What is the golden rule for drawing backgrounds?

The golden rule is to focus on simplicity, ensuring that backgrounds support clarity and narrative understanding.

Why are establishing shots important in comics and illustration?

Establishing shots frame the action clearly, helping viewers understand where the scene takes place and improving the overall storytelling.

How can simplicity aid in drawing backgrounds?

Simplicity makes it easier to focus on key elements of the illustration, making the drawing process more manageable and effective.

What should artists prioritize when drawing backgrounds?

Artists should prioritize clarity and iconic representation in their backgrounds to enhance understanding and appreciation of their work.

How can artists apply these principles in their work?

By practicing establishing shots, focusing on iconic elements, and simplifying backgrounds, artists can improve their storytelling through visuals.

P2: Apply This 'Simple' Principal For Great Illustration And Comic Backgrounds!

00:28:12

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZoUwgEbMas

Zusammenfassung

TLDRIn this video, Tim McBurney shares his insights on creating effective backgrounds in comics and illustrations, advocating for simplicity as a foundational principle. He explains that focusing on clarity helps convey the narrative and location of the action effectively. Establishing shots are presented as crucial for framing scenes, making it easier for viewers to navigate the story. The video features practical examples from McBurney's own work, illustrating how simplicity aids in creating beautiful backgrounds without overwhelming detail. Overall, McBurney emphasizes that understanding and applying these principles can reduce the complexity of the artistic process, leading to more engaging illustrations.

Mitbringsel

🎨 Focus on simplicity to enhance your backgrounds.
📸 Use establishing shots for clarity in storytelling.
🖌️ Simplicity allows for easier drawing processes.
🌍 Aim for iconic representations in your backgrounds.
📖 Clarity helps convey narrative more effectively.
💡 Simplified backgrounds make the artwork more engaging.
🔄 Repeat design elements for consistency in your art.
🗺️ Establish the action clearly to help viewers navigate.
⚙️ Design with simplicity in mind to ease complexity.
📈 Apply these principles to improve your artwork.

Zeitleiste

00:00:00 - 00:05:00
Creating backgrounds can be overwhelming due to concepts like perspective and composition. In this video, we focus on a 'golden rule' of backgrounds: simplicity. The background should clearly support the narrative, enhancing the understanding of the action's location. Establishing shots are essential in comics and other visual storytelling methods to frame scenes effectively, ensuring that viewers recognize where the events are occurring.
00:05:00 - 00:10:00
Simplicity is crucial as it eases the drawing process; clarity allows the artist to focus on detailed storytelling. By establishing where the scene takes place, subsequent shots can be rendered with less background detail, enhancing the understanding without overcrowding the frame. The speaker illustrates this principle with examples from a science fiction comic.
00:10:00 - 00:15:00
An establishing shot sets the scene's context early in the narrative, allowing for clearer storytelling with fewer distractions in later panels. Properly designed backgrounds convey information about the setting without necessitating intricate details, using iconic design elements to maintain clarity. The speaker shares personal experiences about choosing clarity over complexity, particularly in the comic medium.
00:15:00 - 00:20:00
Examples from the speaker's work emphasize using recognizable visual elements to reinforce the narrative context. The speaker discusses how iconic structures in the background facilitate easier navigation within the artwork. By keeping backgrounds simple and cohesive with the establishing shots, it helps draw focus to character actions and facilitates smoother storytelling.
00:20:00 - 00:28:12
The video concludes with a discussion on the broader implications of simplicity in both illustration and comics. The key message is to maintain clarity in both action and background design, separating the storytelling components to prevent confusion. This approach enhances the overall visual experience, making illustrations more engaging and easier to understand for the audience.

Mind Map

Video-Fragen und Antworten

What is the golden rule for drawing backgrounds?
The golden rule is to focus on simplicity, ensuring that backgrounds support clarity and narrative understanding.
Why are establishing shots important in comics and illustration?
Establishing shots frame the action clearly, helping viewers understand where the scene takes place and improving the overall storytelling.
How can simplicity aid in drawing backgrounds?
Simplicity makes it easier to focus on key elements of the illustration, making the drawing process more manageable and effective.
What should artists prioritize when drawing backgrounds?
Artists should prioritize clarity and iconic representation in their backgrounds to enhance understanding and appreciation of their work.
How can artists apply these principles in their work?
By practicing establishing shots, focusing on iconic elements, and simplifying backgrounds, artists can improve their storytelling through visuals.

