Hi and welcome to my tutorial on how to make patterns using CLIP STUDIO PAINT, save them in the program and use them in your art.

BASICS

So let’s start with how to make a pattern and for that, we will need a canvas. Any size would be fine but I usually work with a 2000x2000px and 600dpi Illustration Canvas.

A square canvas is, in my opinion, the easiest to work with and very good when you want to get the feel on how patterns work in CLIP STUDIO PAINT.

For the pattern itself, I will use an artwork I made and open it in my canvas. I will now show you have to make a simple picture pattern and for that, it’s the easiest to use one of my drawings.

 

Now we can take the easy way and just use this for the pattern.

You have to be on the Layer your drawing is on, and make sure that all of the things you want to have on the pattern are on ONE layer, it does not work with multiple layers.

Now to get to saving and making a pattern you have to go to “File -> Edit -> Register Material (J) -> Image”

Now, this window called “Material property” should open and in here you check and save your pattern.

For your image to repeat itself you’ll have to click on “Tiling”. By doing that you can now also choose the mode you want.

 

The first one is “Repeat”, which means the picture on your layer will simply be repeated in the pattern. And here is what it looks like.

What you can also do, is choose the “Reverse” option and this is how the pattern would then look like.

 

I like this one a lot too because it is quite funny how the patterns turn out when you reverse the image.

 

The 3rd option is “Flip”, this just flips the normal Reverse option to the other side.

So what you need from this window is basically:

■ the name for the pattern “Material name”

■ “Tiling” with either “Repeat” / “Reverse” / “Flip”

■ what you also have to do it choose is a folder to put your new pattern into

 

After all this you just have to click “OK” and depending on your device you might have to wait a bit until the pattern is saved.

Now you just have to go to your “Material” tab, you can easily find it by going to “Window -> Material -> [Folder name]”. Your pattern should now be in the folder you picked before.

You can now easily take your pattern and just drag and drop it onto your canvas.

(close or delete the other layers to see it)

And since it will be imported as an image file, like all other patterns in this program, you can easily change the size, rotation, etc. by using the blue lines.

 

These are the basics on how to make, save and use a pattern in Clip Studio Paint!

THE ENEMIES: EDGES AND CORNERS

But now let’s get a bit more into making more interesting patterns that aren’t just one picture.

 

For now, let’s say I still want to use my drawing but I don’t want to just have one hand that is repeated but I want to maybe have several hands in different positions.

 

 

What we want to do now is take the drawing layer we used before and copy it (Ctrl+c).

Now you want to stay on the layer and go to “Edit -> Transform -> Scale/Rotate… Ctrl+T” [Or you have a shortcut (green circle) then you can just click on that]

 

I think most of you know that gray lines will appear that help you scale and rotate your image and this is exactly what you’ll do with the drawing. In the end, just click on the “OK” symbol at the bottom.

 

Now you have to paste the image you saved before (Ctrl+v) and repeat the steps from above. It’s basically just copying and pasting over and over again until everything is full.

BUT you want to stay away from the corners of the canvas, so none of the drawings you copy-pasted should go over the canvas and be cut off. I’ll tell you why in a few seconds but first you can take all your drawing layers and merge them together to one layer by clicking on this little icon on the layer tab “Combine to layer below”.

Now you should only have one layer.

So let us get back to the pattern and I will now show you why it is important to keep a good look at the corners and edges of the canvas. Here is how the pattern would look like if you don’t work carefully.

This is how the layer would look like with the pictures going over the edge of the canvas.

And here is how our enemy (the edges and corners) make the pattern look if we don't look into them correctly.

And as you can see some might look interesting but all of them don’t really look like a real and well-done pattern, here is also what is wrong with them.

Pattern 1: I did not erase the pictures that went over the edge.

Pattern 2: I did erase the pictures that went over the edge but they don’t fit together on all sides.

Pattern 3. Same as Pattern 2 but I reverse the pattern.

 

So let’s get back to the pattern where I didn’t do those things and let me show you what I do to not achieve those kinda ugly patterns.

