Changing scenery - Knights in Japan page 28 (Patreon)

Page 28
I started working on the final part of Knights in Japan. The upcoming pages will show present time Baelohr, John and Kato. There will be pec-squeezing, pec-sucking and a double pec-job.

Baelohr's dream takes place in two time levels: Memories of his past and the present.
To show a difference (not only in Baelohr's age and size) I drew a new location.
A cozy hot spring at night.

Page 28 shows a timeskip. First young Baelohr and Lionheart fall into the water, the waves calm down and then we see both hot springs vis-a-vis each other, like a mirror. The scenery turns around and the spring at night is the new main location. Out of the water present time Baelohr rises with his horns first.

If you're interested in more details about the new background I will write about creating the hot spring at night in the following lines.

The hot spring
While working on Knights in Japan I made a big progress in efficient drawing. I created this background, because I knew I would need it for many panels.

Animated movies have background art for each scene and I wanted to try this out too.
I had to invest some time to draw a big background in 4k, but once I was done I could paste it behind the characters many times and this saved a lot of time.

Now that KIJ reaches the final part I wanted a new background. Still something with water, but a bit more privately and man made. So I drew something I could imagine to be Baelohr's garden.

Soft moss covers the ground surrounded by some bushes and cherry blossom trees. A wooden and a stone wall shields the garden from view. Two stone lanterns as decoration and source of light.

This time I was smart and coloured the background neutrally. I chose a clear sky and summer time as basic colours. This allows me to edit the background into night time and also spring, with blooming trees or automn or for example: Dawn in spring.

Kinda impressive, isn't it? Some edits in light and colours can change the atmosphere.

Fun fact: I drew this with a single default brush. To avoid a flat look I added different textures over the colours.

Drawing a background for a comic is helpful and I can use it again for other things in the future. Other comics, games, animation - who knows?!
A proper background artwork is a long lasting resource.