The Importance of Backgrounds
Backgrounds may not seem that important, but they can define a lot without you having to say a word, making them very efficient at world-building.
Most beginning artists debate drawing backgrounds because of the complexity; backgrounds can be intimidating so it’s definitely understandable. However, you need to keep in mind that a background adds a lot to the comic; it can sometimes be subtle, sometimes obvious, but backgrounds can add a lot to the comic. Part of the debate about whether or not to have backgrounds needs to keep in mind what they bring to the table.
That said, there are several different ways you can break down a panel. For our purposes, we’re breaking it down into the characters and the backgrounds. For most people, they’ll start with a rough sketch of the panel, possibly play with it a bit, and then draw the panel. In general, most artists will do a panel in one of two ways: They’ll either do the entire panel as one piece of art, or they will do the backgrounds and composite the characters.
Drawing a panel as a single piece allows you to get all of the details right; with the light coming down on everything from the same angle, for example, and you only need to worry about perspective lines once. Compositing is a little more interesting, as each piece needs to be drawn and then fit into the overall picture; while it can be…