Imaginative Background Arts

This video shows a quick traditional style drawing, I so a more detailed step-by-step lecture later in the course

This video shows a quick digital drawing with just some very basic steps. I go much more into a step by step in a later lecture.

I show the basic shapes that I use and Warm Up exercises that I do

In this lecture I discus why Horizontal lines are used and what the Horizon actually is.

Basic Background principles

The importance of Level of Detail (LoD) in backgrounds.

This is the way I build my rocks in a traditionally manner. How I detail the rocks is not as important as understanding how the rock is created and the planes that make the rock surface.

This is how I do rocks digitally. What is important to learn is how I think about the rock planes.

The way I think about Boulders

How to think about  Rock Clusters

Understanding Brickwork and pathways

My thoughts on fences since i worked as a fence builder for several years.

How I do mushrooms so that they look great before they are rendered. This method is done traditionally but also applies to digital work.

I go over a simple and easy way to make moss, I also explain what not to do. This method is done traditionally but also applies to digital work.

In this lecture I discuss how and why vines grow. It is important to understand why and how they grow to properly draw them.

I go over some simple ways of making grass in a traditional sense. You can do this Digitally but it is simpler to use a brush set.

How to do Big Grass

Adding small weeds into your scenes

Picking on a poor Dandelion I go over the concept of Big Weeds.