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Untertitel

Automatisches Blättern:

00:00:00
when creating or drawing backgrounds it
00:00:02
can be hard and confusing to know where
00:00:06
to start there's a lot of options a lot
00:00:07
of things people talk about like you
00:00:09
know perspective understanding
00:00:11
foreground Middle Ground background
00:00:13
compositional ideas tonal layouts
00:00:15
Arrangements etc etc what I want to talk
00:00:18
about in this video is what I consider
00:00:21
to be like the golden rule of
00:00:23
backgrounds and something that we can
00:00:25
use to really help frame a lot of these
00:00:27
other ideas this is especially important
00:00:30
because often the things that I'm
00:00:31
talking about on this channel sort of
00:00:34
are at the cross section of Like Comics
00:00:36
and illustration and what I want to talk
00:00:38
about today is Simplicity is
00:00:41
understanding how to sort of just think
00:00:43
about what the background needs to do at
00:00:46
its most Primal fundamental level and I
00:00:49
think this is something that works both
00:00:50
for comics and illustration and that's
00:00:53
why I think it's a primal rule that
00:00:55
really is something you need to consider
00:00:56
this is just simply about simplicity
00:00:59
itself this can manifest in Clarity or
00:01:03
narrative understanding what the story
00:01:05
you're trying to tell in your
00:01:06
illustration is and how the background
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supports that how to make sure that
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you're making people understand where
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your action is taking place it's really
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basic the other thing is that when we're
00:01:17
drawing Comics the thing you always have
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to do is create an establishing shot
00:01:22
it's probably the same for film and
00:01:23
animation and all of these things you
00:01:25
need to establish the action where these
00:01:27
things taking place these are all really
00:01:30
fundamental simple rules but I think
00:01:32
they are golden principles that you can
00:01:34
apply to pretty much everything and
00:01:36
that's what I want to dig into deeply in
00:01:38
this video now you might be saying look
00:01:41
that sounds easy it's probably a little
00:01:43
bit too simple like what's actually
00:01:44
going on there so again let's dig into
00:01:47
this and I'll really outline why this is
00:01:49
important and how you can think about it
00:01:51
and how you can try and get these ideas
00:01:53
into your images and how I think that if
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you don't do them you're pretty much
00:01:58
always going to be destined to fail I
00:02:00
think when you mess this up everything
00:02:02
is an uphill slog and if you get it
00:02:04
right often again it's the opposite
00:02:06
thing it's kind of like you're coasting
00:02:08
downhill everything's a little bit
00:02:10
easier it's easier to draw the
00:02:11
background it's easier to you know
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create your comic book to create
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subsequent panels everything just
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becomes a lot easier when you get this
00:02:19
stuff right anyway let's jump in get
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started foreign
00:02:26
welcome to the drawing codex my name is
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Tim McBurney I've been a professional
00:02:30
working artist for over 20 years and on
00:02:32
this channel we're all about drawing
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cool stuff from our imagination
00:02:35
embracing the challenge of drawing and
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mastering the art of lion and color
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illustration now if you'd like to learn
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a little bit more about illustration how
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to get more polish into your work how to
00:02:46
think about composition I think that
00:02:47
relates to what I'm going to talk about
00:02:48
in this video you can check out my free
00:02:51
illustration mini Workshop this really
00:02:54
you know charts my course as an artist
00:02:57
going from when I completely sucked to
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the point where I you know was a
00:03:01
professional artist I had books
00:03:02
published I was getting lots of work etc
00:03:04
and it talks about you know the key
00:03:06
things that I think are really important
00:03:07
to consider as you Traverse that Journey
00:03:10
again how to get more detail and polish
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in your work how to think about
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composition and you know also a little
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bit of how to go about getting clients
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and you know trying to think about work
00:03:20
in the beginning anyway it's free link
00:03:23
will be in the description go check it
00:03:25
out now now this is going to be a lot
00:03:27
easier if I show you examples so let's
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jump into Photoshop and I'll just sort
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of show you a couple of pages I've been
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working on and we'll just sort of
00:03:34
underline this concept so you can know
00:03:36
exactly what I mean by Simplicity and
00:03:38
more specifically with Comics the idea
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of an establishing shot so here we have
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some pages from a comic that I was
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working on Star Atlas core this is a
00:03:48
science fiction comic now I'll give a
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few different examples here while we're
