Introduction

I am Plushelisa and I draw manga in my free time. I have won many Japanese manga contests and my stories have been published in magazines in Japan! And to draw them, I use the Clip Studio Paint software, which allows me to create my manga from A to Z.

In this article, we will see step by step how to go from a manga page composed only of line drawings to a finished page. We will see different techniques such as adding black blocks, adding frames or even effect lines!

I/Adding flat black areas

In this article, the starting point will be a manga page where the line drawing has already been done.

So, this is what my manga page looks like once I have finished the line drawing:

The first thing I'm going to do is add the black flats. On paper, having to make large black flats is time-consuming and quite tedious. But thanks to Clip Studio Paint, this unpleasant step becomes very easy and quick.

First create a new layer above the line drawing by clicking on [New pixel layer]:

Then select the [Auto Select] tool:

Select [View Visible Layers]. This allows your selection to take into account all visible layers.

In [Selection Mode], select [Add to Selection]:

Then click on the areas where you want to put flat black:

Note: Make sure there are no large gaps in the line drawing, otherwise your selection will not be accurate. However, it often happens that there are small gaps in the line drawing. I therefore advise you to select the highest level of [Gap Closure], so that the auto selection does not take into account small gaps:

Once you have selected all the areas where you want to apply the black blocks, click on the [Fill] icon:

The flat black areas are made:

I then want to erase certain parts of the black areas to bring light to the hair or clothes for example.

To do this, select in the [Layer] tab, [Create layer mask] on the black areas layer:

We can now erase the flat black areas to add the light areas.

For my part, I like to lower the opacity of the black flat tint layer because it allows me to better visualize where the light areas are:

Here is the result after erasing certain parts of the flat black areas:

Now that we have added the black flat tints, we can move on to adding the screens.

II/ The plots

Definition of a frame:

A screen is composed of a mass of black dots distributed at regular intervals. At a certain distance, this arrangement allows to create the effect of different gray values.

The tighter the dots, the darker the screen appears!

Screens therefore allow you to give the effect of gray on a black and white page.

On paper, applying screens is often expensive and if you do not live in Japan, it is difficult to obtain them. But fortunately, Clip Studio Paint allows you to apply screens in a very simple and fun way!

Add a frame

There are several ways to add tones on Clip Studio Paint, you are free to choose the one that suits you!

1st technique

First, in the color wheel, select the shade of gray you want. Since I'm going to add shadows to the faces and the background, which are light elements, I'll choose a rather light shade of gray:

You are free to choose the gray level that suits you. For my part, I prefer to use a light gray for the shadows of the face and a darker gray for dark clothes and hair:

To transform the shades of gray into a screen, simply select [Layer Properties] then click on the [Screen] icon:

You can then select the screen ruling level you want. The higher the value, the smaller and tighter the dots will be. The lower the value, the larger and more spaced out the dots will be.

Personally, I often choose a screen ruling value of 60.

In [Stitch Settings], you have a wide variety of stitch types you can choose from. For the panels on this page, I chose circle-shaped stitches:

With this technique, you can also deselect the [Tonal] icon and find the grayscale. This way, you can easily see which grayscale you have applied and change it if needed.

It is also possible to start applying the tones directly, by selecting the [Tonal] icon before applying the grayscale values. The tones will then appear as you draw:

2nd technique:

Select the [Auto Select] tool and make sure it is set the same way as when we added black areas.

Then click on the areas where you want to apply a screen:

Click on [New Frame]:

You can then choose the screen ruling, density, type and angle of the points as you wish. Here, since I am adding screens to black hair, I choose the following settings:

For open areas, which are not surrounded by line art (like the shadow under the neck for example), I use the [Lasso] tool to select the areas where I want to add tones:

The process is then the same as when using the [Auto-Select] tool:

Add different patterned frames

It is also possible to add screens with other patterns than those available in the [Stitch Settings]. Indeed, Clip Studio Paint has a wide variety of screens, you will definitely find what you are looking for!

With the [Auto Select] tool, click on the area where you want to add the patterned screen:

Then select the [Material] palette:

Click on [All materials] then on [Monochromatic pattern]:

Here I want to add some texture to the chair. In [Cross-hatching], I select the [Cross-hatching x2] pattern:

“Drag and drop” the pattern into the selection area:

You can adjust the size of the pattern by stretching the blue frame around the pattern:

---

This is what my page looks like after adding all the frames:

Erase frames

Now I want to erase some parts of the frames to highlight elements.

For example, I would like to erase this area of the frame to highlight the character in the foreground:

To do this, I use a pen downloaded in [Assets] where I changed the combination mode.

Here is the link to download it:

If you don't know how to download a material, here is a link to an article that will explain how to do it:

Once downloaded, turn the pen into an eraser by changing the [Combination Mode] to [Erase]:

I then select the layer where the frame I want to erase is located and I can start erasing as I wish.

Here is the result after erasing:

Manga gradient

We notice that at this location, we have a gray gradient in the background:

To achieve this effect, we will add a manga gradient.

First, select the [Gradient] icon:

Then select [Manga Gradient] in [Secondary Tools]:

In [Tool Property], you can choose the opacity of the gradient. An opacity of 100 will make the gradient start with black. Here, I want a gradient starting with dark gray. So I choose an opacity of 80:

To apply my gradient to my box, I select the desired area with the [Auto Select] tool:

I then place my pen on the screen and pull from the bottom to the top so that my gradient is done in this direction:

Then I press [Deselect]:

All I have to do now is select [Tonal] in [Layer Properties] to transform my gradient into a tonal.

Gradient eraser

It is also possible to erase with a gradient effect using the [Gradient Eraser] tool:

The operating principle is the same as that of the [Manga Gradient]. In the image below, we can see the result obtained by using the gradient eraser:

III/ Addition of effect lines

Effect lines are used to highlight an element or emotion in the manga. Let’s see together how to add them!

---

The box below corresponds to the reveal of the main character's face. So I want to highlight the surprise effect:

To do this, I first select the box with the [Lasso] tool:

Then, I select the [Figure] tool:

We have a choice of many styles of effect lines.

In the [Converging Lines] section I select [Dense Converging Lines]:

Click on the screen and drag your pen. A circle appears. The center of the circle is where the lines converge. The outline of the circle is where the converging lines stop:

I then erase the places where I don't want there to be converging lines and here is the result:

IV/ Add effects

You can find many more effect line styles in [Material]!

Select [All Materials] ⇒ [Monochromatic pattern] ⇒ [Effect and feeling]:

In this section you will find many effects classified according to the emotion they inspire!

For example, in this panel, I would like to create an atmosphere that inspires romance and softness:

I can choose an effect included in the category [Bright, Quiet, Soft and Delight].

I first select my box using the [Lasso] tool:

I choose the [Soft Light] effect which I drag and drop into the selection area:

I erase where the characters are and I transform the effect into a frame by selecting [Frame] in [Layer Properties]. Here is the result:

Conclusion

I hope this article helped you learn more about how to improve your manga pages. There are a thousand and one ways to draw manga pages, but with all the resources in Clip Studio Paint, every artist will be able to find what suits them!

 

Thanks for reading this article until the end!

 

Here are my social networks if you want to follow me:

Instagram: @plushelisa

X: @plushelisa