In a Nutshell
Creating compelling background art is about much more than simply choosing attractive colours. Background Design – Colour Concepts explores how colour, lighting, texture, and atmosphere work together to create professional-looking digital backgrounds for animation.
Taught by artist and animation professional Siobhan Twomey, the class takes learners through the process of developing loose colour thumbnails into a finished background concept. Along the way, you’ll work with Photoshop, explore colour harmony, experiment with digital painting techniques, and learn how lighting and atmospheric effects can strengthen your artwork.
Who is this Course For?
- Aspiring background artists — Learn techniques specifically applicable to animation background design.
- Digital artists — Build stronger colour, lighting, and digital painting skills.
- Animators — Understand how colour concepts can support the visual development of animated scenes.
- Illustrators and concept artists — Explore practical methods for developing atmospheric environment artwork.
- Photoshop beginners — Follow a beginner-level workflow covering essential tools and painting techniques.
What you will Learn
- Colour wheel and colour harmony principles
- Lighting, shadows, and colour relationships
- Photoshop workspace and essential tools
- Digital painting and textured brush techniques
- Developing colour thumbnail ideas
- Turning thumbnails into finished paintings
- Highlights, textures, atmosphere, and effects
About the Course
Background Design – Colour Concepts offers a focused introduction to one of the most important aspects of environment and animation art: using colour intentionally.
The class begins by establishing a practical Photoshop workflow. Siobhan demonstrates how she organizes her workspace and introduces the tools used throughout the lessons, making it easier for beginners to follow along. The course is designed around digital painting, so learners should have access to Photoshop or a comparable digital-art application, along with a drawing tablet for the most natural experience.
From there, the class moves into the principles of light and colour. Rather than treating colour selection as a purely intuitive process, Siobhan explains colour harmony and demonstrates how neighbouring colours influence one another. She introduces the colour wheel and harmony rules, giving learners a useful framework for creating more cohesive palettes.
One particularly useful part of the class is the focus on colour thumbnails. Instead of immediately spending hours rendering a detailed scene, you’ll learn to quickly explore different colour schemes and ideas. This encourages experimentation and helps establish the mood and visual direction of a background before committing to a finished painting.
The practical project then takes those ideas further. Learners create thumbnail concepts using a limited colour palette before selecting one to develop into a completed painting. The suggested project involves a Martian or lunar landscape, although the techniques can also be applied to other types of environments.
The digital painting lessons introduce Siobhan’s brush set and demonstrate techniques for blocking in colours, selecting shapes, building up the image, and working with textures. The supplied resources include textured brushes, online resources, and a final Photoshop PSD file, giving learners additional material to examine while working through their own project.
The final stages focus on highlights, textures, atmosphere, and effects. These details help transform an initially simple colour concept into a more convincing environment. The emphasis throughout is on developing an efficient workflow rather than getting lost in unnecessary detail.
Another strength is the instructor’s professional perspective. Siobhan Twomey has worked as a background designer and environment artist in animation, with professional experience in Dublin and Vancouver and work connected to clients including Disney and Sony Pictures Animation. Her broader background also includes storyboarding, concept art, animation, filmmaking, and illustration.
At around ten lessons, the class remains relatively compact, making it suitable for learners who want a practical introduction without committing to an extremely long course. The lessons cover the complete progression from understanding colour concepts to creating a finished background painting.
Overall, the class succeeds because it connects colour theory with an actual artistic workflow. Instead of learning colour harmony in isolation, you immediately see how those principles affect thumbnails, lighting, mood, and the finished environment.
The Instructor
Siobhan Twomey is an artist, illustrator, and Skillshare Top Teacher with more than 15 years of experience in the animation industry. Her professional background includes work as a story artist, concept artist, and background designer, including experience with animation studios in Dublin and Vancouver. She now shares the skills and knowledge developed throughout her industry career through her teaching.
Conclusion
Background Design – Colour Concepts is a practical and approachable course for anyone interested in digital painting, environment art, or animation backgrounds. Its strongest feature is the way it turns colour theory into an actionable creative process, taking learners from palette exploration and thumbnails through to a finished concept painting.
I would particularly recommend it to beginners and developing digital artists who want to understand how professional background artists approach colour, lighting, atmosphere, and visual development. More experienced artists may find the fundamentals familiar, but the instructor’s professional workflow and practical techniques can still provide useful inspiration.
The Art of Colour in Background Design