00:03:52
in Photoshop and you know talk about
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illustration as well I've got a couple
00:03:57
of other sort of good things that will
00:03:58
illustrate this point now the goal here
00:04:00
is not necessarily to do a demo and sort
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of describe exactly how you would do
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this it's just to point out this is
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often why backgrounds are working and
00:04:09
these are the things that I've learned
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over the years that really help now we
00:04:14
can observe this idea of sort of clarity
00:04:17
and simplicity in the need and the
00:04:20
application of an establishing shot in
00:04:22
film animation in this case comics
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so here I've got a shot and this is
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where we're on a space station right so
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this is a space station it's called
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monitor 7. I actually have earlier in
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the book this is actually the first page
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of this episode an establishing shot of
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them kind of going to this station or at
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least that we are kind of visiting here
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so it frames the action now
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again we can kind of see that these are
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visually linked and a lot of this is
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very much intentional a big part of the
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goal is to show an establishing shot
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which is both this for the entire space
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station and then this one here
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um that I've got now covering up where
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we kind of see okay we're closer in and
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then we get closer and closer and that
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really is the goal now a big part of the
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entire design here of the space and I
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would say of a lot of filmic spaces
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is and a lot of video game design is
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creating iconic elements that you can
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show in a background that kind of
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constantly age your navigation and
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basically figuring out what's there so
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many of these ideas are based around
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very very simple you know iconic ways
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that we represent and understand the
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world that we you know move about
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so it's not just that this is an issue
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where oh you kind of draw it this way
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but you actually design it for
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Simplicity in mind to make it very clear
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what the thing is and so that if you
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replicate that design language
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um or that sort of iconic element you
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can see what's going on there so the key
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thing here that I'm representing is that
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there are these kind of big pillars
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where in the Sid mid influence
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futuristic uh protopian Slash utopian
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science fiction environment I have these
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kind of towers right so we've got these
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big towers and these kind of futuristic
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weird structures and we also have these
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kind of archers over the top and behind
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that you can kind of see asteroids so a
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lot of this is Clarity but also what I'm
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trying to do is establish this scene so
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there's a couple of things there's a
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number of things here that are aiding
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the Simplicity once I establish that
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shot and I've established kind of where
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they are
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what happens is the viewer hopefully
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again this is just my attempt to do this
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this is just what I found works it's not
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necessarily gonna always be perfect but
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this is going to allow me to do a few
