Introduction and Workspace

Hello everyone, welcome to this tutorial, my name is Ed and I am going to show you how to combine textures from images, tips on how to create texture brushes in Clip Studio Paint and how to combine texture, images and brushes.

 

NOTE: This tutorial was originally written in English for the version 1.9.3 of Clip Studio Paint.

 

▼ You can download the Workspace I am going to use in this tutorial from the links below.

 

 

 

So without any further ado let's get started!

 

Step 1: Adding Texture from Images

First, create a new document [Canvas] A4 -width 210mm × 297 height mm- [resolution] 350 with a 50% gray paper. Then add your illustration or model to the canvas. I am going to use a 3D model in the pose of a football player about to kick. You can try to pose your model using [Extract pose from an image] from the [Tool property] with the [Object] tool selected ▼

 

 

Now let's add a background with texture below the illustration or model. For that you can take a photo of an old wall, bricks or any texture that you like. You can also search “free textures” online in your browser.

 

 

[1] Drag the image to the canvas or open it in Clip Studio and place it below the model. When you are adding the photo, remember that as the paper is 50% gray, you can try different blending modes from the Layer Panel to mix the image.

[2] I am going to change the Blending mode from [Normal] to [Lighten] to blend the dark areas with the gray from the background.

[3] Also you can duplicate the texture image and place it at the top above the model and change the blending mode to [Overlay] and decrease the opacity to around 20-40. This will add the texture from the photo to all the elements in your canvas.

 

■ Now, if you want to add a paper texture to the entire canvas you can also do that. Clip Studio Paint has a lot of texture materials. You can find them in [Window > Material > Monochromatic pattern] Just drag the material to the canvas to apply the texture and it will appear at the top of all the layers. You can also rotate the material from the [Tool Property] palette.

▼ I have prepared a scanned paper texture (you can also take a photo) so we are going to see how to add the texture from an image. You can scan the paper image in gray mode.

[1] From [File > Import > Image…] select the image you want to use and place it onto the canvas at the top of all layers.

[2] On the [Layer property] panel select [Texture combine] and adjust the value of the texture.

 

■ Now let's work more on the texture of the wall. You can hide the 3D model in order to have a better look of the texture in the canvas.

 

[A] You can use [Correction Layers] like Levels, Tone curve or Gradient Maps (1 or as many as you like) to add contrast, try different colors and make the texture stands out.

[B] In addition you can use [Masks] to hide some areas. I am using one in the [Lighten] layer below.

[C] Moreover, you can create [New Raster layers] and changing the blending mode to [Overlay] you can paint with black to make an area darker and paint with white to make an area lighter.

NOTE: if you paint with 50% Gray it will not affect anything below.

Step 2: Explore brushes in Clip Studio

Clip Studio Paint has many type of “brushes” classified inside the [Tool] palette. Every tool can contain groups of sub tools. By default you can access to these with keyboard shortcuts:

 

[P] Pen & Pencil, these also contains groups for markers and pastels respectively.

[B] Watercolor, Airbrush & Effects. Again you can find more groups inside them (except Airbrush).

[J] Blend, these brushes are useful to mix the colors so you need to paint something first in order to use them.

I really recommend you to explore all these brushes and its textures in a new document, see which of them can be helpful for your work. If you are using my brushes [Workspace] you can explore them quickly with the shortcuts for both right and left users.

 

■ Now that you have explore the sub tools you can duplicate and modify the brushes you like. Also you can group them in your own [Personal Brush Tool]. Let's do that:

[1] Duplicate the brush you would like to modify. Use the icon to duplicate or right-click over the brush. It will add a number 2 at the end of the current name but you can change it.

[2] Drag the sub tool to the [Tool Palette] and drop it when you see that a red line appears between the tools.

You can select the brushes you would like to modify and group them in your new tool (drag and drop one by one over the tool). Moreover you can assign a shortcut to the tool or groups that you created from [File > Shortcut Settings] Setting area: Tool.

 

▼ This are the brushes I have selected (Gouache, Spray, Flame, Sand cloud and Wet bleed blender).

 

You can also see the tip of the brush in the [Sub Tool Palette]. Click over the icon or press [Alt+T] if you are using my brushes workspace. I will show how to change the tip later.

 

 

▼ If you want to Mastering the sub tool details palette please check:

Step 3: Explore No-digital Real brushes

Now that you have explore the digital brushes and the Brush tips inside Clip Studio Paint. It's time to explore no-digital brushes.

