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Right now I try to create a 4:30 video clip for a piece of music by Berlin (originally scotch) musician Momus, planned to be finished in January. The title says all, so I make good use of every cliché in that field. This BG is an interiour for a vertical pan, done deliberately fast and loosely (I hope). (Project dimensions 1280 x 720)

If there is light, shouldn't there be shadow ? (the ground is missing shadows - the arc has (right margin) )

Anyway, looking at your background image you are thinking of a bold and nice kid-vampire like we have seen on German TV or of a Graf Zahl (The Count) -(?) - for sure this has not the look and feel of sg like Murnau/Nosferatu..

Yes, shadows are missing - as well as the characters ...

I'd like to add that this time I followed an advice by Joanna Quinn which she gave during her presentation in Stuttgart this year. She said she always started with very small thumbnail sketches (on paper), blowing them up for storyboard and then a bit more for layout. I did the same here, scanning in small doodles (about 3 x 5 cm) of the different settings, then enlarging them to project size. Also I made a copy from this BG and enlarged it 300 % for a closer shot. I re-drew all lines in that. The chalk structure gets softened a bit, so I touched it up a bit here and there. I think I will do that again for getting a BG for close-ups.

This is what I do also when I work; start with very small sketches, finish (or repair) these in full 1080p size, and then make them a bit smaller when I start animating -- but since I work paperlessly, nothing really changes but the percentage of the actual project size -- another one of the beauties of direct drawing into the project window.