Story Dra

Draw
w ing Skills
HOW TO DRAW BACKGROUNDS WITH CHARACTER

 by Betsy
Betsy Lun
Luntao
tao
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even
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(*This book is free and educational.)

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ng about not sharing or

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Share this bookanyone
it with without
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it! rary,
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Let’s want youother
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gain this
the book!
skills needed to draw awesome
awesome stories so we can geek out ou t over them!

If you want to know more about me, my mission to help people gain story drawing skills,
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Copyright © 2017 Betsy Luntao.
 Dedicated to those with a story in their heart
 thatt isi s stil
 tha s tilll waiti
wa iting
ng to be drawn.

Thank you beta readers

readers who graciously
Aaron donatedLaura
their time to send me feedback on this
thi s book:
Bronte Lucía
Imerei Maggie
Jennifer Phoebe
Kathi Rosalie
Kre Sean
 FOREWORD:  It’s Not easy, But it’s not impossible.
FOREWORD:
There is no denying that BGs fun!” What I am going to share is While I’m sure you’re eager to get
(backgrounds)
draw. are not easy to how to take some
complexities, of the mysteries,
and boredom out of BG started, I doyou’re
If you think urge you
goingtotobefinish
patient.
drawing. I’m going to show you how to a super complex background in 2
Just the scale is intimidating. you can treat it more like character hours, or even 1 day, you’re going to
BGs have to represent so much drawing, which will overall make it end up being really frustrated and
more space than the characters. less intimidating, understandable and disappointed.
Maybe that’s why BGs take so (hopefully) more enjoyable.
darn long
long to finish! My first
first It’s quite likely that it’ll take you a
semester in Art School came with To reach that goal, this book is split whole week to finish a BG, depending
one piece of advice: up into 3 stages: Stage 1 is the Story on how often you draw.
Don’t take Perspective class until Starters section and includes how to
you can dedicate 30-40 hours to brainstorm story ideas. I’m a firm Like I said, it won’t be super easy,
Like
 the homew
homeworkork every week.
wee k. Wow.
W ow. believer that if you 
you  care  about the but it will be super worth it when
Plus, let’s be honest, if you learned place you’re drawing, you’ll be much you’ll be drawing BGs suited to your
 to draw
d raw characters
charac ters first,
first , BGs
B Gs more enthusiastic about drawing it. stories and characters!
are unavoidably boring. Walls and Stage 2 is the Story Specifics section
objects just sitting there...lifeless.  to help
h elp you desig
d esignn the
th e person
p ersonalit
alityy
Ugh. of your background. In Stage 3, we
go for it and begin Story Drawing,
I’m not going to lie and say showing you how to build a background
 that this boo
bookk contains
co ntains “t
“tricks”
ricks” with as few apathetic, blank boxes or
or “shortcuts” to make BGs grids as I can.
miraculously “easy, fast and
 Table of Contents
Intro: Learn what you need - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1

STAGE 1: STORY STA RTER S - - - - - - - - - - - - - 2

Taglines - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 3
T hu mbn a i l C omp o si t i o n S t u ff - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4
Thumbnail Proportions - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7
Focal Points - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8
Golden Rect
Rectangle
angle vs. Rule of Thirds - - - - - - - - - - - - 11
FMB(DB) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19
Reads - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 23
Sequential Story Angles - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 30
Single Moment Story Angles - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 37

STAGE
STAGE 2: STORY SPECIF
SPECIFICS
ICS - - - - - - - - - - - - 48
 Spark and Scrap Boards
 Sp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 49
 Betsy’s Boar
Boards
ds - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 54
Plus it and Ratio - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 58
Cultural Shape Identity - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 61
If These Walls Could Talk - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 66
PVisual
roportion
and Tand Scale
le T-ext
ouchable
ouchab -ures
- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 75
extures 79