Background
What Background does your Fashion Illustration need?
Today’s lesson is about a piece of your fashion illustrations that sometimes is overlooked; it is the background. It’s a quick lesson, and it’s just one before the very last one.
Now, let’s jump in!
Background
Alright, the background is the very last element of our simple fashion illustrations.
As I said, sometimes it doesn’t get the importance it deserves as we believe the center of everything is the actual illustration, which is part true and part no-true because the background you give to your illustrations can enhance them and make them look better or make them look flat and plain, or worse confusing and aweful.
Here I’ll show you 4 different types of backgrounds that you can use for your simple fashion illustrations, what they do to the same illustration, and how you can create the backgrounds of your illustrations.
Types of Background
Certainly there’re other kinds of backgrounds, some people like to have something illustrated like a city, or scribbles related to the illustration, but I believe that that makes the illustration more complex, so as our goal is to create a simple fashion illustration I’ll focus only on simple backgrounds. Of course, you can experiment with complexity if you want 😉
1 | Contrasting
As its name says, this is a background that contrasts with the rest of your fashion illustration. This contrast effect makes the illustrations look bold and strong, one of the most common contrasting colors used for the background is deep black, and it makes the rest of the illustration to stand out.
If you don’t want to use deep black as the background, you can use other colors and textures that create the same effect. Before you add the background compare what colors and textures are contrasting and what aren’t, so you can have the contrast you look for.
2 | Harmonious
This type of background flows with the rest of the illustration, it doesn’t yells for attention, and it makes the illustration look like a whole. You can get a harmonious background by picking colors and textures similar to those that you find in the fashion illustration.
For example in this illustration, the background has the same colors that are included in the dress. The texture is a bit different because the watercolors flow more freely, but the colors are giving that harmonious look.
3 | Neutral
The neutral background is made with very light and neutral colors, it lets the illustration to stand out almost by itself, and it gives the illustration a bit of depth and position within the blank space. This kind of background is also used pretty often, because the colors are lighter and the illustration looks more relevant.
4 | Blank
Yes, if you don’t want to have any kind of color or texture in the background you can leave it blank. This is especially common when we are presenting fashion collections so that ALL the attention is given to the clothing and its details.
So, how do you create the background?
1 | Ask yourself
- What do you like more?
- What do you want to stand out?
- What do you want to transmit?
2 | Decide what kind of background you want
- Contrasting
- Harmonious
- Neutral
- Or Blank
3 | Ask yourself again, according the the background you chose
- What materials will help you to achieve that kind of background?
- What colors?
- What textures?
4 | Experiment with your the materials, colors, and textures you pick
- Use another piece of paper to create different background styles.
- Compare them between each other.
- And see how they work with the rest of your illustration.
Today’s assignment is
- Read today’s lesson – today there aren’t videos, but you should also do some work.
- Decide what kind of background you want for your simple fashion illustration.
- Experiment according to the exercise described above.
- Share your progress, doubts and questions via email, or if via Instagram with the hashtag #FashionIllustrationCourse.
OMG! We’re almost DONE! I can’t believe it 😛
Remember to share with me your progress and doubts!
