Hi.

Hello everyone. The theme for this tutorial is 'Handy Uses for the Fill Tool' or as some of you know it as 'The Bucket tool'.

 

In this tutorial, I will be showing you a technique to easily add patterns to your line art using the Fill tool. Yes, the Fill tool. And yes Patterns, not flat colors. These can be patterns for clothes or texture for your objects. This will make coloring the line art in your comic easy for sure.

 

Setting Up The Layers

Here I already have Clip Studio Paint opened up with my Line Art on a separate layer. This is actually a 3D model of a room purchased from the Clip Studio Asset Store for free that I converted to line art. That way, I save lots of time instead of drawing it from scratch. The line art was further modified to add parts and lines that I thought it needed.

 

If you have your Line Art already drawn and stored onto your device, go to File menu > Import to retrieve it. Also note that you don’t have to rasterize your line art nor does it have to be on a single layer for this technique to work.

 

 

Now, set the layer with your Line Art as a Reference Layer by clicking the layer in the Layer Palette then clicking the Lighthouse icon at the top of the Layer Palette. Or go to Layer menu > Layer Settings > Set as Reference Layer. If you have many Line Art layers, you can just put them in a folder and set this folder as the reference instead.

 

 

Now, add the patterns that you want to apply to your line art onto different layers. There are various ways to do this.

 

One way to do this is to import the image from your device as a pattern. Go to File menu > Import > Pattern from Image. Your pattern is then added to a new layer as an Image Material Layer. Go to the Layer Palette and drag this layer beneath the Line Art layer if it is above it.

 

Use the bounding box to adjust the size of the pattern. You may also change the Transformation Mode in the Tool Property palette, for example to Free transform, so the pattern matches up with the perspective of the object it is for.

You can always go to the Operation tool from the Tools Palette and select the Object subtool to go back to transforming it.

 

Another way to do this is to import from the Clip Studio Asset Store. Go to the Clip Studio Asset Store.

 

Search for patterns by typing it into the search bar. You can click the ‘Detail’ button beside the search bar to narrow down your results. Click the asset you want then click the ‘Download’ button on the page. The asset will be downloaded to your materials.

 

Go to the Material Folder and look for your pattern that should be in the download category.

 

Click it then click the gear icon at the bottom to bring up the Material Property dialogue box.

Ensure the Tiling option is checked then press OK.

 

Add the pattern by dragging it onto the canvas. Again, adjust the pattern using the bounding box and the transformation modes in the Tool Property Palette.

 

If your pattern is not the color that you want, you can change it by going to Layer menu > New Correction layer and choose the Correction Layer type that you want and clip it to the pattern layer. This is for Image Material Layers. If you rasterized your pattern, you can simply just go to Edit menu > Tonal Correction and choose the option that best corrects your problem.

 

Now that you have added all your patterns, it is time to apply the Mask. For each layer with a pattern, click on it in the Layer Palette then go to Select menu > Select All.

 

Then go to Layer menu > Layer Mask > Mask Selection. Your pattern will disappear because it is masked.

 

If you look in your Layer Palette you will notice a square filled with black appear at this layer in the Layer Palette. This is the Mask and the black represents the area that is masked. The unmasked areas would be white.

 

Do this for all the layers with a pattern.

 

Setting Up The Fill Tool

To make effective use of the Fill Tool there are certain settings that need to be adjusted.

 

First, select the Fill Tool from the Tool Palette and choose the Refer Other Layers sub tool.

In the Tool Property Palette, ensure the Refer Multiple checkbox is checked and the Reference Layer option is selected beside it.

 

Next, check the Area Scaling option. You might be thinking “But I don’t want my fill to scale outside of my line art”. Don’t worry, the fill won’t go outside the line art and I will explain why later. For now, just put a number other than zero if your line art is done with a brush for instance that creates fuzzy strokes and the fill tool won’t fill properly near it.

 

Click the plus icon beside Area Scaling and set the Scaling Mode To Darkest Pixel.

This option only allows the fill to go up to the pixel with the darkest color, which is the black color of the line art. Note. that this will still work if your line art is not black, the fill just won’t pass it. This is why your fill won’t go outside your line art even though you set the area scaling to a number greater than zero. Therefore, only a scaling set to a negative number will work, which is shrinking. If you want an outwards area scaling, you will have to set the mode to that other than To Darkest Pixel. But we won’t be needing those for this technique.

 

Applying Pattern With The Fill Tool

Click the layer with the pattern you want to add from the Layer Palette.

Make sure you are on the Mask and not the Pattern. Check by ensuring the box with the Mask has a white border around it and not the box beside it that is showing the contents of the layer. If you are not on the Mask. then just click it to go on it.

 

Then click on the parts of the canvas you want to fill with the pattern.

Clip Studio Paint will refer to the reference layer as to which part is closed off and so on.

 

Also note that if the area beneath your line art is not of a flat color, this will still work. Let's say you added a pattern to the entire background. Then you want to add a pattern to a character that is in front of this background but the pattern of the background is showing inside of the character’s Line Art and preventing the fill from coming out properly.

Instead of hiding the layer with the background pattern so that the character’s Line Art is filled with the flat paper color, you can just increase the Tolerance in the Tool Property Palette.

Notice that even though the color (the pattern) beneath the character is not a flat color, it still fills all of it. No need to go through all the layers and hide them.

 

Remove Pattern With The Fill Tool

Turn the Fill Tool into an Eraser quickly and easily by selecting the Transparent Color. It is the gray and white checkered rectangle below the color wheel.

 

For the best results when filling with Transparent Color, I suggest increasing the Tolerance so that it gets rid of all the pattern properly and doesn’t leave little bits behind.

 

Adjusting Pattern

To adjust the pattern while the mask is still applied, uncheck the tick between the layer and the Mask so they are no longer connected. That way, you can adjust the pattern with the mask remaining unchanged.

After you’ve unlinked the Mask from the layer, click on the box with the Pattern this time and not the Mask. You can now use the Transform tool to modify the pattern. For the rasterized pattern go to the Layer Menu > Edit > Transform. For the object / Image Material pattern, go to Operation Tool > Object tool then select the transformation mode from the tool property palette.

 

Note/ Reminder

 

To make pattern visible, click the Mask and apply a fill using an opaque color. This removes the mask, thus making the pattern visible.

 

To make pattern not visible, click the Mask then apply a fill using the transparent color. This adds the mask, thus making the pattern is not visible.

 

The final result.

Now I have a fully colored image for my comic that just took a couple of clicks and minutes to make. I hope you found this tutorial time saving and useful. Farewell.

If you are want to learn more about the girl in the picture, check out my comic on Webtoon Canvas.