Hi there!

In this post, I want to share with you how I use the color palettes of Clip Studio Paint. But first, let’s dig in a bit deeper and look at what these "color palettes” are.

Palette variations

So far Clip Studio Paint offers to us 7 different types of color palettes:

• Color Wheel

• Color Slider

• Color Set

• Color History

• Intermediate Color

• Approximate Color

• Color Mixing

I will talk about each palette in more details, but I want to let you know, that you don’t need to use them all. Try them, experiment with them, and choose which one is more comfortable for you to use. I prefer to use only 2-3 palettes, depending on my needs.

 

To find the palettes go to the top menu [Window] and select the needed palette to make it visible.

Color Wheel

1. Color Wheel that allows you to configure the drawing color.

 

2. This small icon will switch your color wheel space. You can choose between a square (HSV) and triangle (HLS) options.

 

Square Color Space called HSV – Hue, Saturation, Value.

Triangle Color Space called HLS – Hue, Luminosity, Saturation.

HUE – is a characteristic of a color that is responsible for its position in the visible spectrum. In other words, it is a shade of color.

 

SATURATION – This is the intensity of the color, its difference from gray is equal in lightness. The farther a color is from the grayscale, the more saturated it is. The closer to shades of gray, the less saturated it is.

 

VALUE/LUMINOSITY – is the amount of white light emitted by a color. The more light there is in a color (the closer it is to white), the brighter it is. Adding white increases lightness and adding black decreases it.

 

3. Color icon. It shows your (a)Main color, (b)Sub color, and (c)Transparent color.

 

Main color – is the most frequently used color.

 

Sub color – this will be the background color when you specify [create both line and fill] with the [Figure] tool, or you create a balloon.

 

Transparent color – well… it is transparent color :D You can also use this one as an eraser.

 

 

4. HSV value/HLS value

 

Displays numerically the HSV/HLS value of the drawing color in the lower part of the palette.

Color Slider

The Color Slider palette allows you to configure the drawing color with sliders.

This palette is great when you need to work in the CMYK colors range.

 

1. RGB lib

Specifies a drawing color by RGB (Red, Green, Blue).

 

2. HSV/HLS lib

Colors are specified by Hue, Saturation, and Value in HSV color space or by Hue, Luminosity, and Saturation in HLS color space

 

3. CMYK lib

Specifies a drawing color by CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black). It indicates the primary colors used in printing.

 

4. Color icons

It is the same as in the color wheel. (a) Main color, (b) Sub color, (c) Transparent color

Intermediate Color

This palette allows you to choose a color within the four selected colors around the edges.

How to set up this palette? It’s pretty easy. First, you need to choose the main color, and after just click on the corner square.

 

Now you can choose a color from the palette and use it in your work.

Now, let’s look into the menu.

1. This allows you to fix the numbers of tiles in the grid. If the palette width is changed, the tile size changes in conjunction with the palette width.

2. Fix the width of tiles. Specifies the color tile view by the width of each tile. If the palette width is changed, the number of tiles per row changes in conjunction with the palette width.

3. Shows and hide grid.

Approximate Color

This palette allows you to select a color proximate to a selected drawing color.

First, click on the small text on top or on the left to display the menu.

 

You can select Hue, Saturation, Luminosity(V), Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue from the display menu. Move the sliders to adjust the change in the color palette.

Just play with it till you find the perfect and comfortable solution for yourself :)

 

You can also change the size of the grid and tiles in the menu in the top left corner. It is completely the same setting as it was previously in the Intermediate color palette.

Color History

Pretty useful palette, especially if you forgot what color you were using before to jump to a new one. It also saves your color history from previous projects.

You can find the MENU of this palette in the top left corner.

1. You can save your history and add it to the Set Palette list.

2. Clears the history of the drawing colors you have obtained.

3. In View(S) you can find settings to change your grid and tiles.

 

Color Set

Now let’s talk about this baby. Spoiler - it’s one of my favorite palettes. This palette is very useful because you can create your own sets. Personally, I prefer to use it to save characters’ colors.

Now let’s look closer at the settings.

1. Color Set list – here you can find and choose all default and custom-created color sets.

2. Edit color set – allows you to add, select, edit and delete colors in the Color Set List.

3. Import Color Set Material. Yes! You can add color sets that you found in Assets.

And here is a link for you so you can find them ;)

4. Color Set Display – here you can see a grid with the colors in a set. And yes, you can also change the grid and tiles size in MENU – VIEW(S)

5. RGB / HSV value – displays the numerical RGB value of drawing color.

6. Replace color. Changes the color of the tile currently selected with the current drawing color.

7. Adds the currently selected color to Color Set

8. Deletes the color of the tile currently selected on the Color Set.

Bonus Tip!

