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You gotta trust the process. Believe in yourself. What’s up, guys? Welcome back to my channel today. We’re gonna talk about how to paint better backgrounds, so I know a lot of people don’t like to put backgrounds into their work because they don’t really know how to approach it, and they might not be comfortable doing it. It might be a little bit overwhelming so today. I’m going to try to show you guys how I like to approach my backgrounds, and hopefully you can implement some of these tips into your own work process to start painting better backgrounds, so we’re going to jump right into it. I’m going to use a reference photo that I found from Pinterest that has a relatively simple background and the first thing that I’m going to do with. You know, any of my drawings is. I’m going to start laying down a [Music] sketch [Music] so I’m keeping this very simple, Not too much detail on my sketch because I know the painting phase is where I’m going to add most of the detail, especially to the background. Okay, now here comes the interesting part whenever I’m painting a full piece with a full background and environment behind the character, I’m always approaching the background first. I’m trying to flesh out the background before I jump into the character and the reason that I do. This is because the background is really important when it comes to setting the lighting for the character as well as the mood for the overall scene. So I feel like if I don’t do the background. First, I’m kind of going in line with it. Lighting on the character and things don’t really seem to be falling in place and overall. I think having the background done first. Just lets me know whether or not the piece is actually going to work whether the mood is going to be what I intended it to be. So that’s exactly what I’m going to do here. I’m going to pick out the colors that I think work for the background, and I’m going to apply them based on the big shapes that I see in the background, so there’s a good cloud and there’s this the rest of the sky, and, uh, I’m breaking them down into bigger shapes because I don’t want to get overwhelmed right away with the small details again. When you’re painting anything you want to think about going from the big shapes down to the smaller details. [MUSIC] Okay, so now there’s pretty much the sky, and once I’ve done that, I’m going to just add another layer on top of this, so I can do everything underneath the horizon line on a different layer. It just makes it a little bit easier to edit so that not everything is all blended together and going back to what we said before. We’re going to do more of this color blocking stage and really, I’m just trying to find the right colors for each big shape that I see you can see the reflection. This is like a reflection on the on the beach and that I’m going to categorize into one big shape, and then there’s the color of the water I’m gonna categorize into another big shape and then the color of the sand. I’m going to categorize into another big shape, so remember to work from the baked shapes down to the smaller details, And this is exactly what I’m doing even now with a very rough draft, you can see things are starting to look like what they’re supposed to look like. A lot of it is about trusting the process. You gotta trust the process. Believe in yourself. [MUSIC] And I just filled in the shape of the character with a base color so that you know the characters covering the background and I know which areas I don’t need to work on. Because, you know, we don’t want to work on things that are going to be covered by the subject anyways, because we are lazy so now that we’ve gotten the overall gist down for the background. I think we can go into a little bit more detail. [MUSIC] So at this stage, I’m kind of just adding in some of the medium-sized details. I wouldn’t say we’re going into the tiny details just yet and for the backgrounds. Usually, you know. If you’re looking at things really, really far off in the distance, you’re not going to see too many details anyways, so really, most of the, uh, details are going to be concentrated in the foreground or things that are close to the subject, and in this case, there’s really not too much going on here Aside from some of the value changes in the sand as well as on the water and the waves, but that’s about it. [MUSIC] [Music] there’s a pretty convincing depiction of the background, but we’re still, uh. We still need to add in just a little bit more of the, uh, smaller details and final touches with the colors and stuff, but the reason that I like to place such a heavy emphasis on the background is because I think the background is something that’s going to inform not only the lighting on the character, but also the mood of the overall scene, and even though we’re only seeing this cropped portion of the background, this environment is actually extending all around the character and in order for our character to feel believable. Feel like they’re sitting in place in that environment. I want to be able to capture the background first and be able to capture it accurately before I jump into the character and the smaller details. And I think this is a problem. A lot of people have is, you know? Obviously, the character is kind of like the main event, so we just want to do that right away. Uh, and that’s understandable, and I used to do that as well, but then oftentimes, you would finish the character you would. Its super detailed, rendering everything, and then you would slap in the background and it just looks like the characters sitting in front of like a green screen. You know, things don’t seem like they’re matching together. The characters doesn’t seem like they’re sitting in place, and then after that as you try to work the background in and integrate the character more into it, It’s like so much extra work so for me. This is why I always do the background first. So I can, you know, just capture the setting the feeling of the setting and then put the character into the setting. Everything is working together. You know, the background and the subject, they’re all working as one. So now I’m just gonna add in some final touches to finish this up, but you don’t have to finish the entire background before you start jumping into your character. This is just, you know, for the purposes of demonstration. I’m doing this with this video, but sometimes you could even, you know, kind of get the general feeling of the background and then start working on the character a little bit and then jump back into the background. Because the last thing you want is to finish your character and then slap in the background and call it a day because that background is either gonna make or break the painting. [MUSIC] and the real? I think the background is looking pretty solid now and feel good to jump into the character, and you know, I’m kind of thinking of this as like, setting up the scene for the character, so I’m setting up the environment that the character is going to be in so that when I do approach the character, I know the kind of lighting that I need to apply know the kind of colors that I need to use based on what I see in the environment just in general, having an environment that I know is working is going to allow me to approach the character with a little bit more confidence Because I know that once I render out this character, the scene is going to all come together, so that’s what I’m gonna do right now, and I’m just gonna finish this piece up and then check back in with you guys in just a SEC. [MUSIC] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]. And, uh, here’s our finished piece. As I said, in this video, I always like to start with the background first, because the background gives me an idea of the setting and the mood of the piece. And as I’m working on the background, I’m always going from the big shapes down to the smaller shapes, so remember, never start with the details and it’s important to remember that the background should not just be treated as a flat background. Instead, it is actually just a snapshot of the environment that your subject is actually sitting in. So, you know, next time you take a look at a frame, try to picture the background extending all around the character and then put some more emphasis on it, you know, put some respect on the background’s name, do it justice, and then your entire scene is gonna come together, and you know what? Try painting the background first. I think it’s gonna. Do you guys a lot of good? So that’s pretty much it on backgrounds. I just wanted to make a quick video to kind of tell you guys how I like to approach my backgrounds and the way I think about my backgrounds. Hopefully some of these tips that I’ve given you guys can help you. Guys make better backgrounds yourselves. And if you want to see more videos like this, consider subscribing to my channel, but other than that. Thank you guys so much for watching this video, and I’ll see you guys in the next one, so I’m going to jump into it with a reference photo that I found from Pinterest and it’s got a pretty.