How To Change Emotion And Mood In Your Manga

Hello everyone, I'm back again and of course with a tutorial related to the world of comics. This time I will show you some ways to manage emotions and atmosphere in making manga. I will give 4 emotions that are often drawn in comics, there are romantic, comedy, action, and horror.

1. Romantic

The melancholic atmosphere is often depicted in romantic mangas. It conveys a warm, touching impression with bright lighting. There are three key elements you need to create this atmosphere. You should prepare a flower-effect brush, gradients, and lighting effects.

1. Prepare Your Finished Line Art

Prepare your manga lineart that has already been filled with beta and screentone. Since I will only be explaining how to set up the atmosphere, I won’t be covering the process from sketching to creating the finished line art like this.

2. Add a gradient on background

The first step is to create a new layer below your character layer. Add a soft light-to-dark gradient on this layer. You can achieve this in two ways: by manually using the airbrush tool to create a smooth gradient, or by using the gradient tool, which allows you to apply the gradient with just one stroke. Since we're aiming for a romantic atmosphere, make sure the gradient is soft and subtle—avoid letting the black tones dominate the panel. This approach helps keep the mood gentle and warm, enhancing the romantic feel.

3. Add some flowery detail on the background

After that, you can create a new layer and add a floral effect above the gradient layer. I have a variety of flower brushes in my Clip Studio library, and you can also find flower brushes by searching for "flower" in Clip Studio's asset library. This will show a wide selection of downloadable flower brushes you can use. Feel free to use any type of flower to enhance the romantic effect, but try to avoid flowers with negative connotations, like spider lilies.

This added floral detail can bring a soft, charming touch to the scene, enhancing the romantic mood.

4. Add some Sparkle effect

After adding the floral effects, I’ll create a new layer on top to add light sparkle effects. You can also use a light airbrush to blend the colors between the flowers and sparkles, creating a more cohesive look. I use this brush ID: 1741606

5. Add a Lighting effect on your character

Next, you can create a new layer above the line art to add a soft light effect on the character. I apply this light using a gentle brush with low density to create a subtle glow, ensuring the light isn’t too intense. This soft lighting effect brings a natural highlight to the character, enhancing the romantic atmosphere by gently illuminating their features. It adds depth to the scene and helps the character stand out while keeping the mood warm and soft.

6. Result

Finally, I just repeat the same steps for each panel below: adding the gradient, floral effects, light sparkles, and character lighting. And with that, the artwork is complete! You can really see the difference—each layer and effect adds depth and creates a cohesive romantic atmosphere that enhances the mood.

This layered approach brings out the desired ambiance, and the finishing touches really transform the overall feel of the scene.

2. Comedy Scene

Comedy scenes are typically created for funny and lighthearted moments, with character drawings often made more exaggerated or quirky to match the tone. In comedy scenes, exaggerated expressions, open mouths, and even surprised or shocked eyes can add a lighthearted and humorous touch. This extra effort in expression makes the character more relatable and captures the playful, funny atmosphere you’re aiming for.

1. Prepare your line art

Here, I only changed the character’s expression by altering the eyes or the mouth. You can see the different in this below image.

2. Add Gradation

After adjusting the character’s expression, you can start by coloring the background with a dark-to-light gradient from top to bottom. This gradient gives a sense of depth and sets a dynamic base for the comedic scene.

3. Add A gloom line

Next, add line effects to enhance the comedic impact—using the Gloom tool here can work well. These lines can intensify the exaggerated, humorous mood by drawing attention to the character’s expression, giving the scene a lighthearted and energetic feel.

you can get this gloom line effect brush on clip studio from the start.

4. Alternate effect with gradation + dots or motion lines

Another option is to replace the line effect with a dotted texture after adding the background gradient. Adding dots instead of lines can give the scene a more playful, light-hearted feel and is commonly used in manga to highlight comedic or exaggerated moments. You can use a dot brush or a screen tone pattern to create a dotted effect that complements the humorous mood. This approach keeps the visual elements fun and adds texture without being too intense, helping the comedy stand out in a unique way.

5. Result

And that’s how the comedic scene is done! It’s much simpler than the romantic scene because there’s less to focus on in terms of details and mood. The exaggerated expressions, fun background effects, and simple use of gradation and dot textures really help keep the atmosphere light and playful. Sometimes, less is more in creating a comedic tone—just a few changes in expression and background can transform the whole vibe!

3. Action

For action scenes, the key is to emphasize movement, intensity, and emotion. The first step is to focus on the character’s pose and expression, ensuring that they convey the energy of the action. You might want to exaggerate their posture to show force or tension, depending on whether it's a fight, chase, or high-energy moment.

