getting a general concept down

[Milo]

I feel like I'm at a point where I'd really love to start adding some backgrounds to my drawings, but every time I try to add a background, it always ends up a disaster. I mostly try to go for down to earth semi-realistic shots. rather than an entire landscape, just part of a patio or something. in my head I'm thinking "just draw part of a house. this isn't a panorama shot", and the concept of only drawing part of a background is lost to me for some reason. for example, if I wanted to draw a patio of a house with the focus being that part of the house, and no other part of the house, my brain goes dead. it's like, I can't draw one part of a background. mostly since foregrounds are more perspective-wise, angles end up playing a more important role, and I end up thinking of that "center circle" rule where everything connects from one point of a circle in the middle of the drawing, but everyone says to avoid that.

what I'm asking mostly, is if anyone might have good references or tutorials on how to draw foregrounds/etc.

I guess this would be an example of what I mean. https://24.media.tumblr.com/64df56837776aba12548097d57f44bd3/tumblr_n456q5S9SM1rte5gyo2_1280.jpg

a bad one since it's not exactly lineart, but you know what I mean

 

[Maugryph]

I recommend doing some quick small thumbnail studies before you start a drawing. It will help you think of the entire composition of the drawing as a whole.

 

[rjbartrop]

When you're laying things out, don't worry about details. If you have to, lay down some perspective lines so you have some general idea of how to organize things. An object can be a box, or even just a scribble this point until you have a pleasing composition. Once you have that down, then you can worry about making things accurate.

 

[YoshiAgent]

Plan the entire drawing with 2 point perspective. The "center circle rule" as you described is probably 1 point perspetive, which doesn't work well unless there is an area that goes very far into the distance, in the center of your vision. Wtih 2 point perspective, you can get some really pretty scenes, backgrounds, foregrounds or whatever.

That being said, the example you gave is pretty simple. almost 2 dimensional, ie there really isn't any depth, it's up, down, left and right.

I'm still not sure I fully understand you either...