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things firstly it allows me to draw a
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really cool picture of the background
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and focus on one thing establishing what
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it is what it should feel like how cool
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and how interesting it is and we'll talk
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about how that also can be related to
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illustration where you only have one
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image but here we've got multiple so we
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a way that we kind of draw this and make
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this consistent is not necessarily
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through making sure that we are
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imagining some
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3D environment right we're like oh I you
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know this is exactly the same place it's
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not how it's done it's done iconically
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so now I understand where I am
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um hopefully you saw the space station
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one I'm like oh there's a space station
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you can see little if we go back there
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right I can see a little kind of version
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of this playing out where we've got
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these kind of white pillars and this
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stuff that again hopefully looks like
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sort of foliage down there
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so we've got that
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get out of it and then we have this one
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and so this is showing us closer now
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once I've established that there's a
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couple of other things that are
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established that people may or may not
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notice
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they're all very much intentional we can
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see this kind of rail system in the
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background
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and then we zoom into this and what I'm
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doing in the second shot is I'm showing
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a few of those iconic elements again I'm
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showing that we have these curved
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um sort of almost sort of clam shell
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iconic elements for these buildings that
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look a little bit futuristic a little
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bit sort of retro future as well we've
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got the green foliage on top we've got
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the arches in the background that are
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kind of framing the kind of Dome that
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you know is is part of the structure
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and what I'm able to do once I've
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established that visual shot is I can
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then repeat smaller elements of those
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iconic ideas in the background or I can
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simply use color
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to frame the shot now this is you might
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want to do this depending on how much
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time and effort you have in for
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background but the key with an
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establishing shot and being clear is
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that the clearer you are
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easier it is to draw things right it's
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physically easier to draw things when
00:09:02
they need to be clear like this so here
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I've got a nice clear shot it allows me
00:09:08
to draw this and really focus on just
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this kind of monorail style train that
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they've got and then here we can see oh
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these are the two characters they are
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you know hopefully it's clear they're
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sort of sitting there and once we're
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doing that I don't need to draw any
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backgrounds for those characters faces
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and here we've just got again an iconic
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element where we can see that yes it is
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him he's inside and on the outside we
