Vanessa Heuten

Vanessa Heuten, also known as Valeyla Sol online, is the author of the book "Digital Illustration with Clip Studio Paint Pro." She is currently the Art Director of a Düsseldorf-based media agency. She discovered her enthusiasm for storytelling with colors and figures early on, and in 2011 she completed her design studies in Dortmund. Since then, she has not only worked as a workshop leader in schools, but has also drawn the key visuals for graphics tablet manufacturer Wacom.

 

 

Digital Illustration in Clip Studio Paint Pro

In this excerpt from her book on Clip Studio Paint, German artist Vanessa Heuten introduces convenient features and methods for creating line art and coloring 2D characters.

 

Quick Start

A short tutorial for beginners!

 

This quick-start chapter explains the first steps into the world of digital drawing with an easy to follow step-by-step guide. No prior knowledge is required, so just start the software and join her! For this tutorial, a desktop PC with a graphics tablet and Clip Studio Paint PRO is used.

 

1 Open the program and set up the desktop.

 

2 Next, click on the pen icon on the left side of the screen. It looks like a little quill pen.

 

3 A selection of different pens and pen nibs now appears in the top left corner. Click the top one called G-Pen. Now you can draw your first lines on the white canvas area. Start off with a few simple shapes with loose strokes to get a feel for the pen and the tablet. Unlike a touchpad, pen tablets reflect the entire surface of the monitor. The tablet already recognizes the digital pen when it is held roughly two centimeters above the tablet's surface. The cursor also jumps to the appropriate monitor position mapped on the tablet.

Developing a feel for the pen requires a bit of practice initially. The process of learning how to draw with your hand on the tablet, not looking down and straight onto the screen instead (if working on a tablet without a monitor) is also something to get used to.

 

INFO: The first four steps of this tutorial are not about drawing a finished image, but rather trying out different things. You can also select and test other pens (real G-Pen, mapping pen, calligraphy pen, etc.) from the upper left window to test their properties.

 

4 There are two ways to erase lines:

Some digital pens have eraser tools at their ends and can simply be turned around. The program will automatically detect the eraser tool. If the pen supplied with the tablet does not have this option, you can select the eraser tool manually.

 

5 Next, draw a small, simple image. At this stage, it is fine to be a rough sketch. The lines do not have to be perfectly clean.

 

6 The lower right corner of the screen shows the layer palette. This should initially look like this.

 

7 Move the opacity slider to 20%. The sketch above the white canvas should now fade.

 

8 For the line art, a new layer is created, which can be easily done by clicking on the layer icon at the top of the layer palette. The opacity of the new layer should be set to 100%.

The file now has one additional layer. Selected layers can be recognized by their blue color.

 

Layers can be compared with transparent sheets of vinyl, and any number of layers can be stacked and edited individually. Different properties can also be set for each individual layer.

 

9 Now the line art of the sketch is drawn on the newly created layer. To do this, click on the pen tool on the left again, then on the G-Pen in the pen tool palette, which is used to draw on the new layer. Again, it is not necessary that everything looks perfect. Corrections can always be done later, which is one of the many benefits of digital drawing!

 

10 Once the line art is complete, select the layer with the sketch and click on the eye to hide the layer. You can also completely delete it by clicking on the bin icon.

 

11 We are moving on to color! To do this, create a new layer again by clicking on the new layer icon at the top center of the layer palette.

 

12 The order of layers can be easily changed by selecting a layer, holding down the pen and dragging it up or down. Drag the newly created layer one position lower.

13 The line art should now be at the top of the layer palette, and the new empty layer is directly underneath. The white background layer named "Paper" is at the bottom. If the layer with the sketch was not deleted, but only hidden, it can remain just above the paper layer.

 

Make sure that the layer created under step 11, which should be named Layer3 and is still empty, is selected.

 

14 Next, from the toolbar on the left, select the brush. Here, too, a selection of different brushes with different properties appears in the adjacent window.

 

15 With the color wheel at the bottom left you can now select different colors. Two sliders can be moved here: First, select a basic color from the outer ring by moving the small white box.

Then you can set the brightness and saturation of the color in the square by moving the small circle.

 

16 Now it's time to color the line art finally! Since the outlines are on the topmost layer, it is impossible to paint over the black lines. By using different brush tips from the selection window on the top left, you can achieve vibrant effects. Here you just have to try it for yourself!

