Shadowing Practice: How to draw backgrounds - Learn English Speaking with Video

So backgrounds are incredible.

Just take a look at these illustrations.

A background helps a lot in making the illustration look much more complete, and it's an incredible opportunity for storytelling.

So if they're so amazing, why do my own drawings look like this?

Well, that's because they're hard.

Just look at how detailed these backgrounds are.

How do I even approach drawing something like this?

It's gonna take so long.

I don't have patience for that.

To be fair, I've actually tried to draw a background before, although they usually tend to be more of the vague blurry shapes pretending to be trees variety of background.

But I want to take it further, but without spending the effort.

Obviously, that's impossible.

Or is it?

But we'll get into that later because first we have to learn something more basic.

I have almost no experience drawing backgrounds, so I don't actually know how to draw any of that stuff outside, like trees.

So it's time to learn.

But when I look at this tree, oh, there are so many details.

I guess I have no choice but to draw every single leaf one by one.

No, that takes too long.

I want to do it fast.

So instead of worrying about each individual leaf, I'm going to visualize the leaves as several solid clumps.

Then I can add some texture and break up the silhouette.

This can really quickly express a feeling of leaves.

This works pretty well, but there's something not quite Right here.

If we take a look at my other artwork, there's one pretty notable thing.

It's all very line art focused.

I love line art and I don't want to change my art style.

How can I make sure my characters fit into the background?

So that means I'll probably have to find a way of making my backgrounds line art focused as well.

I guess I could add some lines onto the tree trunk like this.

That works pretty well.

I added a few extra lines to add texture to the bark.

But how about the leaves?

Well, I have no choice now, right?

Time to do the line art for every single leaf one at a time But no again, I don't want to spend that much effort what

if instead of carefully drawing out every leaf I just sort of Scribble like this I guess up close.

It doesn't really look like leaves at all But

if you zoom out you kind of get the feeling of leaves somehow

and that's good enough for me And it takes so much less time so it's perfect

Usually I draw the line at first

when I'm drawing character art before I start adding color

or values But I actually found it was easier to do the other way around when drawing this tree

I did all the values first before drawing the liner on top

And then I scribbled a bit more to add some shadows

and depth and here's how it turned out I think it worked pretty well.

This first tree is pretty simple But I think the strategy works for all different types of trees as well.

Take this tree for instance Which looks a lot more complicated, but the process isn't that different from before I just grouped the leaves into clumps

and then shade them as textured blobs

Like before I add the liner after the value blocking

and scribble in some texture to give the feeling of tiny little leaves

But the weirdest tree I attempted was by far this willow tree.

The silhouette was more of a formless blob and you couldn't even see the trunk.

But I just used the same strategy.

Separated the leaves into chunks, added values and shading to those chunks, and then drew lines on top.

Though this time I made sure to draw very vertical lines to capture the long droopy nature of the willow tree.

Now of course if we're drawing backgrounds trees aren't the only thing you might find outside.

You'll also find buildings.

And there's one very important thing we need to be familiar with before we tackle buildings.

Perspective.

That is creating the illusion of 3d space on a 2d piece of paper or digital canvas.

Think about a cube.

Now, we know how cubes work.

These lines on the cube are all parallel to each other.

Except when we look more closely, these lines aren't parallel at all, right?

In fact, the lines actually converge to a point.

We call this a vanishing point.

When looking at photos, you'll notice that we can have multiple vanishing points.

We call this one point, two point, and three point perspective respectively.

So how can we draw things in perspective?

Basically, if we draw straight lines radiating out from each vanishing point, we can create a perspective grid.

Although there are also digital tools that can help with this.

And while there are hacks to help out with this, the best way to draw in perspective is probably to just grab a ruler or straight line tool,

and very carefully make sure that all of your lines match up perfectly with the perspective grid.

But no, this is slow and boring, and I don't like slow.

In fact, this is specifically the reason I like drawing boxes.

By drawing a whole lot of boxes, I start gaining an intuitive sense of 3D space, and start being able to approximate where the lines should be going.

And while, of course, it won't be as perfect as following a grid, I think it's fine as long as it looks close enough.

Which is why I did not have a perspective grid when I started drawing this building, which is a pretty ordinary-looking North American suburban house.

I started sketching in rough forms to get the overall shape down

and made sure not to add too much detail at this point.

Then I started going in with lines first because, unlike trees, these were less organic shapes, I think.

Honestly, I didn't have a clue how to approach this because seriously, I have never drawn a house before.

You can check my entire gallery if you want.

I do not know what I am doing.

But anyway, if you look at the wall here, there's actually a lot of texture here, which is going to take ages to draw, so I didn't do it.

By only drawing a few lines, I was able to imply this texture across the entire house.

That's great for saving time.

