How to Color Anime Backgrounds with Colored Pencils

Read the background as three big layers

Before choosing colors, find the foreground, middle ground, and distance. A café scene might place a table edge in front, the character and chairs in the middle, and windows or shelves behind. A landscape might use flowers in front, a path and character in the middle, and pale hills or sky in the distance.

Assign each layer a different level of attention. The foreground can carry the darkest darks, strongest texture, and a few crisp edges. The middle ground needs enough clarity to support the character. The distance usually works best with lighter values, softer transitions, and fewer marks. This simple hierarchy creates depth before you blend a single gradient.

• Foreground: strongest contrast and clearest texture
• Middle ground: readable shapes and the main story
• Distance: lighter values, softer edges, fewer details
• Focal area: the sharpest small accent

Choose the light before choosing every local color

Mark the light direction with a tiny arrow on scrap paper. Then ask which planes face it and which turn away. If afternoon light enters from the left, left-facing walls, hair edges, and tabletops can share warm light while undersides and right-facing planes share cooler shadow.

A shared light color helps the character belong in the setting. Glaze pale yellow or peach lightly across sunlit objects, or use pale blue and lavender to unite a night scene. Avoid filling shadows with black. A related dark blue, violet, brown, or green usually keeps more color and makes later dark accents feel stronger.

Build one palette for the whole scene

Choose a dominant family for the setting, a supporting family, one small accent, and a deep neutral. For a rainy street, try blue-gray, muted teal, coral, and deep indigo. For a sunny bedroom, try cream, peach, sage, and dark brown. Repeat one character color somewhere in the background—a book spine, flowerpot, sign, or cushion—to connect the two.

Test the group in a thumbnail or four small swatches. Include the lightest intended area and the deepest intended shadow. If the character will wear red, for example, keep large background reds quieter so the outfit remains easy to find. Cohesion comes from repetition and controlled value, not from making every object the same hue.

• Rainy street: blue-gray, teal, coral, indigo
• Golden bedroom: cream, peach, sage, brown
• Night festival: navy, violet, amber, charcoal
• Garden path: yellow-green, rose, sky blue, umber

Lay broad color with a light, shallow pencil angle

Begin with the sky, walls, floor, and other large shapes. Hold the pencil farther back and at a shallow angle so the side of the point touches more paper. Faber-Castell’s official coloring guidance recommends light pressure and a shallow angle for even areas, then repeated layers to intensify color. That approach is especially useful for backgrounds because it leaves room to adjust the atmosphere.

Work in small overlapping circles for a soft wall or sky, and use directional strokes when the surface has a clear flow. Horizontal strokes can calm a distant horizon; strokes following floorboards can reinforce perspective. Leave the paper’s brightest areas lightly colored instead of pressing hard everywhere and trying to restore highlights later.

Create distance with value, color, and edges

Distant objects generally need less contrast than nearby ones in a stylized coloring page. Lighten them by using less pressure, a paler pencil, or a thin glaze of the sky color. Shift far greens toward blue in a cool scene or toward warm haze in a sunset scene. You are designing readable depth, not copying a scientific formula.

Edges matter as much as color. Keep the character’s silhouette and a few nearby objects crisp, then soften far rooflines, trees, or clouds by layering neighboring colors across their boundaries. If every line receives the same dark reinforcement, the scene can flatten. Let some printed lines remain quiet.

Suggest texture instead of coloring every detail

Choose one mark for each material and concentrate it where the viewer can notice it. Short broken strokes can suggest grass, longer parallel strokes can describe wood, small clusters can imply leaves, and light cross-hatching can give stone or brick a dry surface. Faber-Castell describes hatching and cross-hatching as overlaid lines whose intensity grows with repetition—a useful way to build texture without heavy pressure.

Reduce the number and contrast of marks as forms move into the distance. A foreground tree may show bark direction and several leaf clusters; a far tree can be one soft green shape with a darker underside. Texture is most convincing when it follows the form and stops before becoming visual noise.

Use contrast to frame the character

Look for a large background shape directly behind the face and hair. If the hair is dark, keep that shape lighter; if the hair is pale, place a middle or dark value behind part of the silhouette. The difference does not need to be dramatic. One calm contrasting area can separate the character more elegantly than outlining everything in black.

Save the most saturated accent for one or two story details near the focal point: a glowing sign, a cup on the table, a flower beside the character, or reflected sunset color. Repeat it once in a smaller amount elsewhere. This creates a path for the eye while allowing most of the setting to stay supportive.

Try three simple background recipes

For a blue-sky scene, place a very light blue base across the sky, deepen the upper area with a middle blue, and keep the horizon pale. Add clouds with mostly untouched paper and a whisper of cool gray underneath. For a cozy room, use cream across the walls, warm brown in furniture shadows, and peach near the lamp or window light. Keep corners slightly darker to hold the scene together.

For a night street, begin with navy and violet using several light layers rather than one heavy pass. Reserve signs, windows, and reflections before the darks become strong. Add amber or coral around the light sources, then repeat those colors softly on nearby pavement or objects. A small bright area feels more luminous when the surrounding darks vary instead of becoming one flat black.

Fix the most common background problems

If the scene competes with the character, reduce saturation or detail in one large background area. If it looks flat, strengthen the separation between foreground, middle ground, and distance before adding more objects. If a large area looks streaky, turn the page to find a comfortable stroke direction and add another gentle layer rather than forcing the pencil into the paper.

If the palette feels disconnected, glaze one shared light color across several surfaces or echo a character color in a small prop. If the background looks empty, add a cast shadow, a repeated texture, or a simple color gradient before inventing more furniture or scenery. Often the missing ingredient is atmosphere, not detail.

Finish with a five-minute distance check

Set the page down and view it from arm’s length. The character or story focus should be clear first, the setting second, and small textures third. Squint or take a grayscale phone photo to see whether the values still separate. If everything merges, deepen one foreground dark and clarify the shape behind the character.

Add only a few final marks: the deepest contact shadows, one crisp edge near the focus, and perhaps a small accent reflection. Then stop. A background feels complete when it gives the character somewhere to exist—not when every square centimeter contains the same amount of work.

Keep exploring

Choose a coordinated anime palette →
Build one dominant, supporting, and accent family for the character and setting.

Color anime clothes with colored pencils →
Use light direction, fabric structure, and selective texture to finish the figure inside your scene.

Explore Anime Coloring Book for Teens →
Find anime-inspired pages where characters, clothing, and settings can share one color story.