Scenery

[Fairy]

Inspired by this post.

Do you draw backgrounds or scenery in your art? Do you thing it's an important part of creating a "complete" image? Or is it something that often troubles you and gets in the way of your focal?

On the drawing end of things, I seldom make backgrounds. I find that I.. just forget that they exist. Maybe a tree, maybe a flower, but that's about as far as my background drawing goes. I tend to automatically dismiss drawings with rolling mountains in the background because of the tacky look to them.

So, what are your thoughts on scenery?

 

[Puddle]

I'm terrible at drawing anything. It would make the piece look so bad. I absolutely need to use already created backgrounds. However, I think it is awesome when people can customize the full piece. It really adds to the full meaning.

 

[Ninja Paladin]

I've tried spriting them in the past, but usually I composite them from various stocks for sigs or other larger things with a bit of scratchworked elements or use of one thing as another after working on it. Otherwise the only time I think about backgrounds is when I want to use them, still when I do use them I try to ensure I have a visual that feels right to my sensibilities and I find appealing for the focus.

 

[Fairy]

Honestly, I've seen some pixel art backgrounds that blow my mind. Things like background tiles for games are so overtly complicated, because they need to be awesome in their own right but not stand out too much as it subtracts from the game play.

example

Spoiler:

User "Fool" from Pixel Joint

amazing, isn't it?

I mean that right there is definitive proof that scenery is a worthwhile endeavor. But damn if I just don't have the patience to work behind the thing I actually want to draw.