But halfway through drawing the roof, I noticed this strong shadow across the wall.

And I really wanted to draw that, so I started filling that in as well.

My process was all over the place, and since I was so confused, this drawing took me ages.

And when I was done, it looked like this, which I guess it's fine?

But I really wanted to be more decisive with my value placement, so it's time to try again.

This time with this iconic building.

I decided to approach this more methodically from the top down.

And I also didn't shy away from using larger swaths of black as well.

But also there is a lot more going on here.

There are tons of windows, railings, all things that would take ages to draw.

So what if I just didn't draw them?

Rather than trying to draw every single detail, I could treat it like the trees.

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Just draw the impression I got from them.

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One tool I found very useful for this was this layer outline tool

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that could help me quickly add line art around any shapes I drew.

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I'm using Clip Studio Paint, but there are likely similar tools in your drawing application of choice.

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But as you can pretty clearly see, I was pretty haphazard and careless with my mark making.

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Which actually almost helped in a way, because it kind of communicated the slightly dilapidated and grungy nature of the reference photo.

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And with a bit more work, here's how it looks.

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I like this a lot more than the first attempt.

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For my final study, I went back to drawing a more residential looking house, seeing if I can use the lessons learnt to make it better than the first one.

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Again, I didn't shy away from using very dark shadows and implying detail with less work, and it ended up looking like this, which I think is way better than my first attempt.

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So now I can draw trees, and I can draw houses.

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Does that mean I'm ready to tackle complete backgrounds?

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Well, unfortunately not.

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The thing about the trees and houses outside is that they don't just float in white voids like how mine are doing.

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I need to learn how to put it all together, which means it's time to start thinking about composition.

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To practice, I copied this photograph, which really caught my eye.

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Look at how there are these dark bands on both the top and bottom of the photograph, sandwiching this bright, intricate, detailed section in the middle.

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And what I described is actually the most important thing in creating effective compositions.

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Value.

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How light and dark is arranged on a canvas.

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To start with, this looks like one point perspective to me, so I need to find the vanishing point, which looks to be about here.

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I decided to use the perspective grid tool instead of drawing one out

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because I'm lazy and started getting to work sketching out the basic elements.

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Then I started sketching in the focal point of the photograph, the tram.

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And after that, I roughly blocked in some of the values I saw in the background using only hard brushes.

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Honestly, it was looking pretty rough until I started blending out and softening some of those edges and adding some gradients.

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And then when I started drawing in some of those details, it started really coming together.

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But remember, we're here for speed and laziness, right?

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I made sure not to spend too much time making it look perfect.

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Just look at this pedestrian over here.

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They're just a blob.

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In the end, I had to redraw the tram because I really didn't like how it looked, but after applying a gradient map on top for some quick colors, this is how it ended up looking.

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Not bad.

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But more importantly, I think now I finally have all the pieces to try inventing my very first background.

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And not just a background, I also want to put a character into it.

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In the past, I probably would have drawn the character first, and then try to fit some of the background elements behind the character.

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The problem with doing this is that sometimes it felt like the character didn't quite fit into the background.

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So how could I solve this?

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Of course, by including the background elements into the drawing from the very beginning.

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I wanted to portray myself looking lost in the sweltering alleyways of Hong Kong, Mostly because it happens to me a lot and I want you to feel it too.

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But anyway, I chose a bottom-up perspective to make the buildings look more imposing

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and because I want the composition to feel suffocating and almost claustrophobic, I curved these dark shapes around the character.

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Before adding detail, of course I needed some reference, so I grabbed a couple of photos of some likely-looking alleyways.

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After the rough sketch, I made sure to start blocking in the values roughly to make sure that the composition made sense.

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It's pretty quick and easy to make changes at this stage, so it's a great time to experiment.

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It's also very helpful to have a rough perspective grid to help situate the elements, including the character.

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Here is mine.

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But hang on.

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This perspective grid looks a little different from the other ones we've seen before.

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These lines aren't straight.

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They're a little curved.

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What's up with that?

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Well, this is called fisheye perspective, which happens when you add more vanishing points than three.

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You start having to bend your guidelines to reach those vanishing points.

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Using this type of perspective can make scenes look more dynamic and dramatic.

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This is an advanced technique so it's harder to execute.

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Or is it?

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I actually used fisheye perspective for another reason.

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To make it easier for myself.

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Alright, so this is really just my own theory but I'm thinking

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if the perspective grid is bendy it might be easier for me to get away with slight inaccuracies unlike a straight grid.

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So everything I drew here is probably all completely wrong, but like, who actually cares?

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No one's getting in there with a protractor and ruler to make sure that everything is absolutely flawless.

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That's not the point of drawing.

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It's not about being completely accurate.

