Backgrounds by Ben Shupe

We've had many students from outside the Burbank area come to The Animation Academy over the years. One of them is Ben Shupe (pronounced "shoop"). Ben came here from Montana and brought some of his influences with him as can be seen in these fine samples of two background concepts he created as an assignment while attending our Background Design class.


Ben drew these exterior forest scenes in graphite. His composition and tonal rendering is notable as is his handling of atmospheric perspective, embellishing the illusion of depth and enhancing mood. Ben also developed a unique style in the creation of these scenes through his design of foliage, tree limbs, rocks and boulders along with line density surrounding gray scale values. Notice the soccer ball he discreetly included in the composition on the right. Clicking on the image will enlarge it.