Identifying art created with traditional mediums is straightforward. Key indicators include the surface, like canvas or paper, and tools such as brushes, pencils, or palette knives. The artist’s technique shines through these materials, reflecting their mastery and the medium's unique texture and depth.
While traditional art has a distinct charm that digital mediums can’t fully replicate, digital tools can mimic it impressively with the right features, like textured brushes and layered effects.
Of course, none of this would be complete without our subject—a lily from lilyxxssi (get it?)—painted in a beautiful “oil painting” style. Let’s bring it to life! 🌸✨
Setting Up Your Canvas
Before we start drawing our flowers, let's highlight the importance of achieving a traditional look digitally. With Clip Studio Paint, we can easily replicate the authenticity of traditional mediums.
First, set up your canvas as usual.
Add a Material Texture
Since were making our drawing look like it was made in traditional medium, using textures in our canvas is a great start. For this tutorial, I will be using the “canvas” material texture. However, you are free to choose any texture you want. But first, I will show you how to do it:
Option 1: Using Built-in Materials
Open the Material Panel:
1. Go to Window > Material > Monochromatic Pattern or Texture.
Find a Canvas Texture:
1. Browse the material library for a canvas texture. Commonly, look under categories like "Texture" or "Paper".
Drag the Texture to the Canvas:
1. Drag the chosen texture onto your canvas. It will automatically create a new layer.
Option 2: Importing Your Own Texture
Import the Image:
Drag and drop your own texture file into the canvas or go to File > Import > Image.
Resize as Needed:
Use the Transform Tool (Ctrl+T or Command+T) to scale and position the texture.
Apply a Blending Mode:
Select the Texture Layer:
In the Layer Panel, click on the texture layer.
Change the Blending Mode:
Set the blending mode to Multiply, Overlay, or Soft Light, depending on your preference. You can do this in the dropdown menu at the top of the Layer Panel.
Adjust Opacity:
Lower the layer’s opacity to make the texture more subtle if needed.
Next, place the canvas texture layer at the very top of your layer stack. Lock the layer to ensure it stays in place and won’t accidentally move while you work. This keeps the texture consistent across your artwork, adding to the authentic traditional feel.
Sketch / Lineart
Now that our canvas is ready, let’s move on to selecting brushes. Textures play a huge role in achieving the traditional look we’re aiming for. To imitate traditional mediums, choose brushes that replicate natural tools like oil paints, watercolor, or charcoal.
Depending on your choice of “medium”, you can either choose to make a rough sketch and proceed with painting over it or you can refine your lineart until you are satisfied. Either way, choosing traditional is important to match our traditional feel that we’re going with.
Selecting and Customizing the Brush
Open the Tool Palette (usually on the left side of the workspace).
Choose the appropriate category:
Pencil for graphite-like tools.
Pen for clean, traditional inking styles..
Pastel/Dry Media for rough, smudged, charcoal or chalk textures.
In this case, I’ll choose a classic pencil tool to create a rough sketch and analyze the direction of the petals and leaves of our flower. Before we dive in, feel free to customize the tool to your liking. You don’t have to adjust every setting, but here are a few key options I recommend for sketching:
Adjust Brush Size:
Set the Brush Size in the Tool Property panel (5–10px for rough sketches).
Control Opacity:
Enable Opacity by Pressure in the Tool Property to adjust line darkness with pressure.
Adjust Stabilization:
Set Stabilization to 5–10 for a natural, rough feel, or increase for smoother lines.
Add Texture:
In the Sub Tool Detail panel, add texture under Brush Tip for a realistic pencil effect.
Customize Pressure Sensitivity:
Enable Size by Pressure to vary line thickness with pressure.
If you can’t find all these options in the Tool Property window, simply click on the wrench tool to reveal additional settings you can tweak. This will open up more customization options to fine-tune your pencil tool for the perfect sketching experience!
Now that we've set up our pencil tool, we can start drawing the sketch of the flower. If you're unsure about the details, don’t hesitate to gather references to guide you. As you sketch, keep two key things in mind:
1. Shape and Outline
2. Direction of Flower Parts
Shape and Outline
Flowers have varied petal shapes, but enhancing their overall form makes them more readable and visually appealing. Strengthening the main shape adds balance and clarity.
Instead of merging petals into one mass, leave gaps where they don’t overlap, mimicking their natural grouping. Even in dense flower clusters, negative space or gaps will always be present.