 

You can use [a] markers, chalk, [b] real brush, [c] home-made ink, anything you like. Try to analyze the brush tip shapes of the brushes you selected before. You can draw points, lines, expressive lines, etc. You can also use paper with texture.

 

■ Try to scan the brushes with a resolution of 300-600 dpi. If you use really small tips you will have some lag problems when increasing the size of the brush.

 

NOTE: It's better if the image is scanned in gray mode.

 

Step 4: Hand-drawn digital brushes

The fast and easiest way to create your own textures brushes in Clip Studio is to change the tip brush to an existing brush. It is necessary to edit the tip brush before register as a material.

[1] Select a tip brush from you hand-drawn brushes.

[2] Set the color of your tip to black or dark gray. Black will be the primary color and white the secondary.

[3] Adjust the contrast with [Correction layers] or [Edit > Tonal Correction]. You can use Levels or Tone Curve.

[4] Remove the white [Edit > Convert brightness to opacity]. In case you have more experience with brushes you can left the white and make experiments but for now I am going to remove it.

 

Now we need to register the brush image as a material in Clip Studio Paint. You can create a [Material folder] to group the materials that you create. Just click in the icon and name your folder ▼

 

■ Make a selection around the image you want to register as material and make sure the layer [Expression Color] is gray. You can also choose Monochrome but it will make the borders harder. If you register the material with [Expression Color] in Color it will register also the color you are using so you are not going to be able of change the color later. In other words if you register the brush with a red color every time you use that brush it will show you the same red color.

With the selection active [Edit > Register Material > Image]. Select the folder where you want to save the material. Add different tags to the material so it will be easier to find your material later.

And it is very important to check [Use for brush tip shape] to use the material in brushes. Now you can press OK to save it.

 

■ Now let's use this tip shape in one of the duplicated brushes we select above.

 

Open the [Sub Tool Detail Palette]. Click on the icon or press [Alt+T] if you are using my brushes workspace. Select [Brush tip] and click over the current material to replace it with the one we have created. Use the tags to find your brush tip quickly, select the one you want to use and click OK.

And that's it, you have created your own hand-drawn brush material. Some brushes also include their own paper texture, if you want to change or explore that option you can do it in [Texture] in the [Sub Tool Detail Palette].

 

▼ If you want to Mastering the sub tool details palette please check this serie:

 

▼ These are some of the Brush tip I have changed from the Clip Studio Brushes.

 

[1] Original Brush Tip

[2] Hand-drawn Brush tip

[3] Using Brushes

 

Step 5: Use your brushes to add texture

It is time to to use the brushes to add more texture. You can make the 3D model visible again. Let's drawn the shadows and lines from the 3D model. If you are using EX you can use [Extract Line] from [Layer Property].

 

▼ If you want to learn more about how to do extract lines from a 3D object you can check:

Also if you Rasterize the 3D model as an image in PRO you can use “Outline Selection” and “Extract Lines & Binarization” from the same article above. Or you can draw or paint over the model manually.

 

▼ Here is mine. I painted a flat short over the model with the Gouache brush.

▼ Now let's make some adjustments to start adding texture with the brushes.

[1] You can hide the top layers: Correction Layers, Gradients, Textures, etc. to make easy the selection of layers when using the [Object Tool].

[2] Now you can use Blending modes to mix the layers colors of skin and shadows. I am using a Multiply layer for the general skin color with the opacity around 60-80. And for the shadows you can use Multiply or Linear burn.

[3] Use the modified Blend Brush to add some textures. I am starting to blend the borders of the shadows in the upper body section.

 

You can blend all the shadows areas with the brush texture. And then you can continue blending other areas. I am going to use the same blend modified brush for the outline of the model ▼

[A] In a separate vector layer select the Outline around the model or create one and place it below. If you do not how, please review the link at the beginning of Step 5.

[B] Press O for the [Object] tool and change the Brush Shape from the [Tool property] to Spray and increase the Brush Size until you start seeing the irregular shape in the line.

[C] With the same Blend Brush used for the shadows you can blend the vector line and push it to the outside.

[D] Create a new layer below. I am going to use the Sand cloud Brush to separate the model from the background with a light almost white color. You can use the same or any other brush.

[E] You can adjust the Blending Modes to Overlay or Lighten to mix the colors with the background.