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can see those same iconic elements
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zooming past so
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the goal is to put the effort for
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drawing the background in a place where
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we can make it sing where we can make it
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clear we make we can make it good and
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where I don't have to worry about you
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know drawing weird little bits of
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background you know in these kind of
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other weird little panels so this is the
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idea we established the overall Place
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therein which is kind of important
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because it could be anywhere right this
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is a science fiction environment we have
00:10:02
no context here once I've kind of
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established the general visual
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iconography for where they are then it
00:10:09
gives me freedom in later shots to still
00:10:12
establish the action while you know not
00:10:16
necessarily having to draw quite as much
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so here I have a shot which is kind of
00:10:20
two characters sitting in a restaurant
00:10:22
or a bar or something like that and we
00:10:25
can see out the in the background in the
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window behind them we got that same
00:10:28
iconic environment now this is not drawn
00:10:31
particularly well it's fairly simple but
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it's iconically obviously exactly the
00:10:36
same environment and that positions us
00:10:38
hopefully within that environment once
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I've done that then I can basically
00:10:43
focus on the story action I'm going to
00:10:46
reframe here for the character again to
00:10:49
just kind of zoom out breathe a little
00:10:51
bit makes it clear yes this is where
00:10:53
they are we can show a few other little
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Story Action elements and then again I'm
00:10:57
just going to go back to very simple
00:11:00
sort of dialogue panels now there's many
00:11:03
different stylistic ways that you would
00:11:04
organize the action here a big input is
00:11:07
behind the visual and storytelling style
00:11:09
of star Atlas core
00:11:11
is to make it very simple to read
00:11:14
because this is not necessarily
00:11:15
something that's going to always be read
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by people who are comfortable reading
00:11:18
comics so I really wanted to make it as
00:11:20
as basic as possible right when
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someone's talking you know it's very
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clear who they are
00:11:25
um you know just trying to make stuff as
00:11:27
approachable as possible it's not
00:11:28
necessarily meant to be as dynamic or
00:11:31
um as crazy compositionally as some
00:11:32
other styles of comics so again you know
00:11:35
that all of this plays into the clarity
00:11:37
that we're needing a simple establishing
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shots people are talking again the goal
00:11:41
is just to tell the story so here's
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another example and this is actually the
00:11:46
the first few pages of this episode so
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we follow on from this establishing shot
00:11:51
all of the mondra 7 space station and
00:11:53
once I've sort of done that I actually
00:11:55
did another establishing shot
00:11:57
re-establishing so this is
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um you know very sort of bird's eye view
00:12:02
like this is kind of where they are and
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this is the second establishing shot
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where we kind of zoom in a little bit
00:12:08
more and we understand that yeah these
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people are talking and is where they are
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situationally placed so it aids Clarity
00:12:15
a lot to establish and re-establish and
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give yourself a really clear place to
00:12:20
frame the action in the beginning okay
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so let's just look at a few other
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examples just so we can sort of hammer
00:12:25
the point home and so you can see it
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used in a few different scenarios and
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I'm actually re-establishing the same
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ship in a different environment and this
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is important because again you know it's
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part of the story that it's in a
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different spot here you can see again
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just how I'm sort of trying to keep the
00:12:40
background consistent and pay attention
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to what I am drawing and what I'm not
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drawing so we can see the same
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sort of ship the same environment viewed
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from a different perspective but once
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they've kind of got that establishing
