Hello,in today's tutorial I will show you tips and tricks on how you can easily give your pictures a watercolor look.

Introduction

Watercolor drawings have their very own charm. However, hand-drawn watercolor drawings are not always ideal when it comes to printing them. Scanning and isolating them correctly is not always easy and involves work.Digital drawings have the advantage that you can isolate the background and thus perfectly adapt them to any format. If the contours are created as vector layers, they can also be scaled arbitrarily. This is why some artists prefer digital "watercolor drawings".

Tip #1 Texture Layer

Characteristic of a watercolor look is the paper.In watercolor drawings, a coarse paper texture can often be recognized.

This is essential for the typical watercolor look and very easy to imitate in Clip Studio.Under Materials -> Texture, you will find a wealth of paper types.

Now simply drag this onto the image. Important: Set "Tiling" so that the texture repeats seamlessly and can be scaled down/up as desired.

If you only want to apply the effect to a part of your illustration, place it in a folder and create a clipping mask. I also recommend setting the layer to "Multiply".

If you go to the object arrow, you can now adjust the size of the texture.

In the last step, you adjust the opacity of the layer. The higher the opacity, the stronger the paper texture appears. However, so that the texture doesn't dominate, it should be in a range of 10-40%.

With the paper texture, you have already taken the first and very simple step towards a watercolor effect.

Tip #2 Choosing the Right Brush

For a watercolor look, not only the paper but also the contours and the coloring method are important.Here are a few examples: The first otter and fox are colored with a G-Pen and standard watercolor brushes. For the first otter, a paper texture was also applied over it.The second otter and fox are colored with a pencil (contours) and a real watercolor brush designed to imitate watercolor.

For a "hand-drawn" look, I particularly recommend pencil contours.As with a real pencil drawing, you can create light and shadow through hatching, giving your drawing more depth and simultaneously enhancing the watercolor look.

Tip #3 Analyze How Your Brushes Behave

Real watercolor brushes, designed to imitate watercolor, behave very differently.Some are designed to reproduce the texture of the paper, others the "hard" edges, and still others are made for the right blending effect.Clip Studio has some great brushes pre-installed.But the Clip Studio Community also has some fantastic brushes to offer.

However, a challenge with different brushes can be their handling. Some brushes have the property of blending the selected primary and secondary colors with each other.In the first example, blue is the primary color and black is the secondary color.In the second example, pink is the secondary color.

Experiment to find which brush suits you best, fits your technique, and how exactly it works.

Tip #4 Embrace Hard Edges

Typical for the watercolor look are "hard edges" that occur when the paper soaks up paint.The colors don't always have to be perfectly blended. "Embracing hard edges" gives your drawings a more realistic, hand-drawn look.

Tip #5 Base Coat

"Real" watercolor brushes are characterized by low saturation. Especially if you don't want transparent spots, a clean base coat with the fill tool or an opaque brush is essential.

If you don't want to shade each color separately, you can layer multiple layers using a clipping mask. For the white belly in this example, I created several clipping masks. The bottom layer forms the brown body. The second layer is the white belly, and the third layer is the shading with a watercolor brush.

In the last step, I added highlights (layer style "Add Glow" and texture "Multiply").

Thanks to the clean base coats, no transparencies are created, and the motif can be easily used for printing.

Note: Of course, you can also shade without clipping masks. If the layer function "Lock transparent pixels" is enabled, only the parts of the layer where paint is located, as in this case on the base coat, will be overpainted. Drawing on the base layer offers the advantage that colors can be blended better.

Tip #6 Blending Tool

Sometimes you do want to blend the hard edges of a brush. The problem is that when colors are mixed/blended, the texture is often lost.To maintain a watercolor look when blending colors, there are three options:

1. Use a textured blending brush so that the result doesn't look quite so "smooth".

2. Use a softer "real watercolor" brush that doesn't have such hard edges for blending.

3. Use a softer brush from the start. If you generally prefer a smoother look with few hard edges, it's advisable to use a softer brush from the outset that blends better, rather than trying to blend a hard one.

Tip #7 Use Different Brushes to Imitate Watercolor Techniques

For the most natural look possible, you should use different brushes.There are many techniques to create different effects in watercolor drawings. Depending on which technique you want to imitate, you should use a different brush.Here are some examples of watercolor techniques.

Wet-on-wet is typical for watercolor. A lot of water is applied to the surface, followed by a drop of paint that spreads towards the edges and forms intense borders. This effect can be well imitated with the pre-installed brush "Soft Blend

" + "Watery Colors".

Ethanol is also often used to intentionally create "spots." This effect can also be imitated with "watery brushes".

White spots in watercolor are created by sprinkling salt on the still wet surface. There are also special brushes for this.

Tip #8 Brush Recommendations

In addition to the pre-installed brushes, the Clip Studio Community has some great brushes to offer. Here are a few recommendations. There are many more great brushes.

Just try out different settings, brushes, and techniques to find your style.

I hope I was able to give you some useful tips in this tutorial and would greatly appreciate feedback. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me (English/German), I'm always happy to help.