Hi everyone! In this tutorial I will guide you through all the steps I make and shading techniques I use to create a portrait like this, using Clip Studio Paint

Table of Contents

 

1. Sketch

 

2. Light source and shadow shapes

 

3. Local color blocking

 

4. Soft shadows

 

5. Soft light

 

6. Deeper shadows, reflected light and highlights

 

7. Details

 

8. Editing and Special effects.

 

I will also share some tips on organizing your layers, using clipping mask, lasso tool, and blending modes to achieve nice effects.

Reference

This is the reference picture I will be using.

 

Brushes I use

Preset:

 

Dense Watercolor,

Transparent Watercolor

Smooth Watercolor

Opaque Watercolor

Soft Airbrush

 

Custom:

 

PS brush

Mirre’s blender

 

The links to those custom brushes are

https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=1736606

https://assets.clip-studio.com/en-us/detail?id=1745703

 

Now we are all set, so let's start drawing!

1. Sketch

 

I used PS brush to create the sketch and my main goal was to keep It clean and simple.

I prefer to use a semi-soft brush for my sketches since it’s easier to blend the sketch into a painting later on.

2. Light source.

After analyzing the reference I create a separate layer, which will serve as my guide to the shadow shapes without messing up my lineart.

 

HINT|: Block the shadows in solid forms. This approach helps to use shadows for sculpting the face and immediately give it volume.

3. Color blocking

Here is the palette I will be using.

Now I need to block in the local colors. Local color means the actual color of the surface uninfluenced by surroundings and light sources. For the skin I use a neutral yellowish orange color, and for the hair - reddish brown. Both colors are rather desaturated and I recommend starting like this and add some brighter hues later in the process.

 

To block those colors in first of all I adjust my bucket tool properties like this.

 

I create another layer under my lineart layer. After doing so I click on my lineart layer and turn it into a reference layer by clicking on the lighthouse button.

 

(I made a screenshot of this layer at the end of the process so it was already set to overlay. Don't do anything with it's blending mode at this point only turn it to a reference layer.)

Now I can go back to my new layer and block in skin color.

NINT: click and hold bucket tool and then move it around around your artwork.

All areas will fill in automatically.

 

Repeat the color blocking on the hair on a separate layer.

 

After that I hide the lineart and clean up both of my local color layers, filling the gaps and evening the edges to avoid fuzziness.

4. Shadows

I create another layer above my SKIN local color layer. And then turn it into a clipping mask by clicking the “clip to layer below” button in a layer menu.

This feature helps me draw only above the colored part of the layer below the “mask” layer. It saves time and prevents me from messing up previous layers.

 

After adjusting the clipping mask mode, I make my shadow map layer visible, take the Soft Airbrush, set it to size 500-600 and lightly paint the shadows following the shapes a have mapped.

 

I use a cool blueish color for the shadow. Since I am using a soft air brush this color will be layered above my local color.

HINT: To paint shadows I use this recipe: shadow color = local color + darker complementary color + bits of color reflected from the environment.

 

I drop in some more violet hues and some hints on reddish orange and teal green reflected light. By doing so I get the variety of colors in my shadows to work with.

 

When I am happy with my color draft I set the airbrush to smaller size and clean up the edges of shadow a little bit, using my shadow map as reference.

 

Then I use a blender brush to smooth out color transition and mix my color even more, so they organically flow into one another.

 

5. Soft Light

I create another layer under my shadow layer, apply clipping mask to it so it clips to LOCAL COLOR layer, not the shadow one. Using the same soft airbrush I drop in the light with very pale warm yellowish color.

To add more contrast and saturation I create another clipping mask layer above the two previous layers and use soft airbrush to paint in some blush on the cheeks, around the eyes where the skin is thicker and blood vessels are closer to the surface and brighten up the lips.

 

Repeat the same steps with the hair.

 

After that I merge the clipping mask layers of the skin with the skin local color layer and repeat the same with the hair layers. Now I have two separate skin and hair color draft layers.

 

6. Deeper shadows, reflected light and highlights

I create another clipping mask layer above my skin layer and start sculpting the face by adding more shadows and strengthening the contrast. I add more saturated colors, sharpen the edges, add more prominent reflected light and highlights.

HINT: Remember the hard edge/ soft edge principle.

If a stroke or a plane has a hard edge the over edge of the same stroke or plane should be soft.

I hide the lineart layer and start working without it, adding detail and darker values.

 

I constantly switch between harder and softer brushes to achieve the best result.

 

HINT: Avoid sticking to one area for too long and work on all parts of the painting consistently

 

Move on to the hair, creating a new clipping mask layer above it – you know the routine by now!

 

7. Details

I merge clipping mask layers with their base layers first. And then merge hair and skin layers together. I paint shadows under the hair and soften the edges of the hairline so the color transition between hair and skin looks natural.

 

8. Effects and editing

The shadows look best with proper lighting! I will show you how I use Clip Studio Paint’s blending modes to achieve some nice lighting effects.

Create another layer on top of your painting and set the blending mode to Color Dodge (you can also try using Add Glow mode, it will give a brighter effect. Have fun! Play with it!).

In this blending mode I paint more saturated highlights with a soft brush using a very light yellowish color.

 

I set the color of my background to teal-turquoise green to support the greenish hues in my shadows and reflected light.

 

I make my lineart visible again and set it to overlay mode, then reduce the opacity to 17% and delete the lines that don’t look good, only leaving those that add to the whole picture.

 

Now I merge all the layers and then go to edit – tonal correction – tone curve and play with it until I am happy with the contrast level.

 

To add some texture I create another layer on top of my paintings, then go to Filter – Render – Perlin noise and set it to these parameters.

 

Then I set the layer to Hard Light or Vivid Light mode. Voila!

For more details and step by step process watch my fully narrated video tutorial!

I hope this tutorial was helpful and easy to understand! If so, please like it both here and on youtube!