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As long as I can communicate the idea that I want, then it's plenty good.

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And look, I'm not saying that it's wrong to want to draw very precisely and accurately.

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In fact, I really admire artists that have the patience to do that.

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But doing that is simply not fun for me.

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And if drawing isn't fun, then what's the point?

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But anyway, at this point, I finished the sketch done the liner on the character and it's time to clean up the background Hmm, I really have drawn a lot of stuff haven't I a lot of pipes

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and air conditioners It's a little overwhelming actually it'll take ages to do all the liner for this.

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How can I make it quick and easy?

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Well, I have a little bit of bad news

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if you choose to draw a lot of stuff That's just gonna take a while.

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There's really nothing you can do about it I've given some tips to speed up the process

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But in the end you still have to do the work.

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But even if I can't change that part, there is one thing I can change, which is how I think about backgrounds.

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Look, I'm a character artist and character artists like me love drawing characters.

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Backgrounds are just kind of in the back.

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They're not important.

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But it doesn't have to be this way.

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Like I said at the very beginning of the video, a background has powerful storytelling potential.

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Sure, I've drawn an alleyway, but the details I choose to add can change this piece a lot.

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I've opted to add these unwelcoming spikes on top the wall, and this makes it feel like the character isn't supposed to be here.

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Or how about all of these air conditioners?

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Evidently, this is some kind of back alley where people aren't normally meant to go.

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Or how about these cracks and the peeling paint that suggests this area is in disrepair?

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For a character artist like me, thinking of the background as a character in its own right lets me realize its potential and have more fun drawing it, which made the time pass very quickly.

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And in the end, here's the final illustration.

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What do you think?

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If you enjoyed the video, maybe try drawing a background for the subscribe button.

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Thank you so much for watching, and I'll catch you next time.

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Buh-bye!

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Trees aren't the only thing you might find outside.

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But after applying a quick radiant map on...

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Buh-buh- Buh-buh- Buh-buh-buh-buh- That is creating the illusion of...

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I hope I didn't move the mic too close.

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I was still pretty haphazard and careless with my march making.

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So I grabbed a couple of...

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105 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 199 sentences and 2631 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:58. The speaker talks fast, about 203 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

grid /ɡɹɪd/ (noun) — A rectangular array of squares or rectangles of equal size, such as in a crossword puzzle.
texture /ˈtɛkst͡ʃə(ɹ)/ (noun) — The feel or shape of a surface or substance; the smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. of something.
sketch /ˈskɛt͡ʃ/ (noun) — A rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines.
composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/ (noun) — The act of putting together; assembly.
leaf /lif/ (noun) — The usually green and flat organ that represents the most prominent feature of most vegetative plants.
liner /ˈlaɪnɚ/ (noun) — A large passenger-carrying ship, especially one on a regular route; an ocean liner.
shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/ (noun) — A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object.
photograph /ˈfoʊ.təˌɡɹæf/ (noun) — A picture created by projecting an image onto a photosensitive surface such as a chemically treated plate or film, CCD receptor, etc.
illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/ (noun) — The act of illustrating; the act of making clear and distinct.
cube /kjub/ (noun) — A regular polyhedron having six identical square faces.
carefully /ˈkɛɹf(ə)li/ (adverb) — With care; attentively, circumspectly.
roughly /ˈɹʌf.li/ (adverb) — In a rough manner; without kindness, softness, or gentleness.
parallel /ˈpæ.ɹəˌlɛl/ (adjective) — Equally distant from one another at all points.
communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/ (verb) — To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell.
patience /ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/ (noun) — The quality of being patient.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
think about /ˈθɪŋk əˌbaʊt/ (verb) — To ponder.
draw in (verb) — To attract.
end up (verb) — To bring to a conclusion.
fit into (verb) — To be of the right size and shape to be placed in a location.
break up (verb) — To break or separate into pieces.
clean up (verb) — To make an area or a thing clean; to pick up a mess; to tidy.
come together /ˈkʌm tʊˈɡɛðɚ/ (verb) — To assemble; to congregate; to combine.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 56 contractions and reduced forms, such as didn't, I'm, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: methodically /mɪˈθɑdɪkəli/, swath /swɑθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/, patience /ˈpeɪ̯.ʃəns/, shade /ʃeɪd/
Long words — get the stress right: composition /ˌkɑm.pəˈzɪʃ.ən/, illustration /ˌɪləsˈtɹeɪ̯ʃən/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, complicated /ˈkɑm.plɪˌkeɪ.tɪd/, respectively /ɹɪˈspɛktɪvli/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like grid, texture, sketch.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've actually tried · have never drawn · we've seen
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	building, which is · here, which is · together, which means
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	was done · is arranged · is called
Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form	start adding · start gaining · started drawing

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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