Painted Gouache Background
- hand painted background
- studio ghibli look
- painted bg cel
A flat cel character standing in a fully painted world, with the two made differently.
Opens an image model with the prompt in it. The price is on the page before you sign in.
What it is for
The gap between a flat character and a painted world is what gives hand drawn animation its depth, and pushing the background further towards painting pushes the figure further towards a drawing. The result is a place that feels real around a character who obviously is not.
How it works
Backgrounds are painted in opaque gouache with the brushwork left visible and no outline anywhere. Foliage is painted as masses rather than as leaves. The horizon sits high, so land and sky dominate. The light is warm ambient bounce with a soft blue shadow. The character stays flat, outlined, and painted in two tones.
When to use it
Use it for landscape, weather, stillness and anything pastoral. Avoid it for action, because the whole look is built to be looked at rather than followed.
Told apart from its neighbours
Cel Animation is the same construction with a less painterly background. Anime Cel is the figure treatment alone. Concept Painting paints everything, including the character.
Where it is used
It suits a landscape illustration, a book cover, a title card and any picture where the place matters more than the person in it.
- Hand drawn features from Studio Ghibli and its contemporaries
- Television backgrounds and idents
The prompt
Replace the blanks with your own character, keep the rest. Then run it on an image model.
<character>, flat cel painted figure standing in a hand painted gouache background, the background painted in soft opaque gouache with visible brushwork and no outline anywhere, foliage painted as masses of leaves rather than individual ones, a high horizon so a great deal of sky and land fills the frame, warm ambient bounce light with soft blue shadow, the figure held flat with a thin even outline and two tones only so it sits clearly against the painted world
What goes wrong
A fully painted picture comes back with a painted character in it. Ask for the figure to stay flat with a thin outline and two tones, and for the background to carry all the brushwork.
Leave out
an outlined background, photographic foliage, a low horizon, harsh contrast, gradients on the figure, a rendered sky
Watch for
This reads as Japanese hand drawn feature animation, and the high horizon with massed foliage is the part that fixes the association. Lowering the horizon and painting the leaves individually keeps the technique and loses the resemblance.
Questions
Draw it
Pay for the one run. No subscription, and the price is on the model page before you sign in.
