Environments

I've started working on the background for my new illustrations this past week. At first it was a very simple background, too simple in fact. Then I remember what Scott McCloud had mention in his book Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels,

"Want to know the secret of drawing great backgrounds? Don't think of them as "Backgrounds!" These are ENVIRONMENTS. The places your characters exist within. Not Just Backgrounds to throw behind them as an afterthought."

What great advice. I remember reading this for the first time and everything just clicked. A lot of it has to do with either knowing what things look like from life experience, or doing research to find out. I use to try to fake it by drawing what I thought looked right, but over the last couple of years, I've been doing the research and I think its paying off.

Thanks for stopping by,

-Tim