1. Getting Ready

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▼ Below is the finished illustration.

・Artist Profile: Tsukuba Masahiro (筑波マサヒロ)

I’m not a professional artist. I draw as a hobby while working for my main job. I like science fiction, dragons and, rock music.

 

[1] Preparing the workspace

This is the first time I’m using Clip Studio Paint, so I will focus on drawing techniques more than on how to use different tools. I solely used Clip Studio Paint for this piece.

Let’s start by setting up.

 

When you first start the program, you will see the default window layout. To easily access the tools we use the most often, close out unnecessary windows and organize the workspace.

 

I will probably use the layer, brush, eraser, gradient, and selection tools, so I displayed only these icons on the tool palette.

Also, I hid the default materials in the sub tool palette, so that they don’t get in the way.

I reduced the number of brushes in the sub tool palette, so I can see all the brushes without scrolling down. I’m going to make brushes later, so I may even delete even more from the palette.

 

From experience, I know I’m going to use many layers, so I elongated the layer palette and placed it on the right side alone.

I use the tool palettes and the color wheel frequently, so I put them on the top, centered.

I placed the history palette on the left so that I can check the logs when something goes wrong.

 

I also made the interface color darker to check the colors more easily.

Note: To change the interface color, go to [File] menu > [Preferences] > [Interface] > [Color].

 

Below is the workspace after the above changes.

(1) [History] palette, (2) [Sub Tool] palette, (3) [Color Wheel] palette, (4) [Tool] palette, (5) [Layer] palette

 

[2] Making Brushes

You can use the settings of one of the default brushes in the sub tool palette, but I decided to create a new one because it seemed pretty easy.

 

I created three different brushes: “01” rectangular shape, “02” square diagonally cut off from both sides, and “03” which is the narrower version of the second brush.

I will mainly use the second brush.

 

Brushes with angular tips make the overall image of the illustration clearer whereas brushes with circular tips tend to make it too soft.

 

· Brush 1

Mix ground color: Blend - Stroke interval: 2.0

 

· Brush 2

Mix ground color: Blend - Brush tip direction: 47.0 - Stroke interval: 2.0

 

I mainly use “Brush 1” but also use the “Brush 2“ when drawing with light strokes or drawing lines at a slanted angle.

 

You can download these brushes on Clip Studio Assets. Type “講座紹介” into the search box.

Note: You need to register for a free Clip Studio account to download materials.

 

[3] Creating a canvas

For this tutorial, I was requested to draw an A4 size illustration with dpi 350 or over. 3500px x 2500px should do in this case, but I will create a canvas with extra space to add characters, even though the background is the main focus.

This piece is horizontally long but, I still need the height to be more than 3000px. Therefore, I created a 7500px x 3500px canvas.

With this size, I can fit in any other themes, so this will be the standard size for this tutorial.

 

I usually draw on canvas that’s ideally two to three times of this size. The final file size generally exceeds 1GB, and the height and width exceed 10000px.

These days, it’s much easier to handle big size files like this. 64bit is amazing.

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