Background for Art Background for Art to Draw Places Easy

[Backgrounds are] my weakness. I have a little confidence in drawing and painting subjects just take no confidence at all with backgrounds and don't seem to have many ideas as to what to practice. How can I tell what is the all-time groundwork?

All as well often, artists tend to recall of the background as serving a minor role in their artwork. They may ignore information technology altogether, or skip over it rapidly to get to the "fun part": The subject.

But function of what makes expert art expert art is the style the bailiwick and groundwork work together to course a cohesive "whole".

The Role of Background

The background should back up the subject field of the drawing. Whether you're cartoon a still life, a portrait, or a complex action scene, y'all should choose a background that "sets the stage" for the subject you've chosen.

I'm going to show y'all the five types of backgrounds I do most often, and explain why that type of background works with each subject field.

V Types of Background and How To Determine What is the Best Groundwork

In that location are more than 5 ways to do a groundwork, but I want to focus on the five I use most ofttimes. I'll explain each one, so share a couple of tips for when you should consider each background–and when you shouldn't.

Manifestly Paper Background

This portrait has a plain newspaper groundwork. The color of the newspaper is the groundwork. I did nada else with it.

This used to exist my favorite type of background because it'south the easiest to do. Choose the correct color newspaper, and you're washed with the background!

Merely information technology gets rather boring rather rapidly, and there are subjects for which a plainly newspaper background just doesn't work. So although I still use a plain paper background sometimes, I apply it sparingly.

Use This Background If:

• You're cartoon a uncomplicated portrait or still life
• You don't have much time to finish a drawing

Don't Use This Groundwork If:

• The composition is very complex. It'south more than difficult to brand a evidently paper background piece of work well with circuitous designs.
• If the just color paper yous use is white

Tinted Background

One stride up from a apparently newspaper groundwork, this background is essentially a plain paper groundwork with a lilliputian bit of pencil work in selected areas. For Blizzard Baby (below), I shaded darker grays into the corners to focus the attention on the gray mare.

The dazzler of using this type of background is that you tin let the color of the newspaper carry the weight of the background until the subject is finished or near finished. Then you can tint the groundwork with a colour (or colors) that go with or emphasis the colors in the subject area.

You can as well add color to the corners as I did here, or add together color around the subject area. In either case, yous should use the background to spotlight the field of study.

Utilise This Groundwork If:

• The subject field needs a little more a obviously paper background, but would be overwhelmed by a more adult background.
• To soften or reduce the starkness of a plain paper groundwork

Don't Employ This Background If:

• The subject is very circuitous.

Tonal Background

The drawing below shows a tonal background. In this instance, I wanted to create the illusion of a blurry landscape without really drawing a landscape, and then I used the same colors, but practical them randomly, then blended them until there were just color and value patterns.

Recall of information technology like the backdrops used by portrait photographers.

This type of groundwork is more labor intensive than either a plain paper or tinted background, but it is very useful if you want to add together color without getting into the detail of a more complex background. Information technology's very useful for portrait work, all the same life drawing, or a number of other subjects, so long every bit the subject area is non overly complex.

Use This Groundwork If:

• Your subject benefits from a more varied background than tinted or plainly newspaper, merely non from a more developed groundwork
• You want a colored background, but prefer using white paper

Don't Employ This Background If:

• The discipline of your cartoon is very circuitous
• Yous need to establish a setting for the subject

About Landscaped Background

This groundwork is the half step between a tonal groundwork and a fully landscaped background. As you can run across below, the landscape is more clearly a landscape and not but a mottling of colour and value.

However, it's nowhere near equally detailed as the fully landscaped background in the analogy below. This blazon of background is a good fashion to place your subject area in a setting without having to draw a consummate mural. It's also a peachy way to advise mood, though you tin can exercise that with a tinted or tonal background, as well.

Use This Background If:

• Yous would like the look and experience of a landscape, without all the detail
• If a setting adds to the composition, but y'all don't demand a full landscape

Don't Apply This Background If:

• You're cartoon a portrait with a single subject shown "up close" because the increased detail could detract from the bailiwick.
• The drawing is a "moment in fourth dimension" drawing, in which you're attempting to capture not but a subject, but the setting as well.

Fully Landscaped Background

This is just what it sounds like: A landscape with your discipline in it.

In a drawing like this, the setting is merely equally of import to the drawing as the field of study. It's like a repast in a fancy restaurant compared to the same meal at dwelling house, on the couch, in front of the Tv set.

The subject paired with any other type of background would non convey the same emotional message to the viewer. Peculiarly with portrait work, the groundwork is just equally much a office of what your client wants to remember equally the subject.

Use This Background If:

• Yous want to create a scene or tell a story with the artwork
• The setting is as important equally the subject

Don't Use This Groundwork If:

• The cartoon is a basic portrait such as Joker, or Blizzard Babe to a higher place
• A full landscape will distract from the subject field

Want to run across how to try different backgrounds on a drawing?

Check out this video by Lisa Clough of Lachri Fine Art. She shows a step-by-footstep tutorial on trying different backgrounds with your subject before you get-go drawing. I found this video informative and helpful if you lot happen to use Photoshop.

Additional Reading

How to Describe a Night Background with Colored Pencil

How to Draw the Focal Point in Your Adjacent Drawing

Carrie L. Lewis

Carrie L. Lewis has been an artist longer than she can think. An oil painter from her teens, she began using colored pencils because they were ideal for highly detailed piece of work, and were easier to send and use at horse shows. She at present uses colored pencils almost exclusively. From the beginning, horse were a favorite subject, and she's been an equine portrait artist for virtually of her career. When she began drawing with colored pencil (and after a movement to Kansas,) she plant special beauty in landscapes, and landscapes are now what she draws near oft. The rugged Flint Hills region of eastern Kansas is at the height of her list of cute places to visit and draw.

littlejohnfoultia.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.carrie-lewis.com/what-is-the-best-background/

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