But how do you know what elements to use and where do you find them? Simple: collect them. Most artists have "collections" of information on how to draw different sorts of plants, people, animals, buildings and so on, both in their heads, and often in reference files. These help when you need to create an indentifible image.

Say you want to draw a forest. What kinds of things would their be? Mushrooms, trees, grass, plants... what sorts of animals? What would you use for ideas and reference?

You could look at real forests if there are some near you... or search for photos online. Field Guides for animals (birds, butterflies, snakes etc.) and plants (trees, mushrooms etc.) can come in very handy for ideas, but it's never a good idea to try to copy one element or image, just get inspired by many.

I often make sketches of ideas and elements in my sketchbooks so I can use them later. One example of a page of collected elements might be:

The elements above are sketched in pencil but the medium really doesn't matter - it's possible to make backgrounds out of even a few very quick, iconic elements. For example:

While these are good they aren't very specific, so you probably would want specific reference for each element, depending on how detailed your background was. Look at mushrooms, plants, grass, leaves, and flowers. While you make have started by looking at the "real" thing, after a little practice you can begin to create your own elements based on real life, but with your own ideas as well.

The way I found easiest to work is to think of buildings in pieces. For example how many ways can you find to draw windows? Are the square? Round? How many panes of glass (if they have glass) do they have? Do they open? If so how? Maybe you want to show hinges. Do they have shutters or blinds?

One fast way I draw buildings when I'm trying out concepts is to develop several bases as shown in the top part of the example below. You can see several round and square, short and tall ideas as well as a simple cone shape that could be used for a roof... and two ideas for smoke stack shapes.

The lower part of the example image (now above) shows how you can build on these ideas by combining them as well as some other elements like clumps of grass, smoke, mushrooms etc. With a little color and a good number of elements even simple drawings like these can show the feeling of a place. For example if you drew a city out of variations of the far left building - the one with the grass growing over it and dark windows - the picture might have a more forgotten and overgrown look. A ruined city. The next type of building could be used in city of tree people (actually making it part of a tree). The far right house above looks a little more "comfy" and happy and lived in (due to the colors and the smoke). And lastly that little brown house at the bottom left looks like it could be a native hut.

The image above shows a few of the design stages I went through for the project. I started by creating a sketch with every element I could think of thrown in. I then refined it to a sketch with notes (upper left), followed by a rough done in marker to show the lights and darks I wanted (upper right). I then did a number of roughs including one completely alternate design (lower left) before I did the finished painting (lower right).