Confronting a Blank Page: How I Turned an Empty Background into a Bold and Vibrant Illustration?

The dreaded blank white page! Sorry to spook you there. A struggle for all creators and artists, a blank white page haunts us all at some point. I fell victim to it recently when creating this Hippie bus illustration. This piece was created for a tutorial showing how you can draw objects from memory. But I wanted to take this hippie bus and make it into a full illustration. My only problem was the background. I didn't have one! And so began my confrontation with the blank white page.

In this post I'm going to talk through my process for this piece and how the background evolved and changed to achieve a fun, lively, retro inspired illustration.

Think Before You Sketch!

I had my Hippie Bus illustration but this white background gave me no joy. When faced with a blank page, it’s difficult to know where to start. Giving your illustration a setting and a story can help when creating a background. Where do you imagine your object or character? What vibe and emotions do you want your illustration to evoke? From this you can decide how to build up your background. But what setting did I imagine this bus in?

Maybe the beach, I love the seaside and use it in my work a lot.

Using light, pale colours I incorporated sand, sea and clouds to create a chilled beach vibe. While I loved the setting, the bus didn't sit naturally, the colours were not creating enough contrast to make the Hippie Bus POP! on the page. Overall it felt flat.

I tried adding texture and pattern in the sea and sand but to no avail. It just wasn't singing how I wanted.

If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again!

Back to the drawing board. Sometimes you just need to scrap your first idea completely, to create something new and unique. But what would my next idea be?

Maybe a more bold colourful background might work. I started by experimenting with grass and bright flowers, emulating those on the hippie bus. But again, the colours and contrast were proving quite difficult. I tried muting the colours with orange and pink tones to create a warmer feel. While this felt like a better direction, as it gave the illustration a retro 70s vibe, something still didn't feel right.

Light at the End of the Tunnel! …. Maybe.

Finally I was getting somewhere. I was happy with the sunset sky but the grass felt too harsh. So I chucked it out! Bye!

I began thinking that a more abstract background might be interesting. Taking the sunset effect, I decided to create a psychedelic pattern. Playing around, I added a big yellow star effect, swirls (I love to use swirls in my work) and stars. Even after all this… I still felt that the bus wasn't standing out on the page. Yes I was losing my mind at this point.

A Spark of Inspiration!

Sometimes just messing about when you are completely frustrated can actually be the thing that helps. I started filling the whole background with a dark colour because simply, I didn't want to look at the background anymore. But this sparked an idea in my head!

I was reminded of those scratch art sets you got as a child where there was a colourful background hidden beneath black paint and you used a scraper to create patterns and pictures. I thought why not try to emulate this. So using a pencil effect brush with rough edges I created patterns and shapes that incorporated the flowers from the bus and of course swirls! Finally I had a background that made the bus stand out. A darker background created a much better contrast with the bus. But I still kept a colourful, fun, retro vibe for my illustration.

Learning Through Exploration!

Which background do you think was the best? Do you agree with my choice or would you have gone in a different direction? I'd love to hear how you would have tackled this problem. Either way I am happy with how the background turned out for me. And really all you should aim for is to create something that satisfies you.

If you have struggled with the blank white page or battled with a certain aspect of your illustration. My biggest advice would be to walk away and come back with a clear head. If it's really getting you down and you're spending a long time on the same thing, it's best to drop the tools and do something else. When you come back, let yourself have fun playing around. Allow yourself to do things that you think won't work because you never know, it might spark something great! 

I hope you enjoyed this walk through of my battle with the blank white page. If you would like to see my tutorial for this hippie bus illustration you can view it HERE! Or you can visit my instagram joelymaria_illustration where I share other tips and tricks, inspirations and more views into my process.