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Graphite and colored pencil illustrations have a distinctive, soft charm that makes them a favorite choice of book illustrators, especially for children’s books.

 

With Clip Studio Paint, you can blend the cozy warmth of traditional pencil art with the flexibility and efficiency of digital tools!

This tutorial walks you through creating pencil-style illustrations in CSP, covering everything from brush settings to texture tricks and post-processing.

 

Whether starting fresh or converting a digital piece, here’s how to get that warm, classic pencil feel!

The link for free download of the pencil and hatching brushes created for this tutorial awaits you at the end of this article! :)

 

 

🟪 THE 3 KEYS TO NATURAL PENCIL AESTHETICS

I doubt graphite and colored pencils need any introduction, but what exactly gives pencil art the charming look?

There are three essential elements:

 

 

🟧 1. Paper Texture

A paper texture immediately grounds your illustration and unifies all the elements with a natural look:

1️⃣  Use one of CSP’s built-in textures, scan your favorite paper, or download textures from the Clip Studio Assets.

 

2️⃣  Place your paper texture above all other layers:

3️⃣  Set the layer blending mode to Multiply or Linear Burn.

Linear Burn enhances saturation, which works great for colored pencils:

4️⃣  Adjust scale and opacity for a natural feel:

For tiled textures:

 

1️⃣ Right-click the layer > Convert Layer > change type to Image Material Layer:

2️⃣ (With the Object tool selected) in the Tool Property palette, enable Tiling:

If seams are visible:

 

1️⃣ Rasterize the layer (right-click layer and Rasterize)

2️⃣ Fix them with the Copy Stamp Tool…

... or check my tutorial on making seamless textures:

🟧 2. Pencil-Like Brushes

To replicate real pencil strokes, your brush needs to capture a few key qualities:

 

1.  A grainy texture

2.  Gradual build-up with repeated strokes

3.  Variable stroke width depending on pressure and angle

4.  A bit of blending, just like in real media

Clip Studio Paint comes with several default brushes that emulate traditional tools, and many more are available for download in Assets:

I’ve also created a free brush pack that closely mirrors the Koh-I-Noor Hardtmuth colored pencils I used before going digital (link at the end of the article):

🟨 Brush Setting Tips

To fine-tune or create your own pencil-like brush, open the Sub Tool Detail palette (click the spanner icon) and adjust the following:

🔷 Texture Tab:

 

✏️ Use a rough texture ① (mine is a blend of loop carpet and paper XD ).

 

✏️ Set Texture Mode to Multiply or Subtract ②.

 

✏️ Enable Emphasize Density ③ and Apply by Each Plot ④ for a natural grainy buildup.

🔷   Brush Tip Tab:

 

✏️ A triangular brush tip helps you break away from the typical digital trait of round brushes:

✏️ Link brush thickness to Tilt:

► Thin lines = upright pen

► Wide strokes = flat angle (like real pencil shading)

🔷 Color Jitter Tab:

 

✏️ Add a touch of random hue variation for organic colored pencil strokes:

🔷 Ink Tab:

 

While blending is more often connected to watercolor and oil, real pencils blend subtly too!

 

✏️ Set Amount and Density of Paint to pressure for gentle blending:

✏️ Set the Mixing mode to Perceptual and Brightness correction to Off for the most traditional-looking blending:

🔷 Randomness:

 

✏️ Add slight randomness in angle and size to avoid sterile, mechanical lines:

🟨 The Digital Eraser Myth

In Clip Studio Paint, you don’t need a separate tool to erase!

 

👉 Press C to switch to transparent color and erase with your current brush:

✌️ This keeps the eraser texture consistent with your drawing for a natural look:

🟧 3. Soft, Natural Colors

Graphite isn’t pure black—use gray with cool blue, warm brown, or purple tints:

Colored pencils are bright but not oversaturated—stay in the upper area of the color square:

🍪 To stay accurate, color-pick real pencil photos (with natural lighting) or use downloadable swatches:

🟪 CLIP STUDIO PAINT TRICKS FOR EFFICIENT WORKFLOW

🟧 Sketching and Linework

Consider using vector layers. They’re easily editable and the lines and textures don’t degrade with transformations.

 

✌️ The Pinch Tool is excellent for fast corrections:

🟧 Shading

In traditional pencil drawings, shading is typically created through hatching—using lines drawn mostly with a flat-held pencil.

 

✏️ The lines can follow the form for a realistic look, or take the shape of simple diagonals or crosshatching (layering lines at different angles) for a more stylized effect:

✏️ More artistic forms of hatching can include dots, circles, short strokes, etc.

Although drawing all of these by hand can be relaxing, it’s also time-consuming…

 

Thankfully, Clip Studio Paint provides faster alternatives that can help you achieve the same results with greater efficiency!

💡 Quick Tip 💡

To smooth out texture while shading:

 

1️⃣ Switch to the transparent color (shortcut: C) and lightly erase using the same brush.

2️⃣ Switch back to your drawing color and gently reapply the strokes.

3️⃣ You can repeat this process as needed to achieve a more polished look.

⚠️ Be careful not to blur too much—it can start to look too digital and lose that natural, grainy pencil feel:

🟨 Hatching Brushes

Use special hatching brushes to quickly fill and shade large areas. These are the brushes from my pack, but many options are available on the Assets store.

