Hi everyone! In this tutorial, I'll demonstrate how to create a diorama-style world design in Clip Studio Paint, along with some of the most helpful tools and features to speed up your workflow.

Download Isometric Grid and Ruler from Clip Studio Assets. Click the link below or type these codes in the search bar 1741219 and 1918439 .

After downloading, go to Material panel and drag the isometric grid onto your canvas.

Hold Ctrl or use the Object Tool to adjust the grid size.

To make the grid less distracting, change the layer color and lower its opacity.

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Drag the isometric ruler onto your canvas.

Since there are no vanishing points and all the lines of each axes are parallel, you can move the ruler outside the canvas for better visibility—it won’t affect your drawing.

Turn on the Snap Function. This will ensure that your lines snap to the isometric ruler perfectly.

4 Tips to Draw Efficiently in Isometric View

I highly recommend drawing on a Vector Layer because it allows you to use exclusive features that speed up your workflow.

1. Use the "Straight Line" and "Curve" Subtool

Unlike the Pen Tool or other brush tools, which create multiple control points when you draw, Straight Line and Curve subtool only create two control points from one end to other end. This makes it easy to adjust the length and direction of the line.

2. Use the Vector Eraser

Instead of using the normal eraser, the Vector Eraser can save you a lot of time by easily removing unwanted lines.

For example, if you draw something and need to erase excess lines, you can activate the Vector Eraser and choose "Erase Up to Intersection" to clean up the lines quickly.

If you want to erase an entire line, switch to "Erase Whole Line" and remove it without affecting other lines.

3. Duplicate existing lines to create parallel lines.

In isometric drawing, lines do not converge toward a vanishing point. This means that as long as you’re drawing a symmetrical object, the lines on each side will always be parallel.

Instead of redrawing the same line repeatedly, you can simply

-Hold Ctrl select the line you wanted to duplicate

-Press C and V to copy paste

-Keep holding Ctrl and drag the duplicated line to your desired position.

This technique is incredibly convenient in isometric drawing

 

 

4. Enable "Snap to Control Points"

With the latest Clip Studio Paint 4.0 update, you can enable "Snap to Control Points" by going to View > Snap and ticking the option.

If you hold Ctrl or use the Object Tool to select a line, you can snap one of the control points to other control points of another line.

With this feature enabled and using , you can connect lines seamlessly from one end to another, making it easy to create clean and precise line art.

Space design

If you want to experiment with some rough sketches first, you can always turn off the snapping function and draw on a new raster layer or a separate canvas.

There are multiple ways to draw an isometric diorama room but I would like to break down into 4 Stages. The first stage is space design, which means designing the floor and wall plan before drawing the content.

When designing a floor plan, avoid using a simple box or square plane because it’s the most boring design you could create.

To make the design interesting, I’ll share 5 tips for creating an engaging space.

We’ll start with a square floor plane and then add variations to make it visually appealing.

Turn on the snap and use straight line tool to draw.

Tip 1. Addition and Subtraction

You can add or subtract polygons of different sizes to create variation.

Tip 2. you actually can draw in any direction

Not all lines have to follow the perspective grid, You can draw lines in any direction to change the floor plan’s angle.

This is where Duplication becomes useful because you have to turn off snap to ruler to draw in direction.

To draw a parallel line in the same direction, hold Ctrl, click the line, press C and V to duplicate it, then drag the duplicated line to your desired position.

Then you can hold control to select the line and drag the handle to manipulate the length. This only works if you use straight line sub tool to draw since it only has 2 points from one end to the other end.

Tip 3. Different Geometric Shapes

Don’t limit yourself to four-sided polygons like squares or rectangles.

Experiment with different geometric shapes.

For instance, here I’ve added a heptagon-like shape.

You can also consider using circles or other polygons to break the monotony.

Tip 4. Curves

You can try with curvy lines in space design. I only add one curvy line in my isometric room space design. If you are drawing other topics like a natural world design or fantasy monster room , you can experiment with more curvy lines.

Tip 5. Ascension and Descension

You can add different levels to your floor plan. In my example , I added a loft with a staircase and also a short staircase at the door entrance

Once the floor plan is complete, draw straight vertical lines from the intersecting points, extending them upwards to create the wall plan.

Just like with the floor plan, you can apply the 5 tips to make the wall design interesting. For example I made the wall triangular shape.

Which space design is more interesting now?

Your space design doesn’t have to be as complex as mine, but at least it should avoid being just a simple box plan because that is too boring and no creativity.

Try using one of the five tips I’ve shared to add variation and make your space design more interesting.

