Anime Background Illustrations from Professional Anime Landscape Illustrator Pei

There are no words to describe how beautiful the anime background illustrations created by Pei are. Just looking at his breathtaking artwork evokes feelings of wonder and even nostalgia. Here are some of Pei’s most awe-inspiring illustrations and lessons on how to make them. 

Background animation plays an important role in anime, as shown by famous anime works and animation studios that are well known for their beautiful anime scenes, for example Kyoto Animation, Ufotable, and Studio Ghibli. Recent anime that have been well-acclaimed for being aesthetically pleasing include Demon Slayer, Violet Evergarden, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, and more. 

• Introducing Professional Anime Background Illustrator Pei
• “Trip Between Fantasy and Reality”
• A Feel of Japanese Slice of Life 
• Cats Because Kuroneko
• Learn How to Illustrate from the Master

Introducing Professional Anime Background Illustrator Pei

Pei ぺい (@kuroneko_no_pei) is a professional landscape illustrator with 9 years of experience illustrating anime backgrounds. After developing an interest in anime backgrounds, he started self-learning how to illustrate them in university, and joined an anime background company after graduating. He has participated in numerous anime productions, and has held the position of art director in several productions. He is also actively involved in anime and manga events such as Comiket where he sells art booklets of his illustrations and other merchandise. 

Continue onwards for the best and main part of this article, the beauty of Pei’s digital illustrations. 

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“Trip Between Fantasy and Reality”

The charm of anime backgrounds is the gap between fantasy and reality. They can be incredibly realistic, so much so that you mistake it for a photo taken, but can also be so beautiful that there’s no way such a place could exist in real life. And Pei’s illustrations truly illustrate that. 

Loving this illustration of the sunset and its afterglow.

Evening glow, or afterglow of a sunset, is called “yuuyake (夕焼け)” in Japanese. It is a beautiful moment when a multitude of colours like red, pink, yellow, orange, blue, purple, and all the shades in between manifest in the sky. Pei has truly captured the essence of that in the illustration below and combined it with the everyday life of a young Japanese boy running home before it gets dark. This is just one of Pei’s many beautiful illustrations of sunsets. 

I’m Pei!
I draw landscapes that leave a lasting impression.
This account is recommended for those who want to trip between fantasy and reality!
I also provide information and hints for those who would like to try making backgrounds in the future.
Thank you for your support this year. 

(Translation)

Depictions of the Four Seasons 

The four seasons are a part of nature and is a theme that Pei also covers in his illustrations. This beautiful starry skied city of water decorated with cherry blossoms in full bloom is of course pure fantasy. He also has illustrations for autumn, summer, and winter. 

Posting landscape illustrations showcasing the gap between fantasy and reality

(Translation)

Creating Worlds Never Before Seen

I can’t help but find this illustration romantic. It depicts a magical night with floating lanterns in the sky that remind me of the touching scene in Tangled, and the fateful encounter of the cats. 

This Tweet was hashtagged #自分の作りたい世界が一番最強, which translates to “the world I want to create is the most powerful”. Pei selected 4 of his illustrations, including the one below, of worlds he has created and exclaims he wants to make more worlds that people have never seen before. 

Mountains and Fallen Stars

Among Pei’s collection of mountain illustrations is this beautiful one of shooting stars and fallen stars that remind me of a particular Ghibli movie. 

A Feel of Japanese Slice of Life 

Pei is also fond of creating illustrations that portray Japanese everyday life, places and events. For those of you who feel like Japanese life is far out of reach, maybe these will help you picture what it’s like. 

Back Alley of Japanese Houses

An incredibly realistic portrayal of a typical back alley, especially with the stashed crates. Though the address is entirely fictional.

Twitter Link

Japanese Countryside (Inaka)

A collection of countryside illustrations. The paddy field as seen from a train window is particularly nostalgic. It is a common scene when travelling across Japan by shinkansen. 

Feel the Summer Heat

Pei’s summer illustrations featuring cumulonimbus clouds and the feel of Japanese summers. 3 of the illustrations in the post, including the one below, are particularly realistic looking that I almost mistook them for real photos. 

Sunset Over a Senmaida

Senmaida (千枚田) are terraced rice fields. There are several senmaida in Japan that are famous as scenic spots especially during the sunset when the sunlight bathes the water and they shine golden. The most famous is Shiroyone Senmaida in Wajima prefecture. 

Cats Because Kuroneko

Pei is also fond of cats as shown in his Twitter handler name and Instagram username “kuroneko” which means “black cat”. Perhaps to show his love for cats, he occasionally makes illustrations that have a cat or cats as the centre focus, or for a little personality. 

For International Cats Day

#世界猫の日 (International Cat Day)
Therefore, cats illustrations series! 

(Translation)

Cats in Cooling Spots

Cats are good at finding cooling spots.

(Translation)

Learn How to Illustrate from the Master

Pei is also an anime background illustrator teacher. He has started several projects to help people who want to draw like him. Social media is one of the ways he shares tips and lessons with his followers, and there are also other platforms like Youtube where he shares video lessons.

Pei primarily uses Photoshop to draw his illustrations, if you are interested in learning from Pei, then give his Official Website Tasogare-ya Illustration Institute a visit. All the links are available there, as well as articles about digitally illustrating anime backgrounds. He has lessons available on Youtube and Line for free, and a full course on online learning platform Coloso for a fee. Note that his lessons are currently only available in Japanese. 

The exception being a collaboration between Pei and AdobeCreativeStation to create this Youtube video that contains English subtitles. In this video, Pei shows the trick to adding light and shadow expressions to landscape images using Photoshop on an iPad. 

To Close

I am sure these images are enough to show you how truly amazing Pei’s anime background illustrations are. You might even want to have a copy for yourself, and you can as Pei’s illustrations are available to buy here. 

Explore Pei’s social media for the rest of his wonderful collection, and follow to get the latest updates on his works. 

Photos provided courtesy of Pei ぺい (Official Website, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, Pixiv, Booth).