In this tutorial I'll be sharing a few of other my tips and tricks I use to paint animals that gives a softer, fluffier and textured effect. In this tutorial I use a few other brushes to help me achieve this look which I'll have linked and demonstrated below.

Brushes

Opaque 1 is a textured chalk brush that I use to shade with, this can be found in the pack below. You could also use a pastel brush that comes included with Clip Studio Paint.

Another brush that I'll be using for most of this illustration is a brush called "thickpaint 5" which can be found in the pack below, the are a range of brushes in the pack that are also fantastic, so I'd recommend giving them all a go and finding the one that you like the most. The fifth brush in the pack has a lot of texture when you press softly on your pen which I love and adds to the realistic/canvas effect that I'm aiming for.

I'm a sucker for textured brushes and Clip Studio Paint has some greeeeeat textured watercolour brushes, for this illustration I'll be using "running color edge watercolour".

Moving onto sketching I select a soft brush (the built in watercolour brushes would be great for this) and start to gather my references. I spotted a chubby little robin that loiters in my garden so I went ahead and started sketching, making sure to check my references in order to get the correct proportions and positioning that I wanted.

 

If you look closely at my sketch I started with a small circle and a larger circle for the body and then loosely started to flesh out the shape and placement of other features.

Adding colour to your sketch

Setting my sketch to multiply and then lowering the opacity, I created a new layer beneath my multiplied sketch layer and selecting a grey colour and the lasso tool I selected the inside of my sketch and filled the area, making sure to leave some room and not touch the edges of my sketch.

 

After this, I selected the thick paint brush and started to then paint in the area I had left blank, using a large brush size and light pen pressure to get soft textured edges that would mimic feathers. Towards the top of the head I pressed harder on my pen to get less texture and create a clean edge.

Creating a new layer on top of my grey base layer, I chose a light orange colour and start painting in a rough shape on the face and breast of the robin still using the thick paint brush. Creating a new layer on top of this layer I then clipped it down and set the layer to overlay, then minimizing the size of my brush I use that same light orange colour to paint in shadows.

Creating a new layer and also clipping that down, I colour pick the darker orange colour and set the new layer to multiply. I enlarge my brush and paint in a rough shadow going from left to right (----->), and then making my brush smaller I also paint in around the neck of the robin where feathers overlap.

Selecting a darker cool toned grey, I go back to my grey base colour layer and create a new layer and clip it down. I enlarge my thick paint brush and paint downwards from the head, adding more pen pressure at the head and then using less pressure as I get towards the body.

Creating a new layer and also clipping that down, I choose a dark brown and taupe colour and start painting in feather details on the robins head using a smaller brush size.

Using the opaque 1 brush (or any ink pens that come with Clip Studio paint) I choose a black colour and create a new layer on top of all of my other shading layers and block in the eye and beak.

Using the same taupe colour that I used on the robins head I use it to add in details on the eye and beak on a new layer that is clipped down to the blocked in black layer.

Creating a new layer beneath the eye and beak base I select a dark orange colour and roughly shade around the eye using the thickpaint brush, also using a white colour and large brush size with light pen pressure to shade in some feathers on the robins chest.

Creating a new layer on top of this I select the same grey colour as the base colour and add in some more detailed shading around the eye.

Claw hack

Selecting a dark brown colour and using the opaque 1 brush, I create a new layer beneath everything else and start to paint the robins knuckles. An easy way to paint bird feat is to start with the knuckles (two teardrop shaped dots) to figure out the placement of the feet and legs.

After that I fill in the rest of the legs, adding small claws to the end of the feet.

Creating a new layer ontop of the leg base shape I use the thickpaint brush and the taupe colour to softly paint the bottom of the feet and add in a few additional darker details on a colour burn layer.

Lastly I use a blue toned grey and the lasso tool to fill in the shape of the tail feathers.

Using colours from the body of the robin and the dark brown of the feet I add in a few additional tail details to show the overlapping of feathers.

Finishing your illustration

Using the Running Colour Edge Watercolour brush that comes built in with Clip Studio Paint I create a new layer beneath all of my other layers, enlarge my brush and start to loosely paint in a blue background. For this step you could add in any background that you like, I chose a simple blue background for a minimalistic wintery feel.

For the last additional step in this tutorial I found a stock black and white watercolour texture that I had saved on my laptop and copied and pasted it onto my illustration so that it was on top of all of my other layers. I then set the layer to Soft Light so it would create a slight texture and give the illustration a watercolour theme. In my experience a black and white texture works best for this step as it's least likely to interfere with the colours that you've painted.

 

And there you go! You now have a finished bird illustration. This technique can be applied to a range of other animals and objects using the same steps, enjoy experimenting!