 

 

These five design tips are universally applicable to any type of world setting—whether it’s a room, hallway, natural environment, or sci-fi setting. As long as it involves

space design, you can incorporate these 5 tips to create visually engaging results.

2D Layout

Once the space design is done, create a new Vector Layer to start drawing the 2D layout of the furniture and equipment in the space.

A 2D layout is essentially a plan view of the objects, showing how they look when viewed directly from above.

Example of drawing a plan view

Basic Furnitures like door, cabinet, wardrobe, window, bed, desk, table are pretty straightforward and easy to draw since they're primarily rectangular forms.

 

 

Rotation in Layout

Just as in floor plan design, not every piece of furniture needs to align strictly with the isometric grid when drawing your layout. Rotating a few furniture pieces can enhance visual interest and create a more dynamic composition.

-If you find the grid restrictive, you can temporarily hide it for more flexibility.

-Turn off the snapping functions if you want to draw a plan view in a different angle.

-You can always duplicate existing lines to quickly create parallel lines.

-You can also label each furniture on a new layer if you forget what the plan view is for.

In this example, I rotate the plan view of the pc ,cabinet and store room in a different angle

Once we have done the 2D layout we can check the overall design and proportion. In my case I swap the door and the stair case with the cabinet because I do not like the position.

Simple Geometric form

Once we have drawn the overall layout, we can now extrude the 2D geometry upwards to add depth and transform them into simple geometric forms.

Draw vertical lines from each intersecting point to add depth, converting them into basic shapes like cubes, rectangles, cones, and cylinders.

We can also do the same to the floor plan and wall plan.

Avoid adding too many details at this stage—keep everything simple and straightforward.

 

The key is to establish the correct proportions first before refining the details in the next stage.

 

 

How to draw a staircase with equal spacing accurately?

To draw staircase steps with equal spacing accurately, some calculations are needed.

-Create a new vector layer

-Draw a frame from the side by extending a point from one end of the top surface and one end of the bottom surface.

- As mentioned earlier, you can simply duplicate existing lines to create parallel lines and drag the duplicated line to the other side of the dimension.

 

 

Next, divide the square in half multiple times. The more you divide it, the more steps you create.

-In my case, I halved the square six times to form 16 smaller squares in the top-right portion of the whole square.

In an isometric drawing, we don’t need to divide the entire square. Since there is no in foreshortening isometric drawings, we only need to get the first few steps right, and then we can simply duplicate them for the rest.

 

 

This is the stair path.

-Lower the guideline opacity and return to the drawing vector layer.

-Draw a line from each intersecting point and duplicate the stair path to the other side.

-Once the first few steps are correctly placed, delete the guide layer.

-Then, simply duplicate the stair path to complete the rest.

Most furniture, such as cabinets, desks, doors, windows, staircases, monitor and railings, are straightforward to draw because they are already simple geometric forms themselves.

 

 

Once we have turn the layout into simple geometric form, we can check the overall design , proportion and scale.

 

 

Refinement

Once we’ve completed all the basic geometric forms, we’ve established a strong foundation for refinement. We can draw more freely at this stage.

-Turn off snapping function and vector eraser

- Use pen tool and eraser tool to draw more freely.

Add more details on top of existing simple geometric form

Smooth out hard edges

-For softer furniture like the sofa and bed, we can smooth out the hard edges

Surface Design

We can add design elements, such as tiling patterns, to the wall plan and floor plan.

In this case, I only added a few lines for the wall plan and floor plan

Adding Line Weight

Once we are done with the drawing, we can add line weight to the drawing.

-Select the “Correct Line” icon located at the bottom

-Select “Adjust Line Width”

-Choose “Thicken” to emphasize the silhouette of the drawing.

-Choose “Narrow” to narrow the line details.

Sometimes, we only want part of the line to be affected.

For example in my case, I do not want the line within the silhouette to be affected

-Select control point from Correct line

-Select split line

-Split the portion of the line that you do not want to be affected

Select back adjust line width to continue thicken the silhouette

-Choose “narrow” to narrow the inner detail lines of the object.

Continue to do the rest

The importance of Space design and 2D layout

Which design one do you find more visually engaging?

It’s definitely the second one, right?

That’s why an interesting space design and a well-thought-out 2D layout are crucial for creating any world design. If your space design is just a basic square plan with a layout fixed at the same angle, your isometric room drawing will feel boring, monotonous, or even repetitive, regardless of how many details you add.

Conclusion

I've already walked you through the entire process and shared all the essential tools and functions you need to create your isometric diorama-style room design.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and can apply these techniques to your own work. Thank you for watching, and have a great day!

For a clearer understanding, check out my YouTube video where I draw the entire process and explain every step as I go.