 

 

■ You can also use the other modified brushes in your artwork. I have used the Modified Spray brush for the hair and Modified Flame (now Ink) for the darker shadows.

Step 6: Adding Monochromatic pattern with mask

In the first step we saw that you can add texture to the entire canvas from Clip Studio Paint materials. You can also add textures to a specific area.

 

Make a selection (Press M) and from [Window > Material > Monochromatic pattern] drag the material you would like to use. You can also use Texture Combine from [Layer Property] to mix the texture with the artwork.

You will notice that a mask was created with the texture in the [Layer] palette. With the mask selected you can paint with transparency (shortcut C) or the Eraser tool to hide the material or paint with any color (shortcut X) to show and reveal.

 

▼ If you want to learn more about masks you can check the link below.

 

Step 7: Combining Photos & Brushes

I am going to cut out two photos to combine them with the hand-drawn brushes that I have created above.

 

You can take the photos with any camera or search/buy images online in your browser. These are the images that I took with my camera:

You can use the [Selection] tool (shortcut M) Elipse for the ball and Laso for the water. You can also use the icons to adjust the selection in the photo. Then you can copy & paste the selection to other layer.

I am going to use a mask to hide the areas I don't need and then I can start combining the photos. If you do not know about masks, please review the link in the preview step.

[1] Place the image in the canvas and use [Correction Layers] or from [Edit > Tonal Correction] to adjust the contrast, levels, etc.

[2] Change and try different Blending modes. For this artwork I am going to use [Hard light]. Remember that you can use your mask to hide or reveal areas.

 

■ Now that you know how to combine the image with Blending modes and Masks you can do the same with Brushes and Photos.

▲ In a new layer I have painted with the modified Flame brush (now INK) around the leg to add texture and movement to the artwork. Then I changed the Blending Mode to Color Dodge and Add (Glow). You can also add more layers and try different Blending modes like Darken, Multiply, etc. Finally, I added the image of the water as we saw above. Moreover, you can use [Mesh Transformation] from [Edit > Transform] to adjust the water to the brush strokes.

I really recommend you to explore all the Blending Modes every time. You can get different results depending of the image and the background.

 

▼ Let's do the same with the ball.

[1] Place the image and paint with a texture brush and change the blending mode. You can also add the water image as we saw above.

[2] Another way to increase the contrast of the photo is to duplicate the layer and change the Blending mode to Overlay.

[3] You can create a [New Raster Layer] and change the blending mode to Overlay. If you paint with black it will make that area darker and if you paint white it will make that area lighter. You can reduce the opacity to decrease the effect of the layer.

 

▼ This is how my artwork looks so far.

 

 

Feel free to use as many brushes as necessary. Also you can use as many textures from photos and materials as you like.

 

Step 8: Adding texture to Text

▲ With the [Text] tool I wrote “Street Football” all caps and also translated to Spanish “Fútbol de calle”. You can use the same techniques that we have seen in the previous steps.

[A] Create a Mask for the text and with any texture brush you can start painting with transparency (shortcut C) to hide areas of the text and add texture. If you need to reveal or show a specific area just paint with any color with the mask selected. You can also use images or photos but personally I think you have more control with brushes.

[B] Duplicate the text layer and place it below. Change the Blending Mode to [Multiply] and move it in order to look like the text shadow. You can change the color of the text to a darker color and move the slider Opacity from the Layer Palette to adjust the effect.

[C] You can also create a New layer with [Overlay] Blending Mode and paint with Black to make some areas darker to add contrast.

▲ Since the Text layer is not rasterized you can change the text. The mask will keep the texture created before, just make sure the new text is about the same length. If necessary you can always edit the masks (shadows too) and use [Overlay] Blending Modes to add contrast.

Step 9: Finishing touches

Once we have finish combining brushes, photos, materials, etc. You can reveal the textures we hide in the first step. Place them at the top and if you like add more Gradient maps, Correction Layers and try different values, Blending Modes or decrease the Opacity in the [Layer] palette. You can use all what you have seen in the previous steps.

 

▼ This is my final artwork with a mask around the border painted with the hand-drawn brushes. I also increase the canvas size about 1-2 cm.

▼ And here it is the same artwork with the text in Spanish.

 

Thanks for following this tutorial! I hope you have found some useful tips here. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below and don't forget to enjoy creating.