These are the research photos what I got from the Internet to aid me in doing up my background.








Here are the 1st draft of backgrounds:


2nd draft of background:


And the Final draft for my backgrounds:








As you can see, the 1st draft and 2nd drafts are more towards the realistic side. They will never fit into a children's storybook. That led me to wonder how do I create a proper background for this storybook, since I'm doing most of the background. Well, shred tears and blood, draw till you drop, these are just not the right methods... To draw backgrounds that fit a children storybook, you will have to
1) Make sure that the background matches the characters! (This is basic... It actually applies to everything... not only children storybooks)
2) Use thick BLACK lines to outline objects! Thick lines work wonders! (There are some storybooks that uses thin outline or even no outline, it all depends on the style of the artist...)
3) Use flat colours!(Gradient works perfectly fine too, but to use gradient, outlines will have to match the colours used. Sometimes, outlines may even be redundant.)
4) For objects with sharp edges, try to smooth it out and make it rounded! (This is based on my feeling that children should not be in contact with sharp objects...)
Yup. Bascially, this is what I did for my backgrounds and I feel that they actually merge in rather well! =D