00:12:55
shot there then I can be a lot Freer
00:12:57
with many of the other follow-up
00:12:59
scenarios but again you don't always
00:13:00
have to
00:13:02
um you know establish the action right
00:13:04
at the beginning you can have a little
00:13:05
bit that is ambiguous where you're not
00:13:07
quite sure where people are as long as
00:13:09
very quickly you know as soon as that
00:13:11
question is in people's minds that you
00:13:13
kind of establish the scene I've got
00:13:15
these cloth elements that are near the
00:13:18
ship right and so I'm using these and
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the idea of iconic boxes the key is that
00:13:23
this kind of area here and this area
00:13:25
looks similar and I can kind of tell
00:13:27
what's going on now there were other
00:13:29
panels as well where the character was
00:13:31
kind of walking up there so it's easy
00:13:34
I'm making this as clear as possible so
00:13:36
that the action were now here again
00:13:38
we're following on with the same idea
00:13:40
random boxes behind and here we've got
00:13:43
the action which is kind of meant to be
00:13:45
a little bit more exciting and Abstract
00:13:47
but because I I've kind of designed it
00:13:49
to make it clear that yes these two
00:13:51
characters are going down this ramp when
00:13:53
we hit this I can kind of be a little
00:13:56
bit more free with how I blur the scene
00:13:58
I make it more Dynamic a little bit more
00:14:00
like whoa what's going on
00:14:01
because it's very clear based on the
00:14:04
previous establishing shot where they
00:14:06
are and again I feel like that's the
00:14:08
point I want to keep ramming home is
00:14:10
that the more we use Simple storytelling
00:14:13
we put the background where it needs to
00:14:15
be we establish at the right point we
00:14:17
zoom out when we need it means when
00:14:19
you're zoomed in I don't need to draw
00:14:22
silly boxes where I don't need to I can
00:14:25
let some of these panels breathe a
00:14:27
little bit more
00:14:28
um and and you know people are going to
00:14:29
understand hopefully
00:14:31
the general sort of situational
00:14:33
environment and when I need to be more
00:14:36
dynamic because if established earlier
00:14:38
on I can be more Dynamic more abstract
00:14:41
more exciting and the clarity is still
00:14:44
going to be there okay same basic idea
00:14:46
with this page again again just
00:14:48
repeating this um concept so that it's
00:14:50
super clear here we've got a basic
00:14:53
establishing shot now this scene really
00:14:55
is just two characters talking that's it
00:14:57
there's nothing else in the script
00:14:59
everything else is made up but we have a
00:15:02
good establishing shot to be oh that's
00:15:04
this is where they are and then we have
00:15:08
more shots showing characters sort of
00:15:11
floating around
00:15:12
and again we get a general feeling like
00:15:14
this is where they are I have a few of
00:15:16
these iconic elements again like these
00:15:18
big sort of glass display panels and
00:15:21
foliage and I'm just repeating that
00:15:23
where I need and I'm using Color where I
00:15:25
don't have anything and here you can see
00:15:28
with this background I've actually just
00:15:29
sort of made this up with flat color but
00:15:31
it follows the same iconic
00:15:33
um design language that is in the other
00:15:36
background so once they do that my goal
00:15:38
is to merely replicate that where I need
00:15:40
to you can see here as well we have a
00:15:43
lot of this visual design languages this
00:15:45
kind of long right sort of vertical
00:15:48
curving lines as these kind of giant
00:15:50
towels kind of grip the ground almost
00:15:52
and
00:15:54
um and we've also got these big arcing
00:15:58
kind of egg-shaped clam-shaped things
00:16:00
with foliage on top and so I'm actually
00:16:03
here with this background again just
00:16:05
flat color iconically representing that
00:16:07
so we get some vague feeling that like
00:16:09
oh there is something there here we have
00:16:11
this background which kind of just had a
00:16:12
a little bit of extra space we need
00:16:15
something there can't just be flat color
00:16:17
so let's put in again very simple
00:16:20
representation and what I'm doing is
00:16:22
just using that abstractly to help lead
00:16:24
the eye through that panel but I can do
00:16:27
that because it's pretty clear where
00:16:29
they are in the first place all right so
00:16:31
lastly I just have two points here that
00:16:33
I think is is worth kind of adding to
00:16:34
this and this is where we fought in the
00:16:36
idea of illustration or how does this
00:16:38
idea of Simplicity establishing the shot
00:16:41
figuring out what's going on how does it
00:16:43
how does this apply to illustrations
00:16:44
that either don't really have a good
00:16:47
sense of place or again illustrations
00:16:49
which do which are meant to kind of
00:16:51
place someone in a fantasy world now all
00:16:53
these examples are my kind of examples
00:16:55
right so it's going to be art that I
00:16:57
kind of understand again I've got some
00:16:58
good frazzetta reference here that will
00:16:59
kind of key us into this but um yeah the
00:17:02
first thing is just like let's look at
00:17:04
this cover which is again a star Atlas
00:17:06
core cover and this one doesn't really
00:17:08
have any sense of place it's abstract so
00:17:11
it's this kind of weird overlaying of
00:17:13
these different concepts we have this
00:17:15
kind of broken robot guy who's a major
00:17:17
character in the book and we've got this
00:17:20
rioting mass of sort of pipes and
00:17:24
electronic tubes and stuff and they're
00:17:26
kind of coming to life or something he's
00:17:28
got this weird representation which is
00:17:31
an abstract representation of this
00:17:33
device he builds and behind that we have
00:17:36
a planet now none of this stuff is
00:17:37
actually in the same space it's it's
00:17:39
it's an iconic representation and it's
00:17:41
purely designed it's kind of look cool
00:17:43
it's designed from a graphic perspective
00:17:46
first and
00:17:48
again this is a particular type of
00:17:50
illustration it's and the key here I
00:17:53
