Introduction

How to use this guide

I tried to divide this guide in small chapters, each about a specific topic. So, if you already know something, you can skip to the next chapter. But make sure to at least skim them all, you may find something useful (or be reminded of something you forgot)!

Do you have previous experience with digital drawing?

If you have, you can safely skip this part! If you don’t, here are some tips for you.

 

This text assumes you already have a drawing tablet and know the basics of how to draw digitally. If you don’t, the first step is to get comfortable with making digital artwork. Do sketches, exercises, and keep drawing until you get the hang of it!

It’s not recommended to start a comic, which is a huge endeavour, without being comfortable with your drawing instruments! So, you should also get comfortable using Clip Studio Paint, because it’s going to be your pen and paper. It’s a great software, very customisable, with a lot of useful features for making comics. We’ll explore some of them below.

Display or non-display tablets?

Drawing with tablets is not the same as drawing on paper! Digital drawing is just not as intuitive as traditional pen and paper. At first, you’ll struggle because the experience isn’t the same. Especially if you use a non-display tablet, you’ll feel a strange disconnect between you and the drawing. Display tablets are more expensive, but replicate more closely the experience of traditional drawing. But you can do pretty much everything on a non-display tablet as well, so don’t get discouraged if you can’t afford one at the moment!

Tools of the trade

One of the cool things about Clip Studio Paint, that makes it easier to transition from traditional to digital, is that the tools’ names are close to their real counterparts.

You have pens, pencils, erasers, and so on. You’ll probably find the tools you use on paper, or a similar counterpart, here.

 

And the thing is… Clip Studio’s default tools are great! You’ll notice how good they’re especially when coming from other software, like Photoshop.

Pros of digital comics: reducing menial tasks

When making a comic on paper, a lot time is wasted doing time-consuming tasks that often require little to no drawing skills, but are necessary, such as:

- drawing the panels

- erasing the pencils

- scanning the finished page

- photocopying

- adding tones

 

...and so on. Working digitally removes many of these necessities (erasing the pencils, scanning, photocopying…), or makes them a lot easier and convenient. Let’s see how.

Do I need to do everything digitally?

Of course not! There are several people who have a “hybrid” workflow: half traditional, half digital. Some sketch their pages digitally, print them in non-photo blue, and ink them traditionally. Others scan their sketches drawn on paper, put them on a computer, and ink them digitally.

Any solution is fine, as long as it works for you.

Working with Clip Studio Paint

Creating a page

Let’s create a page to start experimenting.

File → New... → Comic book icon.

The settings for size, resolution, bleed width, and so on depend entirely on your needs and how you’re going to print your page (or if!).

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After pressing OK, you’ll notice how the page already comes with the standard line guides for bleed, etc. If you’ve used commercial comic book paper, you’ll feel at home.

In the same menu, there are templates for page panels, to help you start more easily. This is entirely customisable and we’ll talk about how to make and change panels later.

Want to know more? 📖

While I can’t go into details in this article, here is the link to the official guide!

Layers

Layers can save you hours of work!

One of the most useful features of digital drawing is layers. Basically, they’re like transparent sheets of paper you can draw on, name, move around, resize, change their opacity, and so on.

They’re one of the most powerful tools at your disposal.

For example, on paper you may sketch the image with a pencil, then ink it and when you’re done erase the pencil sketch. Alternatively, you could use a lightbox and keep things separated.

With digital drawing, you can have a “sketch” layer, then change its opacity, and then add another “ink” layer on top of it. After you’re done inking on your “ink” layer, you can just hide the sketch layer and that’s it: no need for erasing!

Press the little eye icon to make the layer invisible! You can also change its opacity with the bar above (the one that says 50, meaning the current opacity is at 50%).

 

 

It’s like having a lightbox directly into your computer!

This also means that you’re free to experiment as much as you want. No need for different sheets of paper or documents. Just throw new layers, tweak them, duplicate them, and try tweaking some more. You can also organise these layers in folders, to keep things clear.

