introduction

Today we are going to see how we can imitate the graphic qualities of traditional media using the sub tool details, the templates and presets from ClipStudioPaint as well as by creating our own brushes and textures

Presets for traditional media

The "Round Watercolor Brush" excellently mimics the behavior of a watercolor brush. Due to the set multiply blend mode, it looks like you would put wet brush strokes over a layer of dry paint. A texture is also set to simulate the surface of real drawing paper. Like real watercolor, it also has a "watercolor border".

Ink pens are characterized by their consistent opacity, tonal values are achieved with this medium by the ratio of fine to coarse lines.

The Pencil Tools, on the other hand, offer high pressure sensitivity in terms of opacity, since you slowly build up your tonal values with graphite pencils.

Introduction: Create oil paintings with your own brushes

The Oil-Paint Brush from ClipStudioPaint is already a well-calibrated tool. The mixing behavior comes very close to the oil-color experience. I would now like to adapt the brush to my needs without changing the original preset.

Therefore I duplicate the preset with a right click> duplicate sub tool and rename it. Now we have created an independent subtool and can make any number of changes.

In the original, the oil brush was set to opaque, so the lines are completely opaque. Depending on the pigment, correct oil colors are transparent, semi-transparent or opaque. I recommend screwing down the opacity a bit so that you can blend the colors together better.

By the way: You can also display each setting in the Subtool Detail palette in the Tool Property window. All you have to do is click in the fields next to the respective settings.

I also want to change my brush tip because I don't like to work with a round brush and it doesn't match the brush tip with which I would traditionally work. The tip of the pen is crucial for the appearance of your lines and lines.

Painting and drawing programs such as ClipStudioPaint stamp the imprint of the pen tip at intervals that we set, which creates the illusion of a line or a line, depending on the distance and angle between them.

I could now choose a ready-made clip from ClipStudioPaint, this can be reached under Brush-Tip> Material, but I have a very specific brush tip in mind and I will now create it.

Create a brush tip in ClipStudioPaint

You can design pen tips yourself if you create a layer and set it to gray in the layer properties in the expression color category.

With various brush tools you can paint around on this level, or subtract pieces from a shape.

I am happy to define my brush tip shape with one of the Selection Area Tools.

When I'm satisfied, I register my shape under Edit> Material tab> Image and select in the dialog box> Use for Brush Tip Shape. As a storage location I lay out Image Material> Brush.

Once set, I can now select it under Brush-Tip> Material.

If your line and its outline are not closed, the distance between the stamps may not have been chosen close enough. What can be done under the Stroke tab in the Gap setting.

I would like to use 2 brushes for the entire composition. This is supposed to be a brush with a lot of paint. In painting, this is called wet brush or wet media and is used in places where the paint should cover and distract from the canvas. Here the viewer should get the illusion of a true subject or object.

Create pen tips from traditional media

As a second subtool, I need a dry brush with a small amount of paint that lets the texture of the canvas get through. The technical term for this is Dry Brush.

For this we need a pen tip that is less closed, opaque and more textured.

I therefore duplicate my Oil Paint Wet Brush and rename it Oil Paint Dry Brush

Instead of creating a pen tip digitally, I would like to use traditional brushstrokes in this case: Instead of oil paint, I take India Ink and a piece of household roll and put a few strokes on a textured paper.

Then they are photographed well lit from the front from above. Alternatively, you can also scan them

After the photos are imported into ClipStudioPaint, I separate the strokes from the background using a tone curve, which can be accessed under Edit> Tonal Correction> Tone Curve.

I then remove the background under Edit> Convert brightness to opacity.

Now I register the brush tip under Edit> Material tab> Image, select "Use before brush tip shape" in the dialog and set the storage location to "Image Material"> "Brush".

Now the new pen tip can be loaded into our new brush by selecting it under material "created material".

It is crucial for this brush shape to select "Direction of Line" in the Angle Dynamics. Now the shape we created always follows the direction of the pencil lead.

If you want to add a little variation to the contour of the brushstroke, you can still set a low value for random. As a result, each stamp moves slightly on its axis of rotation. Depending on the orientation of your brush shape, you should set the direction of applying to horizontal or vertical.

I lower the brush density so that the color is not completely opaque and add pen pressure and model a gentle curve for it so that the opacity of the color goes with the pen pressure.

In the Stroke category, I set a low Gap value so that the distances between the stamps are not too large.

Now I choose a texture, because with Dry Brush the canvas should also bleed through. I really like the Clip Studio Preset Canvas and I set a value of around 70 so that the effect appears visible but not too intrusive.

Demo: oil painting with traditional brushes

The largest shapes can be selected with a Selection Area Tool and filled with the Bucket Tool.

Then I work my way from the large shapes to the small ones with my wet brush.

In order to imitate the feeling of traditional media, I have to take great care with the edges of my shapes and set a contrast from soft transitions to roughly placed brushstrokes.

As an interesting addition to the brush tools, you can use the various blending tools from ClipStudioPaint to bring in even more contrast or reduce information in an image area. Alternatively, you could also use the select tool to select areas and apply a filter to them.

When I'm happy, my drybrush comes into play. With this I have my composition filmed and partly set large brush strokes, because in this area the strokes should be perceived as such. I can also use this brush to render details above my wet media layer.

If you still lack texture, I can either drag a texture from the program folder Material into the layers or one that you may have found on the Internet or photographed yourself.

Make sure that this was previously converted as an image layer, which you can do by right-clicking on the> Convert Layer and type "Image Material Layer".

Then you only have to select the Overlay texture mode in the Layer Properties. Adjusts the opacity until the result looks credible.

The end result then looks like this

That would be the end of this tutorial, I hope that was helpful and if you want to learn more about ClipStudioPaint, I will now show you more videos.