think again is to be clear that nothing
00:17:56
is too situational so where you're
00:18:00
trying to establish something the goal
00:18:02
is to be really clear and see like hey
00:18:04
this is where we are and now we're here
00:18:06
and now here the more abstract we are I
00:18:09
think you have to repeat the same idea
00:18:11
that this is not really a physical space
00:18:15
this is an arrangement of abstract
00:18:17
elements and the more that we play up
00:18:20
the design aspect of this and you do
00:18:23
place things that don't necessarily
00:18:25
belong near each other the clearer that
00:18:27
becomes and the more people can suspend
00:18:30
their sense of disbelief let's say and
00:18:33
start to appreciate the art you know
00:18:35
kind of for what it is which is just
00:18:37
kind of like a cool collection of colors
00:18:40
and shapes all right next let's look at
00:18:42
some fresetta art a because I always
00:18:44
like looking at it for Z Art and B
00:18:46
because I think he has a again an
00:18:48
interesting mix of these two things
00:18:50
obviously if you're trying to create an
00:18:52
illustration that is sort of centered
00:18:54
around an environment I think we think
00:18:56
very much about establishing the shot
00:19:00
but you also need to include some main
00:19:02
action in there and this is where
00:19:03
composition often becomes important now
00:19:05
we could look at some stuff that you
00:19:07
know does a really good mix of that but
00:19:10
um let's look first at fresetta because
00:19:12
for Zetta often does some interesting
00:19:14
things which is where we do a bit of a
00:19:17
combination of like hey here's an actual
00:19:20
scene happening and the background is
00:19:23
either abstract or kind of in this weird
00:19:27
ether right where it's sort of iconic in
00:19:30
its representation of where they are so
00:19:32
here we've got again just an abstract
00:19:34
sky but it is very much connected
00:19:36
emotionally to what is going on in the
00:19:38
situation
00:19:39
here we have this which is again a
00:19:44
little bit of a sort of
00:19:46
um vignette style diorama of a character
00:19:49
plus some sort of leopards and the
00:19:52
background there again is a fairly sort
00:19:55
of simple representation of what's going
00:19:56
on which is so important now I think the
00:19:58
trick is the reason I kind of talk about
00:20:00
this is when it was early on in my sort
00:20:02
of developments and development as an
00:20:04
artist I found it very hard to do this I
00:20:07
found it like it kind of didn't make
00:20:09
sense to me because I was like a bit but
00:20:10
like you know how to how they make those
00:20:12
choices and I I think again a lot of it
00:20:15
is just made based on very kind of
00:20:19
intuitive abstract imagery right it's
00:20:23
just trying to give a sense of place and
00:20:25
I think that's where a lot of these um
00:20:26
illustrations succeed right where it's
00:20:29
like oh they're on a boat and you know
00:20:32
what do we need to tell about that
00:20:33
nothing we need a sale we need um you
00:20:36
know the front of the boat I forget what
00:20:37
that's what's that what that is called
00:20:39
but again you know this is really just a
00:20:42
matter of uh you know like being very
00:20:44
clear with where people are and I think
00:20:46
what I would often try and do is like
00:20:47
draw more of the boat I try and do more
00:20:50
stuff because I felt like more
00:20:51
background is better so much of this
00:20:53
type of illustration is about being
00:20:55
selective and clear and again just
00:20:59
establishing the basic concepts that
00:21:01
you're trying to get in
00:21:03
um the the image
00:21:04
I think this Tarzan image is a great
00:21:07
example of this and it just highlights
00:21:09
again how important I think Simplicity
00:21:11
is we've got Tarzan hanging off some
00:21:16
random Mountain doesn't make any sense
00:21:18
why he would be there and here we have
00:21:20
this kind of perfectly framed little
00:21:22
city in the background and here we have
00:21:25
this River coming off here coming off to
00:21:28
a very
00:21:29
um convenient little waterfally thing
00:21:31
now the point is that none of this makes
00:21:34
sense right this is not a logical
00:21:37
environment this is designed purely to
00:21:41
represent iconically what we're trying
00:21:44
to feel which is that like the
00:21:46
characters hanging up high
00:21:49
um they are looking somewhere they're
00:21:51
going to Journey there we can see the
00:21:53
river is like a pathway which is a
00:21:55
classic compositional idea right we you
00:21:58
know we sort of weave towards the
00:22:00
entrance of where we're going and then
00:22:02
we see this uh you know sort of city in
00:22:05
the background that doesn't have
00:22:06
anything around it um again why Clarity
00:22:09
simplicity
00:22:10
it's often about what you don't do as
00:22:13
much as what you do all right lastly
00:22:15
let's just look at again someone who's
00:22:16
able to combine a lot of these Concepts
00:22:18
quite well which is Jean jarur Mobius
00:22:20
now here again these are not necessarily
00:22:23
the best examples of this but just
00:22:25
quickly you can see that when you're
00:22:27
sort of trying to do multiple things at
00:22:29
once this is often when we need to plan
00:22:32
the most and this is also why if you can
00:22:35
if you're doing things separately if you
00:22:37
can keep them separate it's a little bit
00:22:39
easier to plan if things are iconic it's
00:22:41
a little bit simpler to plan it
00:22:43
especially as a comic book you kind of
00:22:46
have to really play with both of these
00:22:48
ideas and make sure that you separate
00:22:50
within the frame okay here's the story
00:22:53
of the background here's the story of
00:22:55
the characters and I think what you find
00:22:57
is if you actually look closely a lot of
00:22:58
these things that's frequently what is
00:23:01
happening we have a story being told in
00:23:03
one part of the image and a story being
00:23:05
told in another part of the image and
00:23:07
it's the clarity of how these things
00:23:09
combine that that will kind of make them
00:23:12
make sense and I think if you understand
00:23:16
