes.

 

Using the simple shape sketch we made, I would use Clip Studio’s default “Lasso Fill” tool and follow the guidelines.

 

Putting Details on Flats

We now have a fully colored canvas of flat colors!

 

This is the time to use the “Lasso Fill” tool or other brushes to your liking to add some “edge” and more realistic qualities to your piece (if you’d like).

 

For example:

-carving out the actual shape of the distant mountains

-making the sand/dirt look a bit more natural as it mixes in with the pond water

-inserting patches of flat green coloring on top of the pathway

-adding small flower details and lightness on top of the grass as a guide

 

Lassoing Light and Shadow

When drawing backgrounds, you want to keep in mind where your source of light is.

 

On a new layer that is clipped to your flats, begin lassoing in colors that are lighter than the flat color areas to show where your light source is.

 

The areas where light doesn’t reach should have colors darker than the flats lassoed in.

 

Color Details

You can also begin lassoing (use Lasso Fill tool) in various colors onto the different areas (mountain, rocks, grass, etc) to show more definition or texture.

I used Clip Studio Paint’s default paint brushes to create the clouds and fog.

Detail Overload (Optional)

In my opinion, this background tutorial can end here, but if you want to step up the details of your fantasy background/its fantasy elements, I strongly recommend the use of vegetation brushes.

 

You can make your fantasy background go from this to this: