Background Painting Technique?

[sensei]

I received a query through my RS gallery from an visitor with a special interest in watercolor painting technique. He comments:

If you read most "how to paint with watercolor" books, few to none will
cover this pseudo-realistic style we find in anime backgrounds: clean hard
edges, smooth fills, convincing lighting and shadowing and more especially
'no presence of individual brush strokes'.

It's actually pretty hard for me to find watercolor paintings from
independent artists that have a similar style - this pseudo-realism is
something almost exclusive to these anime watercolor backgrounds.

Do you know how the background artists for these pieces worked? what kind
of methods they used to make these pieces (stencils\masks, the types of
paint, the canvas, sprays, additional tools)?

I know only what I can infer from the backgrounds themselves, and that seems to be rather distinctive by series and even within series. Some episodes in CCS, for instance, use an special approach, notably the "pointillist" approach of the visit to Clow Reed's house in the past. And I know that the backgrounds were normally outsourced, as the credits often name specific studios (usually a series of them). But does anyone know a source for more specific information on the style and working habits of background painters?

[JWR]

This has some good info that might help.
http://www.mclelun.com/blog/2012/12/ani ... -tutorial/

[sensei]

Thank you, JWR. That's CG work, but clearly based on brush-on-paper techniques.

[teggacat]

hmph, not a clue but I must say your gallery visitor had some good points/questions.......

[Yuuki]

Hi Sensei!

I don't have an internet source, but I spent a semester this past school year doing BG painting techniques with Michael Hitchcox, who was classical BG painter/supervisor at Nelvana in the 80s/90s/2000s, and he did a lot of things with us that were really facinating and answered a lot of the questions I'd had about my own backgrounds. If it helps answer the question at all, you can pass on to your question-er that there can be a LOT of airbrushing done throughout the piece to get smooth gradients/lighting/shading, quite often in combination with custom-cut masking cels (if you've ever noticed fine cuts on your BGs that follow colour seams, it's because the BG painter cut out a masking cel to airbrush parts of the BG) and removable masking fluid - which is a fantasticly awesome thing for blocking out finer points. There's also a possiblilty that the BG isn't painted in watercolour - it could be done in gouache. Micheal did most of his BG painting demos in gouache and he still had his gouache studio palates from the 90s, so he used them for us! (He showed us techniques for Timon & Pumba BGs, and brought in some of his Beetlejuice work to show off LOL). He also said that some productions used acrylics in their BGs. Nelvana did have in-house painters, but also outsourced to Japan/Korea as well - like the anime studios did, and the studio worked in whatever medium was best for the style (watercolour/gouache/acrylic - or a combination there of). Watercolour can't quite hit a sharp, opaque line, but gouache can, and it can also handle/look just like watercolour too, so it's really diverse. If there's a lot of solid paint colour, it could very well be gouache. My Samurai Pizza Cats BGs are done in gouache.

Sorry I don't have a source, but I hope that helps in some way!

[Kasi]

Without much real research done I was just going to mention as Yuuki has, that the backgrounds are created using gouache paints (at least every background I have is). Gouache is an excellent medium for all the qualities mentioned in the original quote =)

[Yuuki]

My teachers like to make a fuss over Lilo & Stitch because its BGs were painted in watercolour, something that made it unique because that hadn't been done in something like 50 years ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilo_%26_S ... _animation ). Disney had switched to gouache, and usually when Disney switches (especially back then), the industry follows. I know my SPC BGs were gouache because I had an assignment that had me study/replicate them, but while I've been re-scanning my cel collection, I've been kinda going 'yeah... all of these BGs are gouache. There's no other way to do that'.