rather boring first background

[otter]

Hey gang,

I've been trying to hone my artistic skills over the last few days (okay, "honing" implies that I had any skills to begin with) and I thought I'd try a simple background to practice perspective and lighting.  I ended up with the following room, which took me a rather depressingly long time to draw considering it's basically empty.  (Drawn in MS-Paint with a bit of touching up in WinGIMP.)

Any ideas on where I should go from here?

[InCreator]

First bg? Really?
Hard to believe, It's too good for a first one.
Crystal ball shows another strong artist in community...

Of course, things to do further are plenty, so here goes:

* Red outlines on white walls? No-no.

* Black outlines? It will take time and practice, but start trying to use outlines only for sketchy primary shapes but textures/fills for completed things. It goes like that: you draw a vase with outlines, but then paint it so outlines won't be there anymore.

* Glass shading. There's hundreds of different ways for doing it. Realism isn't too important as long as the result creates some cool effect, for example, one my semi-realistic ways are on following picture:

It's unfinished bg for my upcoming game, but windows are there

Of course, windows inside the house have to be shaded differently, and should be transclusent, so outside could be seen. It's quite easy to do also. Few white pixelly lines are not shading...

* Practical side: A drawing for practising purpose may be random, but such bg would be difficult to use in a game: The character sprites aren't usually that tall, especially in low-res. There's exceptions, of course (Broken Sword?), I just haven't seen any of your sprites yet. But you have to keep an eye on this thing when you seriously start to make something.

* 3D. The doorknobs, glass panels on door/window and the wall light are all very flat. To "3D-ize" them, you should either use some shading or shadows. Or both and draw sides to these things, so image would look less flat.

* Use colors! White and blue are boring. Don't be afraid to experiment and try some crazy coloring. Even boring room like this could have at least 10 different moods and "faces" when colored differently.

* Program. MSPaint isn't worth your time, if you're going for serious "backgrounding". It's good for a newbie to try hand without confusing with endless options and possibilities, but not really suitable to make high-quality stuff. Better use time wisely and pick something with stronger base. There's loads of sticky topics and endless query threads about paint programs around AGSForums. Try them and find the one you like the most.

* Shading. I won't be writing another page-long article here, just know that shading will be the master mystery and key in making a good looking background. This is what will make your  life difficult and your efforts worth it. Read tutorials, inspect photos, try stuff.

.................

Heh, okay. I wanted to give some pointers for going further, but once again, ended up writing Background Artist's Bible.

Good luck with your studies, you have seemingly enough talent to advance into a strong artist.

[Raider]

InC, you really know how to explain things well.
As for the background, I agree with InC on the outlines. I do my walls in my backgrounds with black outlines. But as for the red,Ã, 
Welcome,
[EDIT]----------
Also the window sill is much too wide... unless that is delibrate.

[KrisMacDee]

I think you have a really good start but I agree with the thread heading it is quite boring. Add a table, a plant pot or curtains around the window(That is if this is in a house of course). But not bad for a first BG.Better than mine at any rate. And guys I think the red outlines where a mistake.

Bigmac