Dragging a tile while holding down Ctrl allows you to change the order.

 

Color Mixing

This palette was added in Ver. 1.12.0 and it is incredible! Like it imitates how you mix paintings in traditional art and it feels very satisfying. This palette is also available for your smartphone companion.

If you want to know all the features and settings of this amazing palette, I suggest you check out the Official Clip Studio Paint guide.

 

Now I will quickly go through the features that are useful for me:)

1. Background Color – you can change the background from Transparent to White, Black, Grey, or Beige. Just keep in mind, that colorful background will mix into your color when you will blend them.

2. Register current sub tool. This setting is very useful for me because I personally prefer to use my custom brush and blend tool instead of the defaults.

3. Add color to the bottom color swatch of the palette.

4. Shows the current Main Color.

5. Clears the palette drawing area.

 

6. Undo and Redo for Palettes working area.

7. Changing brush size – Small, Medium, Large.

8. Use the same sub tool as the canvas.

9. Brush tool.

10. Blend tool.

11. Eyedropper.

 

My Setup

And now I finally will show you my setup of palettes that I use :3

Most of the time I use Color Wheel and Color Set which I have on the right side.

If we look closer, you will see, that I have almost all the palettes in one place. Depending on what my work is about, I swap the palettes, but the color wheel is always on the top because it is my essential palette tool to use.

 

When I am doing some artwork for printing, I swap the Set Color Palette for Color Sliders and change it to the CMYK.

I’m also using a Mixing palette when I want to experiment with colors.

But I replaced some Sub Tools in this Palette.

1. Instead of the default brush, I use a custom square brush that has more soft strokes.

2. I replaced the default Blend Tool with a custom blend tool which has more oil paint effect.

 

Plus to all of this, I also like to use color palettes on my smartphone through Clip Studio Companion.

Mostly I use two palettes on my smartphone – Mixing palette (left) and Sub View palette (right).

Sub View Palette is a very helpful feature, especially if you like taking photos and want to use them as color references later. You can import a photo from your phone or take a new photo straight away and this Palette automatically will create a color swatch from the photo.

Here is an example photo of the sunset that I took another day.

 

Color Picking Tool

Color Picking or Eyedropper is one of my TOP-using tools, no jokes! You can find it in the Tool Bar or press button [i] on your keyboard.

But for me, it is more comfortable to hold [Alt] when I need to use it.

So the main purpose of Eyedropper is to pick a color from your picture.

If you want to understand how it works, let’s just zoom in and take look.

You see, it actually picks the color from a pixel.

Brush and Eyedropper method for everything

I want to share with you a method I like to use the most :)

Here is a quick preview.

 

So what is happening here? I am using only one Brush and Eyedropper. But how do I get so many shades and why the Color Wheel is jumping here and there? Here is a trick – lower a bit opacity of your brush.

Here are some default brushes that are great for this method as well:

You can find them in Tool Bar –> Brush or shortcut key [B]. Next in Sub Tool [Brush] choose the tab Watercolor. There you will find these two brushes: Opaque watercolor & Transparent watercolor. But of course, you can use any brush with a lower opacity setting, but I recommend using the brush that is smoothly become transparent at the end of the stroke, like on the screenshot above.

 

Okay, so we took the right Brush. Now layer some color on canva.

 

The lighter you press on a pen – the lighter will be color. Now let’s add the second color.

Look how the colors are mixed in a middle. Now we gonna use Eyedropper to make a nicer gradient between these two colors.

Pretty easy right? Keep painting with light pressure and picking the middle color with Eyedropper.

Also here is an example of how I use the same painting method but the opacity of the Brush is 100%

Parting words

At the end of this guide, I want to tell you that Clip Studio Paint is offering a lot of great features. I hope you will agree with me, that the Eyedropper tool and Color Palettes are essential for digital artists who work in color. But still don’t forget, that these are only tools. They will definitely help you to draw, but they not going to improve your art skills.

 

But knowledge will!

 

Study color theory, light, and shadows. Use references. Experiment with color palettes from the internet. Analyse others’ works. Explore Clip Studio Assets. Try, experiment, practice, and most importantly have fun in the process!

I believe in You! <3