I see this problem a LOT. When I’m in the forums, in the Art Scene, I see many people perplexed about the next step in their art. And that is, after they’re done with their artwork and satisfied with it, they always, always, always wonder what they should put for a background. And when they put one on, they feel it’s insufficient. Something’s still lacking, they feel, but they can’t quite pin it down. For some, this is discouraging.

Don’t be discouraged. There is hope. And a lot of it, actually—an overabundance of hope, in fact. They feel they’re lacking because they ARE lacking. They’re missing something, and it isn’t that they’re missing that “one secret element” that all professionals use that doesn’t exist—they’re not lacking a skill. They’re not lacking a technique. They’re not lacking practice, since you can practice the same thing over and over and get the same poor results. Nobody’s lacking any talent, which is a controversial topic in and of itself. They’re not lacking anything exterior. If not that, then what is it? I’ll tell you. They’re lacking an understanding.

The problem I see—and I see this in EVERYBODY'S gallery—I see this in your gallery, I’ve seen it in mine—is that everybody does a drawing with the full intent, and nothing more, to only draw their character standing there, striking a pose, looking at the viewer. They draw just a generic action stance/pose that is almost never seated, always standing, always sway-back, always legs parted—you know, those “Sonic” poses. They're always standing, always facing 3/4th view at you, the viewer, always grinning and/or looking cocky. Or always just standing there looking cute. And there’s this thing called the “4th wall.” The 4th wall is the window you have in viewing the artwork; it’s the paper dimension that separates your world from theirs, and many people draw their characters looking through the 4th wall just to see your pretty face. See, when you personally plan a drawing, all you plan for is the character. You don't plan for anything else because the character is the “main focus,” you say. You certainly are creating not just a “main” focus, but you’re creating the only focus. And what happens when you don't plan for anything else? You don't get anything else.

If you plan for only the character standing there, this leaves you wondering what to do for a background. So, you sit there, mull over it, and finally decide to put some grass and trees, and a sky behind the characters. Right? And it’s usually the suckiest excuse for a background. It is almost always a generic background. And for one, it's usually a lazily-done, half-assed background all because you don't care about the background.

That's precisely where you're going wrong. You're not planning the whole image. You're only planning for the characters, stunting your imagination. You say, “But I’m only doing it for the character!” Are you? Seriously? I could’ve sworn you were searching for some kind of background to add to it. There must be some reason you want a background; there must be some reason your image feels incomplete, despite your sole intent of just drawing the character. If you stubbornly insist in just drawing only the character, then you suppress the instinct urging you to expand and grow—the urge to draw that background—to draw that thing you lack. So, how do you remedy this? First of all, you’ve got to open your mind to learn. A closed, stubborn mind lets nothing in.

People create the dead-end poses so that they can show off the character in their favorite stance and attitude—that, by itself, is inherently boring. I must be blunt. Think about it. Do we live in a white background? No. Then why should your characters? Do we look up at the ceiling while looking cool at all costs and/or stare at the wall all day looking at an audience? No. Then why should your characters? Nobody wants to see something they can’t relate to. Stop drawing just "poses." This will kill people's interest in your art, and will stunt your growth. If you give your characters something to do, you will not be blocked in coming up with a "pose." Posing your characters is EXACTLY like setting them up for a photo shoot. And what happens when we humans get our pictures taken? We look fake.

The trick to getting beyond this “background deficiency” is to start planning your artworks as full settings. “Well, duh!” you say. Okay, maybe that was obvious—maybe that was obvious. Do you see it? That thing you lack? That understanding? Get this—you are NOT going to be drawing a background—EVER. Instead, you are going to be drawing the whole world. You are to draw setting; scenery. Not a background, which, as *Vineris has made clear many times over, a background is something you put behind the character. A setting is a world you put the character within, not behind or in front of.

Rather than drawing blank poses, draw a whole scene, that way you don't worry about poses. By drawing a whole scene, you can freely and easily situate your characters in their natural environment, with no fuss about deciding on a pose. Putting them inside their world automatically gives them something to do. So, give your characters something to do; give them something to look at that's not the audiences' face; give them something to smell, something to think about. Give them focus and real life. Make the character interact with the environment. Let them concentrate on their world, not you, the viewer. Let them sit, talk, play, have emotions. Give them smells, moods, and atmosphere. Let them mingle with other people in their world. If you draw your characters among a setting, you can not only see them in your favorite circumstances/looks that you’ve always wanted to see them in, but you will see them acting dynamically. You will find that they do more than what you expect. They will look alive. They will be alive.

Draw the setting and character simultaneously, guaranteeing yourself that you will never run out of posing ideas. Pick a character. Pick an environment to put the character in. Now, let’s say it’s going to be a bathhouse. Are you going to make your character standing there looking at you? Are you going to be confused about how he’ll pose? Of course not! What do people do in bathhouses? They sit in steam rooms, they talk, they’re naked—they’re doing something by automatic dictation of their environment. Think beyond that—what if a fight broke out in the bathhouse? What if somebody’s dog got in there and started sniffing everybody’s crotches? See? How the hell can you be blocked? Okay, now think reversely—what do you want your character to be doing? Is he cuddling with his girlfriend? Where do people cuddle? Where’s the best romantic spot? Where’s the most casual spot? Where’s the most unusual, most unconventional spot to cuddle? In a grocery store—okay—so you have something (you thought I was going to suggest cuddling in a bathhouse, didn’t you).

People who only know how to draw poses don't know anything else but drawing poses. Those people who draw poses will ALWAYS say, "I don't know what to do for a background, can somebody help me?" That's because they didn't plan for a setting. They only planned for a pose. Start thinking about it differently. Don't set yourself off on the wrong foot. Like the people who search for poses, you don't want to be the person stuck about searching for backgrounds. They are two symptoms of the same problem. Pose/background problems are not independent issues.

Depict your characters in their world, in a freeze-frame of their life. Capture them candidly.

(It would kill ya not to learn perspective and environment skills, now that you know the secret to the pose/background problem.)

Did you get an, “Ah ha!” out of any of that? If so, that was your right and left brain working together, and it created that eureka moment you felt. Now you know beyond a shadow of a doubt. You know emotionally and logically that it is true. Just as male and female are needed to create the whole of humanity, just as female represents the emotional right brain, and just as male represents the logical left brain, the right and left brains must work together to create a whole understanding. Have I suddenly veered off-topic? Perhaps, but perhaps I’m merely leading you into another school of thought I have planned for another journal entry of mine....

*(I've been putting off editing this because the damn edit option decided to make every apostrophe into a bunch of &# 146;-type things! I had no idea they wouldn't stay like that after the edits have been made!)

(I'm surprised there was an "I Have To Pee" option, because that's exactly what I was looking for.)