Tips & Ideas For Drawing Backgrounds (Patreon)

Hello my creative bunch! 🌷✨

Today I want to talk about drawing backgrounds for our illustrations because it’s something that can be challenging to create so I have a few tips for drawing different types of backgrounds from super simple shapes to full scenes.

I draw simple backgrounds more often than I draw complex ones unless I’m illustrating a picture book just because often I’m just illustrating for a couple of hours for fun, but sometimes it’s a nice challenge to draw a more developed scene and it’s something that can be easy to get carried away with!

Most of my illustrations are drawn quite close up which means that you don’t see as much of a background, partly because they’re fun and easy to draw, and partly because they seem to perform well on Instagram since they’re so bold and stand out easily on a social media feed. Once you start zooming out the scale of your subject though you’ll be seeing more of their environment and you’ll want to include more of a background.

So here are a few general tips on creating backgrounds:

Don’t Be Afraid Of Simplicity

You certainly don’t have to create a full environment to have a background in your illustration, so consider what level of complexity you’re ready or motivated for (I’ll show you ideas for all complexities in a mo). If you already have an idea for a subject, how complex your background is will probably depend on a few things:

How much time you have

How confident you are with drawing backgrounds

How inspired you’re feeling

Whether you want to tell a story with your setting or not

Having a super simple background is sometimes the best way to go, or sometimes you’ll be really in the mood to go for something big - there’s no right or wrong way so don’t be afraid to stick with simple if you’re not wanting to commit to a big environment right now! If you’re ready for a challenge or feeling motivated to do a full scene then go for it, but just don’t feel like you have to.

Practise Your Composition Skills

Being familiar with how to balance a composition will help a lot when it comes to drawing a background around or behind your main subject. Do some research into composition tips, do your own experimenting or I have a tutorial video about creating compositions available for Bluebells here. 

When you’re drawing a background you’ll need to consider where to place everything so understanding some composition basics will help a lot!

Think About The Story

The great thing about backgrounds and scenes is that they can really elevate the story of your illustration so if you like (you don’t have to) you could consider how your background tells a story.

Perhaps it’s just supportive of your main subject, or maybe it’s an environment in a particular season or a specific location. If your character is in a sunhat then having a sunny setting with lots of flowers or a beach will support that and you could put some things in the environment to continue the story.

There are lots of visual cues that we associate with different feelings so you can use those in your background to suggest how you want people to feel. Rainbows and bright colours are usually joyful, whereas rain and desaturated colours will feel gloomier so you can use that visual language to suggest people feel a certain way when they see your art. My illustrations usually feel happy because I use joyful colours, rainbows, sparkles and flowers in my backgrounds.

So let’s take a look at some different types of background and scenes.

Background #1 - Simple Shape

Let’s start with the most simple background that I can think of which is just having a simple shape and maybe a few floating elements around your subject. I draw this a lot when I’m either low on time but want to draw a character, or just want to have a really bold subject.

You can draw your subject and then just add a simple coloured shape behind them so that they aren’t just completely floating on white. The colour you choose for the background shape can be really light to not draw much attention or it can be in really high contrast to your subject to help highlight them.

I also really like to add some little sparkles to these simple backgrounds and sometimes some floating elements related to the subject as well.

I think this is a really good option if you’re really not sure where to start because it’s stress-free, still cute, and you can start adding more and more background elements as you practise and grow your confidence. One step at a time, I say!

Pros of these backgrounds:

Super duper quick to draw

Don’t require too much decision making

Beginner friendly

Often do well on Instagram (because they’re bold and stand out in a feed)

Background #2 - Simple Scene Elements

When you’re wanting a simple background but would like a little more than just a shape, then you can start adding in simple scene elements.

This is kind of like suggesting an environment without seeing the whole thing, because you’re just seeing a few elements on what is otherwise still a very plain background behind your subject.

I like doing backgrounds like this when I’m short on time but want to show a bit more personality or life, and usually I just add a few plants or a cute rainbow and it helps brighten up the whole image.

I think this is a really good option if you have a strong subject and you want to keep your illustration simple but would still like to add a bit more colour or personality to the scene. It’s still super simple and beginner friendly but a little less ‘floaty’ than the first option.

Pros of these backgrounds:

Still quick and simple

Suggests a real setting without showing much of it

Adds a little personality and colour

Beginner friendly

Background #3 - Simple Environments

With this style of background we’re ready to take things up a notch! Simple environments are backgrounds that show an actual setting but in a super simple way, and I often create them with just two or three layers of background elements like bushes.

With a background like this you can still be quite close up on your subject and really feature them but also show off the environment they’re in which can help us tell their story. For these scenes I often bring in a foreground or midground layer of the environment as well which lets us suggest depth in a really simple way by having a foreground, midground and background layer.

There really doesn’t have to be too much going on, I usually just have one or two layers of background ‘bushes’, and then either a more detailed plant layer like some flowers or more detailed leaves in the foreground.

I think these backgrounds are great if you still want to feature a subject and want to practise building little environments without committing to a big scene.

Pros of these backgrounds:

A nice opportunity to bring in depth and colour

Tells us more about our subject

An opportunity to show a little bit of detail

Good middle ground between super simple and quite complex

Background #4 - Medium Environments

I’m calling these backgrounds ‘medium environments’ just because they’re sort of a middle ground between a simple scene and a full scene. They have more complexity and detail than the simple environments but not as much depth as a full environment.

For these scenes I usually add in an extra couple of layers than the simple environments so rather than just being a straight layer of background bushes there might be several layers of plants and trees, maybe some rolling hills, and definitely something in the foreground.

With this level of environment you can also make your subject smaller and show off the scene some more since we’re giving it more attention to detail.

I think these scenes are great when you have a bit more confidence about drawing simple environments and are ready to add a solid foreground and a few more details.

Pros of these backgrounds:

Shows off more of the scene

You can tell a story with the environment

Lots of opportunity for cute details

A little more challenging

Background #5 - Full Environments

So now we’re at the most complex of backgrounds which is a full on environment. Of course these can be much more complex than mine, but often my full scenes are still fairly simple because that’s my style.

What makes these full environments more complex to me are the level of detail and depth included in them. Now that there’s more complexity to the scene you’ll likely want to put more consideration into the composition because there are more elements to balance and where you want people to focus is important when there’s lots more detail.

I’ve made a full video about adding depth to your illustrations that Beautiful Bluebells can access here and also one about composition which Bluebells can access here.

In a nutshell though, a simple way to create depth in your illustration is to take advantage of having a foreground, midground and background, and then to use lighter and less saturated colours in the layers furthest in the distance, and then darker and more saturated colours in the foreground where you can also have more detail and contrast (you can see this here in my forest illustrations).

I think these backgrounds are great because you can tell a lot of story with them and you can introduce lighting and depth, but they of course take longer to create!

Pros of these backgrounds:

Can have lots of depth and detail

Can tell a story

Are fun to explore

More challenging than the others

So there are a few ideas about drawing backgrounds that will hopefully help you with your own illustrations!

Perhaps experiment with drawing an illustration with each of these background types and see which one you like best 🥰