 

Especially when switching from traditional media to digital techniques, it sometimes takes a while to establish your own style. Practice makes perfect.

 

TIP: Many actions can be performed faster via the keyboard than with the mouse on the screen. Keyboard shortcuts perform the same function as clicking a particular icon. Not all Clip Studio Paint commands have such shortcuts. In this book, the shortcut key combinations for Windows and macOS are named when available.

 

You can also customize your own shortcut settings under File > Shortcuts settings (in the iPad version click on the Clip Studio Paint icon in the top left; on Mac click "Clip Studio Paint" in the top left).

 

 

 

PRO TIP: By pressing ALT on the computer's keyboard, the eyedropper tool can be selected in most cases. The pens of some graphics tablets also have individual assignable keys. One of these keys may be useful when assigned to the eyedropper function (ALT key), especially when not working on a desktop PC.

 

2D Illustration

2D coloring is another important aspect of digital design. This type of illustration, which originated in animation, deliberately avoids using colors to create a three-dimensional effect, in contrast to classical digital paintings.

Lines are reduced to a minimum, and the figures are composed of differently shaped surfaces, to which various effects are later purposefully added. This often creates the impression of a collage.

 

1 As with all other digital illustrations, the sketch is drawn first. Even at this point, it is good to be aware of the elements into which the image can be divided.

In this case, these are the tail, the upper body, face, and hair. A color scheme should also be developed at this point.

 

2 The line art is dragged all the way up in the layer palette, and the opacity may be set to 10%.

 

Just below it, a new layer is created, on which the first shape is outlined in the same color with which it will be filled. Here it is important to set the area size to a value of 12 in the tool properties palette of the fill bucket. When filling in the color this way, the border and filling merge into a uniform shape.

 

3 Next, after clicking the lock transparent pixels option in the Layer palette, the first rough shades are painted. This can be done with a soft brush or with the airbrush tool. A soft color scheme is sufficient in this case. Since the character doesn't get any outlines later on, dynamics are created solely through the contrast of light and dark areas.

 

4 After creating a new layer that is placed directly above the skin-colored base, some details, such as the chin and ears, can now be hinted at. The shape of the eyes is also painted in with the pen tool using white.

 

5 The next step is the design of the bikini. This is again created on a separate layer, outlined and filled with one color. On another layer above it and after locking the transparent pixels, the gradient is painted with the airbrush tool. Finally, a few lines can be added to emphasize structure. If these are drawn on their own layer, adding a clipping mask to the layer below helps to prevent any color leaking outside the original shape.

 

6 When drawing the eyes and eyebrows, which are created on a new layer, you can also work with simple shapes and brushstrokes. First, the basic shape of the iris and pupil are created with the Figure tool and then shaded. All other details are drawn with the pen tool only. Finally, the highlights are added.

 

7 Next, the hair is painted on a new layer. The outline and fill also have the same color here.

 

8 A new layer is created and, using a clipping mask to the layer below, shadows are painted using the Airbrush Tool or the watercolor sub tool.

 

9 With the pen tool, individual strands of hair and highlights are then added on a new layer.

 

10 The tail is created in the same way as the other elements before: first the basic shape, then the shades and finally the details - all on separate layers.

 

11 To make the background more interesting, the Figure tool was used to create three circles of different sizes based on the original color palette.

Each circle is on its own layer, and the blending mode is set to Multiply for all three.

 

12 Lastly, using the main menu's Layer > New correction layer > Gradient map, the standard gradient Sunset (purple) was overlayed over the image. The opacity of the gradient layer, which sits above all other lays, was reduced to 20%. This way, the gradient looks like a light filter and makes the colors seem a little more harmonious.

 

TIP: In order not to get confused with the many layers, the folder function of the Layer palette can be very helpful. The upper body, head, hair and tail can all be grouped thematically for easier editing later.

 

• This tutorial is an excerpt from a book which also describes other functions of Clip Studio Paint in detail.

• The book is available in German only.

 

Projekt VielSeitig

The multi-media publishing house offers a fanatical spectrum of publications with "Project VielSeitig": From drawing books on dragons and manga, to instructional manuals and reference titles on watercolor painting and COPIC markers, to adventures for children and fantasy fans. The online shop for art supplies and the social media platform Cayow offer everything the creative mind desires!