The pencil button (Set as Draft Layer)

What’s this Pencil button here? It’s another really cool feature in Clip Studio Paint that is easy to overlook.

It’s called Set as Draft Layer and it tells the program to do several things:

- First, the layer is indicated with this pale blue line, so that you can easily recognise and hide drafts if necessary.

- Then, when exporting an image (or flattening the image), all these Draft Layers get hidden, only showing the others. It’s like erasing your sketches in an instant!

- Also (and this is extremely useful!), these layers get ignored when using the Fill tool! No need to hide them when filling big spaces: the program does that for you.

For more on filling, see the next chapters.

Folders for references images and text

Layers are not only useful for drawing, but also for gathering references. Let’s say you’re drawing a building, and need to check a reference for a specific part of it.

You can add a folder to your document with all the photos you need, hiding and revealing tem when needed!

The same goes with text: when planning a comic page, I like to keep an eye on the screenplay. No need for multiple monitors, or to print it on a piece of paper. You can just add a Text layer and paste the content of the screenplay page you’re working on. Hide it and show it at your convenience while working.

The “magic” of Vector Layers

Vector layers are special layers in Clip Studio. You make one by clicking this icon [image icon] and you can recognise them by the small 3D cube next to them.

Vector layers are special because while you draw them the same way you would do with raster layers, they are instead saved as a series of points.

Same line as raster (a series of pixels) and vector (a series of points).

 

 

This means that you can resize, transform, and rotate Vector Layers as much as you want, and they’ll always retain the same quality. Plus, every single line can be tweaked individually with the Correct Line tool!

The Correct line tool, and the same line with adjusted width.

This proves invaluable when you find that you’ve drawn a head, or a body part, slightly smaller (or bigger) than it should be. On paper, that would mean having to redraw it completely. But with vector layers, you can just select the part (Lasso tool) and then resize it to how big you need it.

The flexibility of Vector Layers: the same layer can be stretched, rotated, distorted, and it’ll still retain the same quality!

 

 

There’s also an option to change the width of the line while resizing them (Transformation Tool), or keeping the same as the original in the Tool property tab. Really useful!

This can save you a huge amount of time and frustration! After you’ve learned how to use Vector Layers, you won’t go back.

TIP! 💡 Always name your layers

When working digitally, sometimes you can have tens of layers. Always remember to name them to keep things tidy, plus you can merge two or more layers together to form a single one!

 

Select layers → Right click on them → Merge selected layers.

Tool specific for comics

Frames: create panels in a jiff!

If you’re like me, picking up a ruler, drawing all the panels, then inking them (maybe even leaving ink streaks because I’m messy) it’s something you’d rather not do. Then you’re in luck!

Clip Studio has a handy tool for panels, called Create Frame, that just for that.

If you want to try it, just click the Rectangle frame, and start drawing rectangles, how you would do with normal panels. A blueish background will form around your panel and the program will automatically create a Folder with the necessary layers inside.

Do notice that brush size and shape are customisable! Do you want a more hand-drawn look to your panels? Click Brush shape and select the Textured Pen.

Want to resize or change the panels? Nothing could be easier. Click the Operation → Object tool and select the border of a panel. Try the handles that appear around it and experiment to understand how they work.

See how moving or resizing a panel, also automatically influences the others next to it? It makes experimenting really easy.

 

As we’ve seen in the “Create a page” chapter, there are also pre-made pages available to help you get started. My advice is to pick one and then modify it to learn how these tools work. They’re really intuitive to use and easy to customise, so you’ll get the hang of them quickly!

 

 

TIP! 💡 How do I remove the blue overlay around the panel?

If you find the blue overlay distracting, disabling it is easy. It’s just there to denote that there’s a mask.

To deactivate it: right click on the mask box of your current layer in the Layer panel → Deselect Show Mask Area.

That’s it!

 

 

TIP! 💡 How to divide panels

Try the Cut frame border tool! Is next to the Create frame tool and is as easy to use, as just drawing a line where you want panels to be divided.

