This is a step-by-step illustration tutorial by illustrator and manga artist TNSK.

 

▼ Below is the finished illustration.

 

・Artist profile: TNSK

TNSK is an Illustrator, and a Manga artist who is part of a creation circle called “Kabe no saido (壁の彩度)." They have been working as an illustrator since 2009.

 

Base sketch & draft

In my case, the base sketch and the draft are the same step. I start off using the [Pencil] tool.

For this piece, I decided to draw a girl with Chinese themes. I collect various Chinese-style objects and arrange them on the canvas like a small diorama. An excellent way to help balance your art is to consider the negative spaces along with the positive spaces and to anchor your art to the center of the canvas.

 

I made the sketch not just by drawing and erasing, but by cutting and pasting some parts, and rotating others. This is something you can only do with digital art.

 

Inking

I make a new layer on top of the rough sketch, and use the [Pen] tool to trace the lines. If the linework is too thick, it will stand out too much after coloring. If it’s too thin, the linework becomes hard to see. Finding the right balance can be difficult! I go with personal preference and find the line that looks right to me.

 

If the angle of a line is too difficult to draw, I rotate the canvas to a more comfortable position. I also use the [Figure] tool to draw neat circular lines for objects like the window frames.

 

To rotate the canvas, select the [Move] tool from the [Tool] palette, then select the [Rotate] sub tool from the [Sub tool] palette, and then drag on the canvas.

 

It’s a great idea to look at the entire canvas shown under the [Navigator] palette while rotating.

 

For long lines like the broom handle, I use the [Figure] tool > [Direct draw] > [Curve] sub tool.

 

For the round windows, I used the [Figure] tool > [Direct Draw] > [Ellipse].

I didn’t use it here, but if you draw your line art in Clip Studio Paint on a vector layer, you can also use features like [Correct line width] to make adjustments to your line art.

 

I have different layers for characters and backgrounds in my line art.

 

It’s much harder to change the color of specific line art later if the characters and the background are on the same layer. It’s a matter of whether I will suffer now or later.

 

This is my layer order up to this point.