those Initial Ideas well it makes this
00:23:20
type of composition which is often what
00:23:22
most people are doing with illustration
00:23:23
makes it a lot easier to comprehend
00:23:26
because again what you're often trying
00:23:28
to do is separate those ideas that I had
00:23:31
in the beginning where you have
00:23:32
background and characters and they're
00:23:34
kind of interacting we're actually
00:23:36
trying to put them on the same page but
00:23:37
you need to keep them separate so
00:23:40
again just keep that in mind it's always
00:23:42
a matter of trying to tell the story and
00:23:44
be as simple as possible give yourself a
00:23:47
place to you know again draw the
00:23:49
character a place to draw the background
00:23:51
and you know try not to get them all
00:23:53
sort of mushed up together all right so
00:23:55
hopefully those examples help to frame
00:23:57
what I mean here about Simplicity and
00:24:00
how so important it is to establish your
00:24:03
sort of Action Now obviously that's kind
00:24:06
of what maybe you should do or you know
00:24:08
some rules and principles that will
00:24:09
really help what we're really trying to
00:24:11
avoid doing here that I think again you
00:24:13
should try and move away from is kind of
00:24:15
either not establishing the shot in the
00:24:17
beginning and I found this to be a real
00:24:19
trap that's easy to fall into when I was
00:24:21
drawing Comics or illustrations is kind
00:24:24
of if you don't give your composition or
00:24:27
your page a really easy way for you to
00:24:30
frame that action if you're not really
00:24:31
designing the angle of the shot and kind
00:24:33
of being like okay yeah this is where I
00:24:35
need to look at if you don't kind of get
00:24:36
it right or if you don't separate it out
00:24:39
it becomes very very challenging later
00:24:41
on if you don't have the establishing
00:24:43
shot you're always sort of fighting with
00:24:45
this idea of like I need to show where
00:24:47
they are I need to figure this out and
00:24:49
what you find again is that often with
00:24:52
graphic storytelling what's happening is
00:24:54
people are kind of connecting these
00:24:55
things up a little bit so
00:24:57
when you're doing Comics have
00:24:59
establishing shots in there I think it's
00:25:01
very very important don't just try and
00:25:04
draw mushy backgrounds behind something
00:25:06
you know if a shot doesn't need a
00:25:08
background don't put it in it should be
00:25:10
clear from the scene what's happening
00:25:12
anyway you do need to re-establish you
00:25:15
do need to breathe but again what you
00:25:17
want to do when you're breathing is to
00:25:19
Breathe Right take another sort of
00:25:21
establishing shot set the scene
00:25:24
um set the mood and you want to focus on
00:25:26
that you want to be clear on hey this is
00:25:28
a background show this is where they are
00:25:29
this is cool look at this fuel the vibe
00:25:32
right you don't want to be combining
00:25:34
that with oh and then there's people
00:25:36
talking and doing all this stuff at the
00:25:37
same time
00:25:39
the more you separate ideas out the more
00:25:41
clear you can be the more you can sing a
00:25:44
simple visual note now I would say the
00:25:48
more that you can hang to that simple
00:25:50
idea the better because as we add
00:25:53
complexity to our scenes as you kind of
00:25:55
have the requirement from a brief to
00:25:57
kind of say oh no no I want you to do a
00:25:59
single illustration and it kind of can't
00:26:02
be too abstract right I need a scene
00:26:04
where it's like I need five Warriors and
00:26:07
they're like in a fantasy City and
00:26:08
they're fighting a dragon right
00:26:10
you kind of need to be like okay well
00:26:12
they're here and the dragon's here like
00:26:14
where do I frame this a big part of the
00:26:16
goal there we're drawing backgrounds and
00:26:19
scenes is to be very clear and say like
00:26:21
how can I frame the action so that I
00:26:23
make it really clear like here's the
00:26:25
character here's the Dragon
00:26:27
here's the background and give yourself
00:26:29
space to have fun and draw those things
00:26:32
well so that people can enjoy looking at
00:26:34
them and again that can be really simple
00:26:36
like those Rosetta images where it's
00:26:38
like here's the character here's the
00:26:39
background and you know the background
00:26:40
is specifically designed because this is
00:26:42
one image remember we don't need to do
00:26:44
more of these it's just one you can kind
00:26:46
of have whatever you want and maybe that
00:26:49
scene wouldn't work from any other angle
00:26:50
maybe it wouldn't work if you you know
00:26:52
did anything else with it it's kind of
00:26:54
this abstract idea space thing but
00:26:57
nevertheless it works quite powerfully
00:27:00
because that's often how our brain in my
00:27:03
opinion understands images it's very
00:27:05
clear so this thing and this thing all
00:27:06
right anyway I think that's all we got
00:27:08
time for on this one just a quick video
00:27:09
hopefully again not too quick but not
00:27:12
too long if you know my normal to the
00:27:14
videos get pretty Epic
00:27:16
hopefully this one was interesting let
00:27:18
me know in the comments down below
00:27:20
um I really think that these ideas are
00:27:22
more important than the questions of
00:27:23
like hey no how do I do perspective how
00:27:25
do I do this this foreground Middle
00:27:27
Ground background doesn't matter how
00:27:28
much perspective you use all those
00:27:30
things are hard right it's hard to draw
00:27:32
that stuff if you get it right you think
00:27:34
iconically it's almost you can warp the
00:27:37
rules of perspective a little bit they
00:27:38
become less important you've got more
00:27:40
ability to lean on kind of you know
00:27:43
strong image making and ideas versus
00:27:45
kind of you know again struggling just
00:27:47
to kind of make it all work I know that
00:27:49
sounds a little bit mystical but that
00:27:50
has nevertheless been my experience if
00:27:53
you get these things right everything
00:27:55
else is a little bit easier anyway
00:27:58
that's all I got for this one we'll
00:28:00
catch you around happy drawing