 

 

Want to know more? 📖

Here’s the official guide on the topic!

 

 

Balloon tool & lettering

Balloons

Another task that can be made much faster is creating balloons and writing text inside them.

In Clip Studio Paint, there’s a tool just for that. It’s called Balloon Tool and can be accessed by pressing this button.

Here, you can four types of balloons:

 

- Rounded balloon

- Ellipse balloon (more circular)

- Curve balloon

- Rectangular balloon

 

 

Balloons and tails types (not all of them!)

 

 

Curve balloons are customisable and – despite the name – can even be made all pointy! You have four types of “curves”: Straight line, Spline, Quadratic Bezier, Cubic Bezier.

 

With these, you can pretty much make balloons in any shape you desire.

In the same way you can change the brush used for panels, you can do that with balloons (and their tails), using Brush shapes: this allows you to make some pretty funky balloons!

 

 

TIP! 💡 The flexibility of balloons

Balloons and their tails are made from vectors! This means that they can be stretched, resized, and transformed without losing quality.

 

Just select the shape with the Object tool to modify it. Plus, you can use all the vector Correct line tools on it.

 

 

Tails

There are three tools to make balloon tails:

- The Balloon pen, that pretty much makes you draw the shape as you want

- Balloon tail: more “automated”, it allows you to make straight tails, polygonal, or curved

- Thought balloons: little circles to show a character thinking.

 

 

TIP! 💡 Special balloons

Need a special balloon for screaming, whispering and so on? The program got you covered!

If you go to the Material Tab → Manga Material → Balloon, you can find a selection of premade balloon (that, being vector, are easily customisable) that you can use.

 

 

Want to know more? 📖

More information on the official guide.

 

 

Lettering

To write text inside a balloon, just use the Text tool and click inside the balloon you want to fill. In the Tool property panel you can see all the options for text (plus more in the subtool palette, accessible by clicking the wrench icon).

TIP! 💡 The Clip Studio Font

Try out the font called Clip Studio Comic Regular that comes with newer versions of the program: it’s pretty good!

 

 

Effects

Effects that you see often in comics are also easy to add in Clip Studio.

Some common patterns can be found next to the Balloon Tool, in the Flash Tool.

For example, adding the effects shown below is as easy as making a circle.

There are also many effects that are often used to fill comic panels, under the Decoration tool.

These work similarly to brushes, as in: you just paint the decorations where you want them, as you would do with a pen.

Some of these effects in action.

 

 

Others can be used to fill backgrounds with trees, grass, or clouds.

Then you have clothing decorations that can take a long time to make, like lace and chains, that just become as easy as making a line.

A quick example of some of the Clothing decorations available put into a quick drawing.

 

 

There are even more, just try them out and see what could be useful for you.

 

 

TIP! 💡 Custom decorations

Of course, these probably won’t look like your style. The cool thing is that you can make your own. One easy way to do it, is to find a pattern similar to the one you would like to make, duplicate it, and modify it using your own images instead of the default ones. You can find articles about this topic both on the official help and in users’ guides.

Some of the custom patterns I made to draw chains and bushes quickly.

 

 

For more pre-made effects, also check the Effect Line, Sound Effect and Sign tabs under Manga Material, in the Material Panels.

Rulers

If you want to achieve these effects by hand, there are also rulers that can help you with that.

By clicking on the ruler icon, you can find many useful options. The one we’re looking for is the Special ruler.

With these, you can add by hand a lot of effects commonly seen in comics to highlight certain moments (speed, etc).

Some examples of special rulers.

 

 

TIP! 💡 Why my ruler isn’t working?

If your ruler doesn’t appear to be working (or maybe if you want to disable it), check if the Snap to Special Ruler icon is active!

Also, to temporary deactivate a certain ruler, you can shift+click on its icon on the layer it’s assigned to.

Perspective rulers

Another very useful ruler is the Perspective ruler.

You can add one two ways:

1. Layer → New Ruler/Frame → Create Perspective Ruler, then choose the type of perspective and move the points with the Object tool to where you want them.

