Using Clip Studio Tools Like A Pro!

How To Use The Selection Tool Like A Professional!

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DonCorgi

Usually, we use the selection tool for very simple actions and selections, but there’s actually a lot that we can make with it. The number of tools and options it offers can really make your work easier when drawing on Clip Studio.

In this article, we’ll be going over everything you need to know about the selection tool, so you can master and apply it to your own drawings and create even more beautiful pieces in the future!

Ways to Select

With the selection tool, there are many ways to make different types of selection. The two main ways are the Rectangle and the Ellipse selection, let’s take a very quick look at them!

Rectangle Sub Tool

With this tool, you can make very simple squared or rectangular selections. This is very useful when you want to make bigger selections or if you have rectangular shapes or bars in your drawing and need to move them around.

Alternatively, you can also create squares or rectangles through this tool. Simply click and drag until you have the desired size, grab the paint bucket and fill the selection!

By using the rectangle selection you can create a selection with the dimensions you want to create a rectangular shape!

Like this:

Ellipse Sub Tool

This one works mostly the same as the Sub Tool above, but instead of a rectangle, you’re making circular selections!

It works exactly the same way and it’s perfect if you want to add perfect circles to your drawing as the background.

TIP: If you press and hold SHIFT while dragging your selection, you will make a perfect shape. For example, with the Rectangle Sub tool, you will draw a perfect square, and with the Ellipse Sub tool, you’ll create a perfect circle!

Diving Into The Tool Properties

Before we cover the rest of the Selection Sub tools, let’s just dive into the tool property settings of both the Rectangle and Ellipse Sub tool. Don’t worry, these are all fairly easy to use and understand.

I rarely dabble with them, but they can be very useful if you want to make more specific selections, add more to your selection, remove from it and many others, so let’s take a look at them!

Selection Mode

You can use the selection mode setting to decide what type of selection you want to create.

- New Selection

By default, the selection mode is set to “New Selection”.

This means that the selection you’ll be creating on your document, will be a completely new selection and ignore other selections you might have created before!

This also means that if you made a selection and create another one, the first one will disappear.

- Add To Selection

If you already have a selection and want to add another without losing the first, this is the option you want to have active. By selecting this Selection Mode, instead of creating a completely new selection, you’ll be adding to your current selection that you did before.

So that you can do selections like this!

With this, you can create selections of interesting shapes to later on paint, or even to just move specific parts of your artwork around. Feel free to play around with it and see what kind of shapes you can create!

This can also be very useful if you want to select different parts of your drawing and move them around. Instead of going section by section, you can select everything you want at once!

- Remove From Selection

Next, we have the “Remove From Selection” option. This is very similar to the previous option of “Adding To Selection” but instead of adding, we will be removing!

This can also help you select specific shapes in your artwork, or even undo a selection that you’ve previously created.

Think of this as an “Eraser” tool for your current selection! So let’s say you drew a rectangle or a circle, but want to erase a part of it. Simply choose this option and then make the selection where you want.

I find this tool very useful when I need to draw a moon! It makes drawing it so much easier and quick, than drawing by hand.

- Select From Selection

Finally, we have the “Select From Selection” mode!

Let’s say you already have a selection, but want to select only a specific part of it, then this is the mode you want to use.

This can be useful if you want to focus on certain details of your drawing or remove some bits from it! Let’s pick up our moon again.

I want to for example add a stripe or two to it. I can just activate this mode to create a selection from the one I already had and then use the paint bucket to fill in the shape!

All of these modes will help you have a document a bit more organized because you can add, remove or change colors of an object in only one layer very easily.

Aspect Type

Let’s move on to the next section of the Tool properties, the Aspect type! The Aspect Type section lets you select the relationship between horizontal and vertical sides.

To use this, simply tick the Aspect Type box!

This means that you can define the exact size or proportion that you want your selection to be!

- Specified Ratio

With the Specified Ratio option, you can define the ratio between the Width and the Height of your selection.

For example, you can create a selection that will always be with a Ratio of 2:1 by typing down 2 in the W (Width) box, and 1 in the H (Height) box! This will make your selection always be twice as large in the horizontal axis as the vertical axis.

- Specify Length

If instead of a ratio, you would prefer to use a specific size for your selection, you’ll want to use the “Specify Length” option!

These are of great help when you want to make very specific selections, that you already know the size of. For example, let’s say you have a file that is 3000x3000px but you don’t want the background to fill the whole document.

You want for the drawing to have a white frame around it. So you can go here, type in 2000x2000px, make the selection and fill it with your background color.

And there you have it, a very simple and beautiful background ready!