1. Prepare your line art

For the initial step in creating an action scene, start by adjusting the character expressions. Change their expressions to look more serious by altering their eyes and eyebrows. Furrow the eyebrows to indicate seriousness or tension, which is a key element in conveying the mood of an action scene. Additionally, you can add shading to the face to give it a more intense and tense look. This shading can be focused on areas like under the chin, around the nose, or the sides of the face to enhance the feeling of strain or concentration.

2. Add a gradation

Next, begin by drawing the background, starting with the gradient to set the overall tone. You can use a darker gradient at the top to add drama, fading to lighter tones at the bottom to create depth. After that, enhance the sense of motion by adding action lines. These lines could represent wind or fast movement, which is crucial in action scenes to suggest speed and force.

3. Add some wind effect

For the wind effects, you can find brushes specifically for this in Clip Studio’s asset library by searching "wind brush." These brushes will allow you to quickly create swirling, gusty lines that show the power of movement or the environment reacting to the action. To make the wind lines sharper and more defined, you can add a border effect to the lines, which will give them more impact and make them stand out in the panel.

4. Add some shadow to your character

After adding the wind lines and creating the background gradient, you can proceed to shading the character to enhance the serious tone. Apply light, thin strokes of black airbrush shading, particularly on the face, under the chin, along the jawline, and around the muscles to intensify the atmosphere. This subtle shading will give the character a more serious, focused look, emphasizing their readiness for the upcoming action.

5. Add Action line

Once the shading is in place, you can add focus lines to direct attention to the character or an important moment in the scene. Rather than drawing these lines manually, you can use Clip Studio’s built-in focus line tool. This tool will allow you to quickly create dynamic, sharp focus lines that draw the reader’s eye to the center of the action, adding to the intensity and drawing attention to critical moments in the panel.

6. Add Onomatope

The final step in creating an action scene is adding onomatopoeia, or sound effects, to elevate the intensity and bring the scene to life. For a serious action scene, choose bold, strong fonts that match the power of the moment. Words like BOOM, CRASH, or BAM can emphasize impacts, while WHOOSH or SWOOSH work well for fast movements or wind effects.

7. Result

And that's how you create an action atmosphere! There's a lot to consider, from character expressions and shading to effects, action lines, and sound effects. Each element plays a crucial role in bringing the intensity of the scene to life and making it more engaging for the reader. The exaggeration of expressions, the strong shading, dynamic action lines, and bold sound effects all work together to create a high-energy, serious atmosphere that enhances the action.

4. Horror

A horror atmosphere requires a lot of added shadows to enhance the dark, eerie effect.

1. Prepare your Line Art

Now, let’s move on to creating a horror atmosphere. Just like with the previous scenes, we begin by adjusting the characters’ expressions to fit the mood of horror. Change their expressions to ones that convey shock, fear, or dread. You can achieve this by making their eyes wider, their mouths slightly open, and their eyebrows raised in surprise or terror. The aim is to make the characters look genuinely frightened.

 

Actually I’m using their expression on action before.

2. Add Gradation

In addition to expression changes, add shading to enhance the tension. Focus on areas like the face, neck, and under the eyes to create deeper shadows, which will give the characters a more haunted or panicked look. This shading should be harsher and more defined to emphasize the fear and unease that often accompany horror scenes.

3. Add gloomy line

Next, for the background, you can combine a black gradient with a Gloom effect to create an eerie, unsettling atmosphere. Start by applying a dark gradient to the background to establish a sense of depth and mystery. This should be darker at the top to give the feeling of a looming, oppressive presence.

 

Then, use the Gloom effect to add a textured, foggy layer to the background, enhancing the tension and unease. This effect will create a sense of haziness or shadowy areas, which works perfectly in horror scenes to give a sense of the unknown or to evoke a supernatural presence.

4. Add shadow to your character

Next, add shadows to the characters to heighten the tension and make the scene feel more ominous. One effective technique is to use backlighting, where you place a light source behind the characters, casting long, dramatic shadows. This creates a stark contrast and makes the characters appear as silhouettes against the dark background, which intensifies the sense of dread. The light can be soft or harsh, but make sure it’s focused on the area behind the character to enhance their mysterious or sinister appearance.

5. Result

And that concludes the four steps for creating different atmospheres in comics. It’s crucial to master expression, shading, and lighting to get the right results for each mood. Don’t worry if you’re a beginner—over time, as you create more comics, you’ll become more familiar with how to apply shadows and lighting to achieve the desired atmosphere. The more you practice, the more instinctive these choices will become.

That’s all I can show you how to change the mood to your manga. Hope it can be usefull~