2. Layer Tool → Perspective Ruler → then add the vanishing points on the page.

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Personally, I find the first version to be more intuitive. These rulers not only constrain the lines to the correct perspective (make sure Snap to Special Ruler is on! See the tip above), but they also can display a perspective grid.

To do this, make sure to select the Ruler icon on the correct layer

then in the tool property activate the grids.

This will help a lot in making technical backgrounds full of intricate buildings!

 

 

TIP! 💡 How to get a perspective grid quickly with the 3D view

A method I sometimes find useful for finding the perspective I want, is to create a 3D cube on a new layer, move it around until I find the view I want for that particular scene, then hide it and use the grid to help me construct my background.

 

To do this, go to the Material panel → 3D → Primitive → and drag and drop the cube on your image. Then, move it around with the controls above it. Once you’re done, you can hide it by lowering the opacity to 0% and make the perspective grids visible (see above).

Fill tools

Filling shapes quickly

Another time-consuming aspect of traditional drawing is filling big shapes with black, like hair, objects, shadows. Thankfully, this is another area in which digital drawing excels at.

In Clip Studio you have several Fill tools. The ones I use are:

1. Refer only to editing layer

2. Refer others layer

3. Paint unfilled areas

4. Lasso fill (in the Figure palette)

1. Refer only to editing layer

I don’t use it often, as I find it a good practice to keep the colour areas separated from the linework (plus, you can’t fill Vector Layers: see below).

2. Refer other layers

This is the filling option I use most of the time. It fills everything that is visible on the page and is enclosed, except the layers marked as Draft Layer (see the section about it).

If you only need to fill a specific layer, ignoring the others – for example, a character in front of a detailed background – there’s a quick way to do it:

- Set the character layer as a Reference Layer

- Set the Fill tool to only reference Reference Layers (sorry for the tongue-twister!).

This will tell Clip Studio to only consider that specific layer when filling.

3. Paint unfilled areas

This tool helps you find small bits that didn’t get filled with colour and clean them up.

4. Lasso fill

The lasso fill tool is found under the Figure tool. It lets you draw with the lasso tool the shape you want to fill. I find it very useful for drawing shadows and other big spots of black.

There are many options you can tweak when it come to these tools, be sure to play with them and see what they do! And don’t worry about making a mistake: You can press the “Reset selected sub tool to default settings” button to put things as they were.

TIP! 💡 You can’t fill a Vector Layer!

Vector Layers can’t be filled with colour, that’s one of their limitations. To avoid that, just make a new Raster Layer below it, and fill that one instead.

Tones

Clip Studio provides several ways to use tones, plus a lot of already-made tones and patterns. Using them is much faster and simpler than cutting and pasting them on paper!

 

One way to do them is to fill an area with colour (or even gradients), go to the Effect window and select Tone. Done! The colour is transformed into a tone. Here you can tweak how the tones look: their density, frequency, shape. If you want to change it back to colour, just press again the Tone button.

From colour to tones.

Another way is to use the many materials provided in the Materials → Monochromatic Tab. Here, you can find all sorts of patterns too. You can use them by selecting the area you want to apply the tone to with a lazo, and then drag and drop the tone to it. Or maybe clip them to another Layer (Clip to Layer Below button, above the New Raster Layer).

 

Pretty much all of them are customisable.

Repetitive actions? Record them!

I find that a lot of time when drawing is wasted doing the same actions over and over. Thankfully, you can skip some of this grind digitally, by recording actions!

For example, I find that I always use the same structure when making comics:

 

- I make a “Screenplay” layer for the initial sketches, to set up the scene

- Then I make a “Sketch” layer for the more refined sketches

- I have a Vector Layer for inking called “Ink”

- And one for black fillings called “Black”.

Recreating these layers again and again is time wasted that could be used elsewhere.

 

So I made an action that does that for me! This way I can just press a button and the program will repeat these passages for me.

How to record your actions

Go to Window → Auto Action to find the right panel.

 

Here, there are going to be some default actions you can study. But we’re going to make our own!

Press the button Create new auto action set, name it something like “For comics”. Then, press the Add button at the bottom and name the action: Create layers. A red Record button should have appeared at the bottom: press it and the program will start recording every action you make.

 

Just as an example, go to the Layer panel, create a new Raster Layer and name it “Sketch”. Then create a new Vector Layer and call it “Ink”. Now go back to the Auto Action panel and press the Stop button. The program should have recorded your actions!

Try it out. Press play, and the program will create your new layers and name them.

You can record many different kind of actions in the program.

 

 

TIP! 💡 Put your actions in the Quick Access panel

I find it very useful to put my actions in the Quick Access panel, so that I can always find them (instead of having to go to the Auto Action tab). Just drag and drop your action where you want it on the panel and it’ll appear there.

Tips & tricks

Some common strategies that I’ve seen in digital drawing, that don’t require their own chapter.

3D preview of your comic

If you’re wondering how the your comic will look with all the binding, you can use the 3D Preview for Binding button.

(I blurred out my comic but trust me, the preview works well!)

Mirror the page

Do you want to see the page you’re working on from a different perspective, to make it easier to spot mistakes? Just press this button in the Navigator, and the page will get mirrored!

Save the materials you use often!

In the material tab, you can save and keep organised a lot of things you use often: backgrounds, objects, and so on. Need a background for a scene you have already drawn in the past? Just save it, then drag and drop it from the Materials!

From photos to backgrounds

While it’s something I don’t use because it wouldn’t gel with my drawings, I saw similar methods used successfully, even in published comics. Pick a photo that you want to use as a background (make sure you either took the picture or that it’s free to use, for copyright reasons!). Set it the way you want it in your image.

 

Then select Layer → Convert to lines and tones. A window will open, letting you tweak the image. After that, you’ll have the photo converted as a background, that you can rework to better integrate in your comic.

 

The more time you spend on it, the better the results!

A photo converted this way, then edited by hand.

Automatic borders

You can quickly add a border to most layers, by going under the Layer Properties.

It’s very useful for quickly separate text, effects, sounds or characters from the background.

In this example, the border is applied to a text layer.

Search layers

If your document has become a mess of folders and layers, Clip Studio now has an options to search and filter layers! Sometimes it can be very useful.

Searching for text and balloons.

Edit all the comic page text

If you want to edit the text of a page, without having to go to each layer, go to:

Story → Edit text → Open story editor. Here you’ll see just the text and you’ll be able to edit it.

Customise the Quick Access bar

Make sure to customise the Quick Access bar with your most used tools and your custom recorded actions! It’s as quickly as dragging and dropping the tool icon onto it.

Pitfalls of digital drawings

So, is digital drawing perfect? Of course not. There are some shortcomings to it, including the ones I mentioned at the start.

Two things that I still find bothersome sometimes are…

Zooming

Having a zoom feature is super useful. Unfortunately, sometimes I find myself working too zoomed in, adding many unnecessary details that won’t even be seen. If you have a second monitor, you can put a duplicate of the page you’re working on (Window → Canvas → New window) at the size it’s going to be printed. This way you’ll be able to keep an eye on the final dimensions of the image.

Infinite undos & perfectionism

The undo button is the bane of my existence. Being able to undo and redraw any line is both incredibly useful, but can lead to huge wastes of time. It can lead you to redraw the same line over, and over, undoing it every time until you find the “perfect” line.

Don’t do that! There’s no perfect line and, most of all, no one will notice or care much. Falling into a perfectionist attitude is the best way not to finish your comic!

Ending words

Thanks for reading to the end!

 

I hope my overview of some of the tools available has been useful. Unfortunately I can’t analyse them all in detail, but there are many guides (including the official one I linked several times) available on these topics. I just wanted to make sure that people know some of the options available to make your work faster and avoid some of the most tedious parts of making comics.

 

The best way to learn is to try out these tools, so just give them a try, they’re easy to use! It’s like drawing: you just learn by doing.

 

Happy drawing!