Adjust Angle After Fixed

Next, we have the “Adjust Angle After Fixed” option. This is a very handy option in case you want to create just the right angle for your selection.

This can be especially helpful if you’d like to create, for example, a square at a different angle!

To do this, simply create your selection as usual, and then move your mouse (or pen) until you get the angle you desire.

You can also press the ‘Shift’ key on your keyboard so that the selection area rotates 45 degrees!

If you ever want to create diamond shapes in only two steps, this is the perfect tool for it. Select -> angle it as you wish -> Fill!

Anti-Aliasing

Finally, we have the Anti-Aliasing option! This allows you to select the level of “smoothness” of your selection.

You have 4 different selections to choose from:

This is especially helpful if you plan on painting a selection! The stronger the Anti-Aliasing, the smoother it will look when painted.

Let’s see how each of them behaves with a few examples!

This all depends on your own art style or what kind of effect you want to add to your illustration, for example, if your prefer to have more texture in the shapes your drawing, then turning off the anti-aliasing is the way to go.

Alright so that’s it for the basic settings, but there’s still more to learn here and you can have even more freedom in your selections, so let’s see what else we have here!

Ways to Select (Advanced!)

We went through the Rectangle and Ellipse sub tool, but you certainly notice there are quite a few more options to choose from:

Lasso Selection

You can use the Lasso Selection to create a more free-form selection! This allows you to draw the selection yourself, instead of selecting using a pre-determined shape.

With this, you can have more specific and organic selections! This tool also makes it faster to select anything in your drawing, since you can control the shape and size very easily.

Polyline

With the Polyline Sub tool, you can be quite creative with your selection as well, but with some limits. You must create your selection point-by-point.

In a way, this means that your selection will look more geometric and less “organic”! Keep that in mind when using this selection sub tool.

This is the tool I use the most when I want to select specific places of my line art and move it around. I feel that, generally, using the lasso or polyline tool is all a matter of preference, so experiment with both and see what’s best for you!

TIP: With both the above sub tools (Lasso Selection and Polyline) you can use different Selection Modes as well as Anti-Aliasing, which I mentioned above!

Selection Pen

You can use the Selection Pen to create a selection just as if you were using a Brush! Simply draw what you want and the selection will be as big as the size of your brush.

So if you want to create some line details here and there, this can be very useful. See it as a test drive of your lines! Before filling the selection you can have an idea if you like how they look or not.

There are quite a few options to cover in this Sub tool, but before diving into that, we’ll be going to the next selection Sub tool which is the Erase Selection!

Erase Selection

With the Erase Selection Sub Tool, remove parts of a selection just as if you were using a Brush!

This is very similar to the Selection Pen Sub Tool, but instead, you use an eraser. If you drag it through a selection, it will erase the area you just dragged through.

A quick note though, when using the erase selection you do need to change your selection mode from New Selection to Remove from Selection.

Tool Properties Of Selection Pen And Erase Selection!

Before we go to our last Selection Sub Tool, let’s first dive into the Tool Property section of both the Selection Pen and Erase selection, which are very similar.

TIP: Again, these Sub Tools have some of the same properties, like the Selection Mode and Anti-Aliasing, which we mentioned above. They work exactly the same!

- Brush Size

This is a very straightforward option, you can use this “Brush Size” setting to determine what size you would like your brush to be. This is just like when you’re working with your brushes, but instead, with the Selection Subtool!

- Brush Size Dynamics

By clicking the square to the right of the Brush Size, you can adjust several settings like Pen Pressure, Tilt, Velocity and Random. This is especially useful if you’re using a pen tablet.

This will let you customize the brush dynamics to your liking, so feel free to explore it, try different settings until you find something that is 100% comfortable for you!

- Hardness

Select the level of hardness that you’d like your brush to be between 5 different options! The leftmost option represents the lowest option, and the rightmost the highest.

Remember, the lowest you select this option, the blurrier your selection will become!

This isn’t too noticeable in the selection itself, but as you can see, once you fill it, the shape will look more or less blurry depending on the level of Hardness that you chose.

Again this all comes down to preference. My style is a very flat style, so I usually don’t have blurred colorings or lines in my illustrations. But if your style does demand it, then using the Selection Pen with a lower level of Hardness will make your life much easier!

TIP: If you click the > icon to the right of the “Hardness” setting, you can select a specific value from 1 to 100, for full control!

Brush Density

In the Brush Density property, you can change the opacity of each pattern of your brush strokes. This is more noticeable if you use low values for your brush density, allowing you to create some very interesting selections with a very organic feel.

