I've designed so many grungy alleys in #BigCityGreens, it was time for something different.

Research brought me to this electrical mess strewn between buildings. I kept it up and out of the way of the ground level action of the characters.

How'd I draw this? A breakdown thread:

First, here's the storyboard panel which reused part of a different alley I had once drawn.

Since this is the location of the climax of the episode, I felt the alley needed more visual tension to support the story.

Let's get technical: perspective.

I chose a vanishing point near where the shady guy is looking.

By shifting the vanishing point to the left of center, we feel like the camera is more with that character.

Then I built the structure of the alley from there.

Then I do the meat of the designing, roughing out the scene.

Back to the visual tension:
The electrical mess literally above the characters' heads is a metaphor for all that's happened so far in the episode hanging over them.

It's the weight of the story, the stakes at play.

I design from the foreground going back in space.

This way, I can build whatever is distant around the more important foreground elements in order to avoid tangents and plan levels of detail.

Then I clean it up in in black line in the show style.

This is where I add more details and textures to really bring the place to life.

Lastly, I added the electrical lines, again making sure to avoid visual tangents.

A wooden box in the alley is part of the character action. It's on a separate layer so it can be placed correctly in relation to the characters.

Because I passed this on to someone else to color, I added some shading to clarify the silhouettes of the electrical mess.

It's important all that line work reads well.

This is the finished #BackgroundDesign: