Good morning ! In this post, I will introduce you to the brushes I use for digital painting as well as different settings to create and modify brushes.

 

I'm a student and I like to learn, so your feedback/criticisms are welcome!

Summary :

1. The brush I use the most

2. Modify/create a brush

3. How to make an eraser and blender from a brush

4. Other brushes I use

 

1. The brush I use the most

This is the brush I use most often. It's a fairly basic brush, oval shaped and pen pressure changes its opacity. It is very pleasant to use and works quite well in most situations.

2. Modify/create a brush

To begin I will show you how to modify a brush.

 

The three small icons framed in red allow you to (from left to right):

-To add a secondary tool (a brush)

-Duplicate selected tool

-Delete selected tool

 

If you want to modify a brush, I advise you to always duplicate it to keep the old version of the brush just in case!

To access the parameters of a tool, you just have to click on the small key (circled in red).

I will quickly present to you the different modifications that can be made to a brush.

 

First we have the ink settings, you can adjust the opacity, the combination mode (works almost like the layer modes) and the color mixing (I will come back to this later on).

I advise you to keep in [Normal] the combination mode, unless you have a particular brush to do.

The color variations is a parameter which, as its name suggests, varies the color when drawing. This is a parameter that I use very little, because it can quickly give a bad rendering. On the other hand, it works very well on certain brushes, in particular one that you will see later in the publication.

I pass you the anti-aliasing window, which allows you to reduce the staircase effect of pixels by adding pixels to have a smooth line.

 

The shape of the brush allows you to define the general shape of your brush. You can add your own brush shapes to the presets.

Adjusting the brush tip allows you to change the shape of the tip, in height and width, as well as its angle. This is a very useful setting if you want a brush with a fine tip!

You also have the possibility with [Material] to add a tip shape that you created or a tip shape found on Clip Studio Asset.

The spray effect setting will allow you to create "airbrush" brushes. These are very powerful brushes that can change the mood of your drawing in no time.

I don't have much to say about the "line" setting except that it allows you to manage the gap between each brush stroke on a continuous path.

The "textures" tab is a bit more interesting. It will allow you to give substance to a brush. You can retrieve materials from Clip Studio Asset and use them by clicking on the button framed in red on the image below.

The settings preceded by a "2-" are the same settings seen previously but for the use of a double brush.

The "watercolor borders" parameter allows you to create what its name suggests, a watercolor border. You can have fun with this setting to have a digital watercolor rendering.

The correction setting allows you to adjust the stabilization of your brush as well as apply a correction after the stroke. Stabilization softens the stroke by reducing the shaking during the stroke.

I also like using the Bézier curve correction, which allows for very straight and clean lines.

(For those who don't know how to draw a straight line in Clip Studio, you just have to hold down the shift key on your keyboard!)

You also have the possibility to play with the pressure, the inclination and the speed of the stylus on each parameter having the box framed in red below.

Don't forget to save your brush settings to brush default settings (the button at the bottom right of the tool detail window) when you're happy with it.

 

You can also restore the default settings of the brush with the button at the bottom right, if you are not satisfied with it.

3. How to make an eraser and blender from a brush

To create an eraser from a brush, you just have to switch the combination mode in "Ink" to [erase].

 

To create a mixer, you need to check the "mix colors" box in the "Ink" window and then change the amount and density of paint to 0.

Stretching the color will allow you to pull the color more or less far (at 0 the color blends quickly into the other colors).

You also have the possibility to change the way of mixing the colors with the three icons (from left to right) mix, diffuse and overlay.

4. Other brushes I use

(Most of the brushes that I present to you below have an eraser and blender version)

A brush that I have used a lot, which allows to have a rather expressive rendering.

I also have a version of this brush with variation in brush tip size depending on how much pressure is applied to the stylus.

A brush with a rendering of paint on canvas.

A texture brush.

Another texture brush...

A brush that I use a lot to paint long hair.

And a brush to give texture, again...

This one I use for skin texture in some cases.

I also use a lot of Clip Studio's default brushes, including the G pen and the soft airbrush. These are very simple but also extremely powerful brushes.

 

Finally, I encourage you to create your own brushes and modify the brushes of other users, because you are never better served than by yourself!

 

At the end of the video there is a time lapse of a drawing that I am doing. I haven't finished it but I will surely post it on my instagram account once finished!

 

I put a link to my instagram account: