I notice in a lot of recent print work and here that there's just a suggestion of background or a color. I'm sure this has been discussed in the past but how much work do people put into it and how important are backgrounds to you when reading?
Who are some great background artists (especially here)?

Well I can't speak for my artist, but I do know she has been trying to bump up her backgrounds quite a bit since she started.

As for reading, it depends on the type of comic. A lot of humor strips I'm fine with not having much, if anything, to look at in the background. But the more serious comics, well I just feel a little cheated if I don't get a background. I know, that's silly, but having these well-drawn characters just sitting on a blank gradient or something hastily sketched out doesn't do it for me.

Oh, and if you want a good example of whom I consider a terrific background artist on DD, check out Purgatory Tower . Silentkitty puts her all into those, and there are superb backgrounds throughout.

Majority of my panels have some sort of background. Unless of course I'm doing extreme closeups of faces or the background is for example a hotel room wall that's just painted in one color, that's another story. I sometimes skip or simplify backgrounds during action sequences for better clarity. But unless it's entirely black, the texture/grainyness of the coloring applied by me creates an illusory background.


As for others? That depends. Sometimes all you need is a very detailed background in the first panel to set up the stage, and then it's straight to talking heads and one-colored backgrounds. If it's a funny strip, backgrounds can be nonexistand or nearly nonexistant (outline of a window or doors or some furniture to tell you it happens in a room or a city skyline, things like that).

Generaly I see it this way: the larger the panel the more background it requires, unless it's a very dynamic shot, then you just fill it with speed lines I guess, haha.

In my opinion, the aesthetics of backgrounds is pretty much EVERYTHING to me.

I work with Adobe Illustrator CS, so the process of putting a comic together is much like making a cake or decorating a room. I make great use of layers: Text, shadows, characters, 1st Background, 2nd Background, Panel (Ambience), Foundation - In that order.

The panel square/rectangle is used to determine sky color, lighting or if indoors, the color of the walls. The 1st and 2nd background layers are key for crowd scenes and of course, outdoor/indoor scene settings. Much of what happens on these layers are merely set the mood and work as accents for the characters layer (foreground).

The first or second panels in a page has the greatest amount of detail. After those two panels, the background should be slightly subdued to focus on the character interaction (i.e. silhouetted/blurred/color-blended trees, people, signs, doors).

Backgrounds are not only effective for look and feel - but also for perspective.

I used to skip backgrounds altogether, but that doesn't work in the long run - especially if it's a full-page comic and not a strip. If you go too long without showing a real background, it gives the feeling that your story is taking place in a blank space- A sense of setting is important for the mood of the story.

I've gotten better at backgrounds, though I need to keep working at it - I lose patience too easily, and default to the bare minimum/easiest thing to do, when I really need to push myself further.

It all depends on how far away the "camera" is, and what kind of panel it is; for panels where the "camera" is far away, the backgrounds need to be there. If it's a close-up shot of someone talking, you don't need much more than a colour, or maybe some small details; if you cram too many background details into a talking-head-panel, it becomes busy and hard to read. There needs to be a balance.

As for a good background artist.... ttyler who does Engine here on DD manages to cram an insane amount of detail into his background, and does it pretty well, too.

It depends on what you are 'saying' with your panel.
For a panel where you are emphasising an emotion, fro example, there should be little or even no background, it would just detract from the emotion, causing it to lose power.
I like the artist who does "Here there be Robots", he has a good eye for detail, but knows when to use it and when not to.

A lot of the people in this thread use them very well. The people who are suggested too of course ^_^

I don't really do BGs. Not as a separate entity anyway. My images work best when panels are just made as a complete picture, everything included.

Although I still tend to do BG layers separately when colouring and always first. But that's because the figures are in front (or other elements too, whatever). It makes things take a ling time, but I like the results. I feel I'd be cheating my past work if I didn't continue in the vein I started with.

When reading it doesn't matter as long as the overall image looks good. That could mean just characters with little or no BG details, just a cool use of negative space. You can see blntmaker doing that, really well too :)

Some people make their characters just float in empty space... that works too, but usually best in strip comics where the character is all.

I'm a nut about backgrounds. They're very important to me, as they help put the scene in context (where are they? who else is there? what's going on?) and it's great for adding bits of sarcasm or showing how just much the actions in the scene really affect the character(s). It can set the mood, accent the action or add subliminal aspects to what's going on in the frame.

I love backgrounds... B)

I put backgrounds to make the setting clear. But on minor panels like a face close up shot, I just put a gradient or a single color or a texture.

I'm gonna be honest, I blow with BG's...

People usually know where my characters are even without them, but I'm currently practicing to get better with them.

As for other comics having BG's... it's not a big deal to me. I like them, but I also like comics without them (one of my favourite comics rarely has backgrounds... just accessories near the characters that show where they are).

With all the CG tools at my disposal (blur, gradients, filters, etc), I'm beginning to forget how to render backgrounds the old fashioned way.

I'd have to say Reva Flynn is a great background artist, I might be biased of course but she puts a lot of time/effort into the backgrounds on Wyrden, especially when I ask her to do a street scene.

To me backgrounds are just as important as the dialogue, since they provide a stage on which things are set.

One of the things I wanted to do with one of my old comics (RDT) was force myself to do backgrounds. In effect I made the background and environment one of the main characters.

I found out that because I'm a perfectionist though, I either spend far more time than is reasonable on them, or a reasonable amount of time but end up unhappy with them. :)

Next comic I work on, I'm going to try to hit a balance between backgrounds and time/happiness. Backgrounds will probably end up being limited to a few a page, and be a lot more minimal- just to set the location/mood etc.

Setting is an important aspect to any story, so you should definitely make sure readers know where people are. It can also help set mood and create interest and depth in the art.

I don't draw separate backgrounds since my pages are all drawn directly on paper and kept in notebooks. Much of my story is inside stores and other empty/plain rooms, so there is often not much scenery. To establish setting, I use some recognizable pieces of furniture or objects. I got tired of having such plain environments, so have started making a conscious effort to apply shading or patterns to the floor and/or walls of every room -- or taking the action to areas with more interesting scenery. I try to regularly have bigger panels that set scenes and then keep the spacial relationships consistent in the close-ups and other angles.

That is exactly the mentality that I try to take on concerning backgrounds. I try to make them, in a way, a character in themselves. It might take alot of time, but it always pays off when the work is finished.

I'm horrible at them. My comic has always focused on the characters for so many years. When I started getting more serious about it here on DD I realized that the world should be just as important and crucial to visual storytelling.

Now I am finding myself in a real pickle when I have to draw them. I hope to improve. The other comic me and my friend are making places the world as a more important element than the characters. So that should help me out A LOT in practicing since there is no set schedule for producing the pages of that book.

We look at the world as a character in it as well.

I like drawing backgrounds. When I'm out during the day I like to take a good look at interesting buildings or other features of the city to get new ideas to incorporate into the backgrounds of my comics. Although that doesn't stop me from using my basic square brick slum building a whole lot.

I used to hate drawing backgrounds before I got into webcomic..hate them with a passion. Now I'm beginning to really like it since I've forced myself into drawing backgrounds. It's been kind of a challenge for me drawing cityscapes when I live in some tiny rural village..but now I've kinda warmed to my subject. I don't really think its possible to get involved in a story-based comic when there's no background. It sets the mood and also says a lot about the story itself.

I'm on the fence. It all depends on what I am trying to do. If it's more character driven then, like someone else mentioned on here, I will do the occasional establishing shot to show the setting and then let the reader fill in the blanks. That's not to say I don't like well done backgrounds, I do them in one of my comics as well, but it is time consuming.

I generally do a background of some sort, though in truth they are rather simple things. I have on occastion done a really complex background. I don't like just the one color backgrounds usually. THough in today's update I used just that...go figure...

I enjoy putting in backgrounds. Especially organic backgrounds. I also believe bg can convey emotion and mood in a story and I try my best to convey that through lightness, darkness and the position of the character/s in relation to the background.

I'm terrible with backgrounds, mostly because I don't have the design sense or skills to make them so I kinda BS them with lines in PS most of the time it doesn't work all that well

All backgrounds in my comic (LAC) are from the game (Ragnarok online) using a private test server. I just use a character that has a skill that makes them disapper and then i take a scene shot. Simple and effective. I try to keep the comic at scenes of the game as much as possable. Making them...Im crap at.

Background for me is 2/3 fun of drawing comics XD I love to draw details so very much :D Expecially like drawing something old, like ruins, old towns and such :D Afcourse, like for AoE, drawing 40+ pages with pratically same background kinda makes me to want to get rid of the background xD but next chapter gonna be like a reward for me couz I'll get a new background XDD YAY!!

I'm definitely of the simplified backgrounds camp. Backgrounds are great and all but the foreground still needs to "come forward," and I find that the easiest way to push the backgrounds... well, back is to simplify the details the farther away from the "camera" they get. I used to not like doing backgrounds all that much but I think they're sort of fun now. Like anything in comics backgrounds can fun as long as there's something to hold your interest. In my case I've got a fascination with old brick buildings and comic backgrounds give me an excuse to draw them.