@pmpandai's post on Artfol
hey hey i was just wondering if anyone had any good methods of coming up with simple backgrounds for character art? like how to make it look nice with the character !! for example, what kind of simple background would you give a knee up drawing of a mainly warm colored character ? and by simple i mean from just a rough square to any patterned stroke or smth lolApr 13, 2021
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my go-to methods are texture brushes and shadows! I have some neat texture brushes on procreate that I like to play around with to give the background a pattern, if you’d like a link to those you can dm me!! another thing I like to do is make a copy of the flats and make them black, and then either lower the opacity or use a layer mode like soft light or overlay to create a neat looking shadow! I think the most important thing for simple backgrounds is choosing the right base color, usually for me that’s a bright pastel because I love bright colors :3
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•I just keep it really simple cuz I'm inspired by retro art, 1 solid color and lineart the objects but not too much detail. Or I just do abstract shapes of a lighter color than the solid bg and then add starbursts on it to make it pop
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I’m usually really lazy and I just do some shading that gradually becomes lighter and lighter, and disappears close to the edge. Sometimes it can also work if you just put a coloured shape (I usually make the edges rounded) behind the character. But those are really simple, idk if you were looking for that kinda thing 
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•Honestly i like to use very soft and slight indication of a background (soft/blurred painted grass, fields, trees, flowers, etc.) but something i really like to rely on is just two-three toned backgrounds that blend into each other, usually to look like natural light in some way shape or form! (For a ref I wouldn’t do this, but for basic character art it makes the space around them look full and lively while still being simple) I have a few picture examples i can send or post later from someone who asked me the same thing!
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I take a lot of influence from retro 50 and 60s cartoons bc they usually had a low budget and had to keep their backgrounds simple. I like to use the inorganic shaper shapes to make my backgrounds. If you’re using warmer colored characters, I would use cooler tones to make your backgrounds. I personally really like cool earth tones for backgrounds
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