Holiday Greetings

Hello! Today I’m using Clip Studio Paint to create a holiday card design. Since I currently live in southern France, I decided to paint a Christmas Market scene inspired by real Christmas Markets that I’ve visited in a few different French cities.

Clip Studio Assets - Shopping and Creating

To start things off, we’re going holiday shopping in the Clip Studio Assets store! Here, we can treat ourselves to all kinds of presents that we can use to create our art, such as this brush I found for easily drawing a string of holiday lights in whatever color you want. The same artist also made these awesome tinsel brushes. I also found a pack of various Christmas items like wreath brushes, and another with some pretty little bows.

If the assets store doesn’t have everything you want, you can make your own assets. Here I made a repeating pattern for log cabin style walls. I also made a repeating cobblestone pattern for the ground. Take care that the left side and right side line up with each other and the top and bottom line up with each other so that the pattern repeats seamlessly. Then go to Edit -> Register Material -> Image. For repeating patterns, check the tiling box.

Now that we’ve finished our holiday shopping, let’s take a look at where our new assets are. You can see everything in the Manage Materials tab here, or within the Paint program in the Materials panel. Downloaded assets are in the Downloads folder, but can be organized differently by dragging them into other folders. Some materials can be used by just dragging them into your open canvas. But to use downloaded brushes, you need to first drag them into the Brushes tool panel.

Using 3D Model and Shape Assets

Now to start painting. To begin, I’m using the 3D model assets that come with Clip Studio Paint to create the characters in the scene. All the 3D assets are going on the same layer because then they will be automatically in the same perspective as each other and will stay in the same perspective as they get moved around and the camera angle changes.

 

I adjust the properties of each model individually to make them less like mannequins and more like real people. For posing, you can download poses from the asset store, and drag them onto models to apply them, or like I’m doing here, create your own poses. My characters are a loving couple keeping each other warm while they wait for some delicious food they just ordered. Since in the final art my characters will have layers of clothing like coats, I’m keeping that in mind as I pose them to allow for the space where I will be painting that in later. I try to finalize all the poses before I start painting, because it’s much easier to adjust poses when you can move the camera around.

Once I have the main characters posed, I can arrange other 3D elements. I’ll be using the new cube and cone in the primitive 3D shapes set that was just added to Clip Studio Paint in an update. When I add them to the same layer as the human models, they automatically adopt the same perspective. I’m going to turn off the light source because I’ll paint that in manually later. Now I can adjust the shapes to the size and position I want. You can color it quickly by dragging on a simple pattern if you want, but I’m going to do something more complicated. I’m going to use the wireframe to create some guidelines, and then I’m going to export the texture map as a png file.

Now in the png file, I’m going to paint the texture of the cube exactly how I want it to appear. Since I want the actual building to have a sloped roof, I’m going to make that part of the file completely transparent.

 

When I import the texture file back onto the 3D shape, you’ll notice that the logs are no longer all the same size like they were in the png. This is because I stretched the cube into a rectangle, so the texture file was stretched too. But if I go back into the png file and adjust the sizes in proportion to the 3D object, then the logs on all four walls will look the same size. I can also turn off the wireframe since I don’t need the guidelines anymore.

Now I can add a few more 3D shapes to finish the little shop. Since Christmas Markets are like little villages, I’ll add a few more shops in the background by shift clicking all the 3D shapes then copying and pasting into the same layer. The copies are pasted into the same position as the original, but once you move them they’ll become visible.

 

This shop is going to be serving hot melted raclette cheese served over potato slices. Yum! It’s delicious and helps warm you up on a chilly winter night. Maybe the young lovers will go get some nice hot wine with honey afterwards.

Painting 2D Elements in Perspective

Once you are 100% happy with the camera placement, you can add 2D elements to your painting. To create painting layers that will snap to the same perspective as the 3D objects, click and drag the perspective ruler onto a new layer while holding alt. Even 2D figures can be quickly drawn in perspective this way.

 

Here, I’m adding the cobblestone pattern and using free transform to put it in perspective. I line up each corner with the perspective grid. Now I’m adding a mask so that the pattern only shows up on the ground, and adjusting the scale of the pattern.

Closing

And with that, I’m ready to paint in everything else.

 

Et voila! I now have a little painting to spread the holiday cheer.

 

I hope you found this tutorial helpful. Feel free to share any art that this helped you create – I’d love to see it. Happy holidays and happy creating!