Video

Intro

Well hello there, this is Tamil! Today I wanted to go over Liquify tool in Clip Studio Paint. A very handy tool that is easy to use. It was introduced relatively recently, so make sure to update your software.

 

I will share basic functions and then make a quick music poster for fun. A very easy thing to do and fun to try if you never had liqufy before.

Where is Liquify?

The tool comes in the blend tool section. It might look like a blend icon or liquify depending on what you used last time.

All the tools should be there already. Just make sure to open Tool Property. You can find that in Window -> Tool Property.

Hardness vs Strength

Those are two main adjustments that you can use for the tool.

 

Strength is how far and how much you will push the pixels around. It is kind of like opacity for brushes. Just use higher if you want it to affect the canvas faster and bigger.

 

Hardness is about the edges. Same as if you compare an airbrush to an ink brush. The outside edges will be behaving sharper.

I just used a simple push brush for this. These are the different effects that you can get with it. I would suggest using at least 25-50 strength for minimum effect. Below that will not be noticeable in most cases.

The left side is very hard, while the right side is very soft. The same could be applied to the tool.

Modes

Modes are basically like brushes that can be used with Liquify. If you click on the small arrow to the right, then you can find all of the names for it.

The names are pretty self-explanatory, but let's go over them in case you want to see the effects and you do not have access to Clip Studio Paint.

Push is simple. Just pushing pixels in the way your brush is moving. The most used tool and a great way to fix your art!

This is expanding. A simple way of thinking about it is something that becomes fish eye and expands toward you. Great way to make something more 3D and circular.

This is the pinch. It is the opposite of expanding. It brings everything closer and together to the center of the brush

This is move right. The next mode is the same thing, except the right to left. This is very similar to push, except it looks more like a square and moves bigger chunks, while push is more circular and gradual.

This is the spiral. Hence it will spiral your paint and image. Great for any magic spells or special effects.

Liquify is not a complicated tool to use. Just focus on what you want to change and vary the size of the brush for it. There are also some things to remember when using it!

 

• It only affects the layer selected. One at the time. If you want to adjust more you will have to flatten it. The best way to flatten it would be "Merge Visible to a new Layer" in the layer tool pannel. It's safer and easier that way.

Another thing to remember is you can use a selection tool for it too. Just lasso the part you want to change and fix it without affecting other parts of the image. Using feather on selection also helps for gradual change.

Making Abstract Poster

This is the fun part of the tutorial. I have the process in the video where I mess around with colors and tools. Here is a quick list of things that you can do to experiment with your own artwork.

Pick colors you like. This is the old painting I did for fun a while ago. Picking the main colors from it helped me to come up with a good color combination.

Play around with airbrush! Just pick a big airbrush and paint away any different forms and shapes. This will be the start of your art poster.

Now it is time to use Liquify! Just get a push brush or any other one that you like and mess around with colors. It is fun and helps with finding good shape design. I also made a new layer and made some Overlay adjustments.

In this case I just created small shapes and lines around it for a better frame. Added some text to it. This was one of the things I had to do for my school as well. It teaches you how to organize shapes and helps with typography. Just experiment and have fun. My goal here was to create a fun music band poster. The name for it was the loving message. The tour dates and more.

Then I flatten everything and play around with text. I used liquify for text smudge and also put a big circle hue in the middle. This helped break up the space and make it more interesting. It felt very empty in the middle. Pick a fun font for the whole thing too! Each letter gives a different vibe to your poster. Words can be anything, just think about what you want your poster to feel like.

In the end, I just flatten everything and go with a simple watercolor brush to mix more colors together. I also added some Perlin noise. I already covered it in my tutorials before, but the short guide is:

 

• Render - Perlin Noise - Set to Overlay - play with opacity and scale. That's it!

 

Make your own and let me know how it goes. It is all about experimenting. It does not have to look like a masterpiece. Just explore colors and shapes.

Outro

Thank you for spending time with my tutorial. I really appreciate it. I hope you learned something and I hope the video was helpful as well. Happy painting!

My links :)