▼ Below is the finished illustration.

 

・Artist Profile: Renta

I run a website with illustrations and book covers.

 

To start off, I’ll set up the workspace and tools so they fit my work style.

 

A. Setting up the workspace and palettes

I’ll start by customizing the workspace so that it matches my workflow. The palettes can be moved to any location simply by clicking and dragging their top part.

 

I typically place all my palettes on the right-hand side.

I make the [Tool Property] palette quite large because I often adjust my brush settings. I also make the [Brush Size] palette much bigger.

 

I click the triangle color picker icon at the bottom of the [Color Wheel] palette to change the color picker to the triangle shape that I’m used to.

 

Then, I register my most frequently used colors in the [Color Set] palette.

 

You can make your own color sets by registering your most frequently used colors. Clip Studio Paint comes with default color sets, including variations of deep tones, dark tones, and light tones.

 

 

 

To add a new tile with your current drawing color, click the paint droplet icon (“Add color”).

 

To replace a selected tile with your current drawing color, select the tiles icon (“Replace color”).

 

To delete a color, select the trash can icon at the bottom of the palette.

 

You can make new color sets by selecting the tool icon (“Edit color set”), and selecting [Add new settings] to create a new empty color set. Selecting “Add default settings” will create a new standard color set. Selecting “Duplicate current settings” will create a copy of the selected color set.

 

Once you’ve finished making your color set, you can export it to use on other computers. Click the menu icon at the upper left of the palette to display options for exporting and importing color sets.

 

It’s easy to register your own most frequently used colors to a color set.

Read the following article to learn more about color sets.

 

 

 

Next, I put my most used tools into a sub tool group so that they are easy to access.

You can easily make a new sub tool group by simply dragging and dropping sub tools in the palette.

 

It’s easy to make a customized sub tool group.

 

You can drag any sub tool onto the [Tool] palette to add a new category with an icon.

 

You can also drag sub tools into the tab area of the sub tool palette to create a new sub tool group. In reverse, you can move the contents of a sub tool group by dragging and dropping the tab.

 

You can even make your own customized tools in the sub tool palette using the following method.

 

(1) Duplicate an existing sub tool that’s similar to the one you want to create, then move it to your custom sub tool group.

If you move a sub tool onto a sub tool group in the [Tool] palette rather than the [Sub tool] palette, a new group tab will be created for that sub tool.

(2) Open the [Sub Tool Details] palette and adjust the settings to create your brush.

(3) Repeat as necessary.

 

B. Tools, shortcuts, and auto actions

● Tools

 

I use just three tools for most of this illustration.

The other tools I use are the [Fill] tool and a smaller [Eraser] tool for the flat colors.

 

・ Traditional pencil

This is a realistic-looking pencil tool. I often use this for line art.

 

・ Watercolor paintbrush

I use this for sketches and for coloring. I use only this brush for coloring, but I change the settings as I paint.

 

・ Soft eraser

I use this eraser to softly erase color painted with the watercolor brush. I often change the settings of this eraser too.

 

 

 

● Shortcuts

 

I set up my shortcuts in [File] menu > [Shortcut Settings] > [Setting area: Options]. I often toggle whether pen pressure links to brush size, so I assign a shortcut to [On/Off of allocating pen pressure to brush size].

 

You can change pen pressure settings independently for each brush. Click the button to the right of the [Brush Size] setting to open the [Brush Size Effect Source Settings] dialog box.

 

 

 

● Auto Actions

 

I set up “Auto Actions” for actions that I do over and over in my art.

Though some people choose not to use them, I think they are really useful when you want to save some time.

 

For a detailed explanation on how to set up auto actions, see the following article.

 

When I paint, I use a lot of layers with blending modes, such as “Multiply” and “Overlay” layers, so I create auto actions to make these layers and automatically clip them to the layer below.

 

Steps recorded in my auto actions:

(1) Create a new layer

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(2) Clip to the lower layer

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(3) Change the blending mode to “Multiply”, etc.

 

I record the above steps and assign a shortcut to each auto action.

I recommend this method if you often use blending modes.