💡 If a downloaded brush lacks texture, add it via Sub Tool Detail > Texture:

 

 

🟨 Selections and Layer Masks

To shade cleanly and precisely:

 

1️⃣ Use Lasso Fill Tool (or hard brush) on a new layer to block out shadows, like in cel shading:

2️⃣ Ctrl+click the layer icon to create a selection from it:

3️⃣ Create a new layer and click the Masking button (top or bottom of the Layer palette). The selection will become the new layer’s mask:

4️⃣ Exit mask mode by clicking the new layer's icon:

5️⃣ Hide or delete the previous, cel-shaded layer.

 

6️⃣ Use your hatching brush on the new layer—the mask keeps your shading neatly contained:

💡 Tips:

 

✏️ Make the shadows darkest along their border with light and gradually fade them away for a light, airy feel:

✏️ If the mask’s edges are too smooth, manually fix the most glaring parts with a pencil brush, or use Filter > Effect > Crystallize on the mask for more irregular edges:

🟪 EXTRA COLORING TIPS

✏️ Like in traditional colored pencil drawing, layer strokes to gradually build up colors:

✏️ Don’t use just one color. Blend in multiple colors to create gradients:

✏️ Add lines of warm colors (yellow, orange, red) along the edges of shapes and lights to enrich atmosphere:

🟪 CONVERT AN ILLUSTRATION INTO A PENCIL DRAWING

Already have a finished digital drawing? You can give it a somewhat pencil look by applying Clip Studio Paint's Pencil Drawing filter on a merged layer:

If your file has separate lineart and shading layers, try this slightly more natural-looking technique (the text in the tip’s cover image was created using it, too):

 

 

🟧 Converting Lineart

1️⃣ If your lineart is on a raster layer, go to Layer > Convert Layer and change Type to Vector Layer.

 

2️⃣ Select your favorite pencil brush and open the Sub Tool Detail palette.

 

3️⃣ In the Brush Shape tab, click Add to Presets:

4️⃣ Switch to the Object Tool.

 

5️⃣ In the Brush Shape tab select the newly added brush and click Apply Brush Shape:

6️⃣ Change the brush size, or use the Correct Line Width tools to add variety to your strokes.

 

 

🟧 Converting Shading and Color

1️⃣ Switch to the shading or color layer.

 

2️⃣ Go to Filter > Effect > Pencil Drawing.

 

3️⃣ Uncheck Show Outline, check Show Hatching.

 

4️⃣ Tweak the size, roughness and angle to your liking:

5️⃣ For extra depth, run the filter a second time with slightly different settings:

💡 Add extra grain

1️⃣ Duplicate your paper texture layer.

 

2️⃣ Set it to 100% opacity.

 

3️⃣ Go to Edit > Tonal Correction > Level Correction, click Auto Adjust:

4️⃣ Convert to transparency via Edit > Convert brightness to opacity.

 

5️⃣ Ctrl+click the paper layer icon to make a selection of it:

6️⃣ Switch to the filtered color layer and click the Create mask button:

7️⃣ Still not grainy enough? Use Edit > Tonal correction > Tone curve on the mask and make an S-curve for higher contrast:

🟪 POSTPROCESSING

🟧 Color Boost

Use a large soft brush on a layer set to Overlay or Glow Dodge to subtly enhance colors:

🟧 Enhancing Contrast

✏️ Use Tonal Correction Layers like Tone Curve or Levels to tweak contrast (found in Layer > New correction layer...):

✏️ If there’s still not enough contrast because you’ve layered the strokes too softly, try duplicating all the pencilwork layers:

✏️ If the drawing is on a white background layer:

 

1️⃣ Duplicate the layer.

 

2️⃣ Set it to Exclusion.

 

3️⃣ Invert colors with Ctrl+I:

4️⃣ Lower the opacity.

 

5️⃣ Use Tone Curve to recover darks and balance the image:

🟧 Color Variations

Want that warm, natural color shift traditional media have?

 

Try these optional effects and experiment with combining them. They’re great for both graphite and colored pencil artworks.

🟨 Solid Color Layer

1️⃣ Fill a new layer atop all others with light brown.

 

2️⃣ Set it to Overlay or Soft Light.

 

3️⃣ Lower the opacity for subtle tinting:

🟨 Gradient Map

Add a Gradient map layer (Layer > New correction layer…) on Overlay, Soft Light, or Color mode. Lower opacity for subtle variation:

🍪 Test various gradients to see how they affect your palette:

🟨 Color Balance

Use Color Balance Layer to tint shadows and highlights separately. This can make a graphite drawing more natural and dynamic, or add atmosphere to colored pieces:

🟪 Conclusion

Creating pencil-style art in Clip Studio Paint isn’t about copying traditional tools—it’s about capturing their warmth, softness, and timeless charm.

 

With the right textures, carefully configured brushes, and CSP’s smart features, you can enjoy the feel of a sketchbook while taking full advantage of digital speed and flexibility.

✨ Free pencil brushes from this tutorial for download ✨

🌟⭐✨ If you enjoyed this tip, it will make me happy if you give a like so that I know I’m doing things right, eventually leave a comment on what you liked or didn’t and where I could improve :) Suggestions for what I should cover in the future are also welcome! ✨⭐🌟