First off just paste in your drawing again just as you did before and put it on the edge where you want it to be at.

 

For this tutorial, I made the rest in the picture blue so that I can explain the next steps easier and so that you can focus on the right part.

 

As you can see here tho, the hand would be way over the edge...

...so what you want to do now is copy and paste this layer again and click Ctrl+A to select the whole canvas and then go to this little icon and delete everything that is in the canvas.

You still have two layers with the same hand but now one of those doesn’t have the top part of the drawing. (The fingers are missing on mine.)

You then have to close the selection!

 

And what you want to do now is go to the arrow icon on the brush tab and use the move layer brush.

With this, you will use the arrows on your keyboard (laptop or PC or iPad) and slowly move the layer with the missing part to the top of the canvas. Here is how it looks like.

And now the part of the drawing should be on the opposite side of the original. If it is too big you now have to make it smaller etc. but since I want the easy way out I will just put the layer beneath the blue hands.

 

What I now noticed is that the nail of the thumb is also a bit over the edge, so what I have to do is repeat the steps from above and copy paste and move it to the top right side of the canvas.

 

Now, in the end, the piece is very small and you can barely see it but believe me the pattern will look way cleaner if everything is fitting together perfectly.

The steps form above can now be done all over with all the pictures that go over the edges and/or corners of the canvas.

What I did now was also put more hands beneath the other hands and add some shadow to make it look better.

 

For the next step merge all the layers together into one and click on Ctrl+A again to select the whole canvas. But now we won’t delete the things in the canvas but everything that is outside of the canvas and for that click on the icon beside the one you used before.

 

This will delete everything that is outside of the picture so that you get clean edges of the layer.

What we also did so far was making sure that the main pattern (the one that will be repeated) is clean and that all edges (red) fit together. Like top with bottom and left with right.

So blue needs to fit with blue and green has to fit with green.

Corners are even trickier cause if you have a part in one corner this part has to continue in every other corner too!

Now we can use the same steps as before and register the image by going to “Edit -> Register Material -> choose the name, Tiling -> Repeat, Folder, and tags -> and click ok”

Your pattern is again in the folder you’ve chosen and you can drag and drop it into the canvas.

And here is what the pattern looks like.

 

Maybe you also noticed that the shadow is cut on a few hands, I did this on purpose to show you where the lines of the pattern are. If you made any, even small mistake (like the shadows) you will see it in the end. Either white lines appear or you see where the edge of the pattern is.

 

Making patterns is pretty difficult and takes quite some time, especially if you never made a pattern before.

But when you get the basics down it's pretty fun and you can achieve very cool effects!

 

EXTRA: Save, Export and Import Patterns

Last but not least. You can make patterns any way you like, with backgrounds or without. By sketching and drawing them or just using an image you already made.

The important things are:

■ all of the things you want to have on your pattern have to be on the SAME layer

■ all edges and corners have to line up perfectly with each other

 

After registering your patterns as Material, all Materials will stay in CLIP STUDIO PAINT, in the Material Tab.

What you can not do though, is export the material itself.

 

 

If you want to save your pattern on your device, let's say for keeping it save if it ever gets deleted from the program you have to take your layer and just export it as a .png file and save it on your device.

If you then want to use/install it again you just have to open the file “File -> Open…”

 

Just choose any pattern you have made and when you have it open you just have to use the same steps as before and go to “Edit -> Register Material -> Image”

THANK YOU

Congrats you got to the end of this tutorial!

Thank you very much for reading this tutorial and I hope it can help you even a little bit.

As a little extra thank you for reading this Tutorial you can get 50% off on my Lemon Set: http://cbr.sh/hqnrep

It has Lemon Themed Brushes, Patterns and a Color Set in it, just click on the link and use this as your coupon: patterntutorial

This will be working till 30. April 2020

Here is also the drawing I actually just made as a practice but then thought why not use it in the tutorial. :)

If you'd like to see more of my art feel free to follow me:

If you have any questions or requests for further tutorials feel free to comment them down below! ♥