Direction of Flower Parts
This step focuses on how each part of the flower will appear individually:
Petals and Leaves\ Start by determining the shape and angle of each petal, considering how they curve and overlap. Sketch the direction they face, whether they are open or folded. For leaves, identify the veins and edges, and remember they can be angled in various directions. This adds depth and movement to your flower.
Stem and Stigma\ The stem should flow naturally from the center of the flower, leading either downward or upward. Make sure the stigma is placed clearly at the top, taking into account the flower's perspective. This helps define the structure and overall balance of the flower.
Using these guides, we’ve created a solid sketch! Now, let’s move on to the next step: filling it with base colors.
Base Colors
Applying base colors is simple but important. Flowers are rarely a single solid color; they often feature subtle variations or gradients that transition smoothly between hues. This adds depth and realism to your artwork.
There are several ways to achieve color variation in your flowers:
1. Brush with Color Mix: Turn on the color mix feature for smooth transitions while painting.
2. Opacity Layers: Layer colors with reduced opacity for a soft blending effect.
3. Blending Tools: Use blending tools to merge colors seamlessly.
4. Separate Layers: Work on separate layers to easily adjust and refine gradients.
For this part, we’ll focus on using brushes and blending tools, since we're aiming to imitate the feel of an oil painting. In traditional oil painting, layering isn’t always necessary—painting directly over areas is the typical method.
You might be wondering, why not use the gradient tool? It’s actually a great option for creating smooth transitions. However, it depends on the look you're going for. The gradient tool is super helpful for soft blends, but for this tutorial, I'm using a brush material with textures that I want to preserve. You’ll see in just a bit how this adds to the overall effect! 😊
Choosing the Brush
Earlier, I showed you how to customize your tool for sketching, and the same applies to your brushes. Simply click the wrench tool to access the settings and tweak them to your liking.
But if you're like me and enjoy exploring material assets, there are plenty of ready-made materials available that can perfectly match your art style. These assets can save you time and help achieve that traditional feel without starting from scratch!
Check this asset as an example:
This brush has the texture commonly seen in oil paintings, giving your artwork that rich, traditional feel. Plus, it includes a color mix preset that smoothly blends colors together, mimicking the natural flow of paint on a canvas. This helps achieve that seamless, painterly effect with minimal effort!
Applying the Colors
To apply, use strokes that follow the direction of the petals. This way, you’ll add extra detail and depth to the flower and the overall painting. Applying lighter pressure allows you to control the amount of blending from the color mix, giving you more subtle transitions and a smoother, more natural look.
Blend Tool
If the brush preset doesn’t achieve the gradient you’re aiming for, you can always use the blend tool. For a more natural look, choose blend tools with textures instead of a simple smooth blend. Textured blending maintains the painterly feel and adds depth to your artwork.
I didn’t worry too much about perfect refinement during the initial application, as these areas can always be adjusted and painted over during the rendering process. This allows for more flexibility and creativity as the details come together.
I added a dark background to make the colors stand out and create more contrast in the painting. This enhances the vibrancy of the flower while adding depth to the overall composition.
After that, we can now proceed with Lights and Shadows.
Lights and Shadows
Light Source
For this drawing, I want to emphasize the flower’s color by adding a subtle vignette around it. This helps draw attention to the focal point while softly taking focus away from the edges. To enhance this effect, I’ll make the lighting slightly more direct, giving the flower a vibrant and illuminated appearance.
Adding the Values
Now that I’ve identified the light source, I’ll use the background color as the basis for determining the average shadow color. This ensures the shadows blend harmoniously with the overall composition, creating a cohesive and natural look.
Color Pick
1. Use the Color Pick tool to extract the background color for the average shadow tone.
Blending Mode
1. Create a new layer and clip it to the base color layer.
2. Use the Fill Tool to fill this layer with the average shadow color.
Apply a blending mode (like Multiply or Overlay) to merge it smoothly with the base color.
3. Separate the Light and Shadow
1. Use the Eraser Tool > Soft to soften the edges and create a vignette effect. This softens the transition between light and shadow, enhancing the overall depth and focus of the composition.
After completing these steps, we’re ready to move on to the next phase: adding the details. This is where the flower truly comes to life!
Paint Over and Details
This step focuses on adding the finer details to bring the flower to life. These include the veins and patterns on the petals and leaves, the specks on the lily, and refining the edges for a cleaner look. It’s also the stage where I paint over the sketch layer to make the artwork as polished and cohesive as possible.
Final Result
And that’s a wrap! I hope this tutorial helped you bring your artwork closer to a traditional medium look. Thanks for following along, and see you next time! 😊🎨
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