When filling a selection with a lower density, that opacity will be visible. This way you can still see what’s behind that shape you just create.

This can be quite useful for drawing glasses in a character or a piece of their clothing is a bit transparent and you want to color it accordingly!

Alternatively, you can use it when creating your line art to have different opacity levels between the lines.

You can also create very interesting textures when playing wtih the brush density, so I highly recommend trying different settings and have fun with it!

TIP: Once again, if you click the square icon to the right of the “Brush Density” Option, you will be able to select specific brush density dynamics, just like we did in the Brush Size Dynamics!

- Stabilization

The Stabilization option lets you choose a value from 0 to 100 on how stable you want your brush strokes to be! This helps you create smoother lines with less jagged feeling.

If you’re still not used to drawing with a tablet and feel that your lines are still too wobbly, this is always a good option to have active! These tools are here to help and you are not cheating, so take advantage of them.

Shrink Selection

The Shrink Selection Sub Tool is a bit more complex, but don’t worry, because we’ll be going through all of the settings here! So let’s say you have your whole line art and want to select it. You don’t need to go close to the lines to make a perfect selection.

Simply selecting the Shrink Selection Sub Tool, drag your mouse around the line art and it will automatically make the selection that matches your lines!

More than that you can make even more specific selections, by using different settings.

Shrink Selection Sub Tool Properties

As with the other selection sub tools, you have different properties to choose from, such as Selection Mode, which we’ve covered before!

- Target Color

Here you can select which colors you’d like to shrink your selection tool. There are many options, which are self-explanatory!

Target All Colors
Only Transparent
Area Surrounded By Transparent
Only Black
Area Surrounded By Black
Only White And Transparent
Area Surrounded By White And Transparent
Treat Semi-Transparent As Transparent
All Enclosed Areas Except Transparency
All Enclosed Areas Including Transparency

Here’s an example: I have two different colors in my background: pink circles and black circles. But I only want to select the black ones, so I just need to go over to Target Color and select ‘Only Black’.

Now I can change their color without interfering with the rest of the elements in the same layer!

Again, feel free to experiment with all of these to have a general feel of each and see which do you prefer to use!

- Close Gap

This option is only available if you don’t select the “Target All Colors” option!

If you want to create a selection around something that has a gap, you will want to use the “Close Gap” option to make it more accurate! This way you can fill in the selected shape accordingly.

TIP: Click the > icon to the right of the Close Gap to select a specific value between 0.1 and 50. Or click on the Squares to select one of the 5 different options!

- Color Margin

In the Color Margin property, you can select a value between 0 and 100 to change your selection.

This is especially useful if you’re using different tones of the same color in your artwork and you want to select them all! This also counts when selecting line art, but don’t want to select all of it.

For example here, as you can see, if I have a very low value, it will only select the blackest lines. However, if I increase the color margin value, it will take into account the smaller lines that merge with another color around the eye, such as the eyelashes!

- Area Scaling

Tick the box in the Area Scaling property so that your selection will enlarge or become smaller! You can select a value between -20 to 20 to adjust your size.

This means that the tool will have into account the area you selected, but select a bit more or less, depending on the values you chose!

TIP: You can also use the different Scaling Modes in this property to get the shape you’d like in your selection. From “Rectangle”, to “Round” and “To Darkest Pixel”! This will change the shape of the selection quite a bit.

- Refer Multiple

Select this property if you’d like to Refer different Layers and folders and not just the current layer you’re working on!

For example, if you have different layers with colors, you can use the “All Layers” option to create a selection, independently of the layer you’re currently using.

This way, if you decide to move the selected area, it will move all layers!

TIP: You can exclude specific layers from your selection using the “Exclude from Reference option below! Your options are: “Exclude Draft Layers”, “Exclude Text”, “Exclude Editing Layer”, “Exclude Paper Layer” and “Exclude Locked Layers.

- Fill Up To Vector Path

Select this property if you’d like to refer to the vector path of vector lines. This means that it will make the selection up to the vector paths that you have in your document.

This can be quite helpful if you’d like to select parts of your artwork while ignoring your current vector lines.

If you work with line art a lot, like me, then this option will be quite handy for you when you want to select everything but the lines!

Remember that this will only work if you have something in a vector layer!

- Anti-Aliasing

Here you can’t control the Anti-Aliasing, only if you want it turned on or of. So, if you want your selections to be smoother, activate this option.

That's It, You’ve Mastered The Selection Tool!

Well, that was a lot, but now it’s time to use your selections! Draw on them, cut and paste parts of your artwork from one place to the other and much more. Use this tool to the fullest.