Hello, and welcome to a basic tutorial on using patterns and textures to create unique clothing textures using Clip Studio Paint! In this tutorial I will go over some basic techniques for creating realistic or simple clothing textures using already existing CSP brushes, homemade brushes, pattern assets, and more.

 

 

1: Begin with the fabric basics

One of the first things you need to do is design your clothing. You're going to want to think about the weight, elasticity/stretch capacity, and shapes of different fabrics before you start adding your patterns. Different types of fabric sit differently on the body, making the fabric hang or bubble up in all kinds of unique ways. When the fabric bends, hangs, or moves a certain way, so does your pattern and textures.

 

It's a good thing to consider the differences between fabrics like a knitted sweater vs. a leather jacket. The sweater is bulkier, heavier, and follows the form of the body. A leather jacket bunches up much less due to the stiffness of the leather, and hangs more loosely off the body.

2: Making textures

Clip Studio Paint offers a lot of different tools that can be used to make clothing patterns both pre-loaded with your program, and in the downloadable assets. In fact, if you go to the 'Decorations' tool, to the 'Cloth Pattern,' you will find many excellent options to texture your fabric with.

If you have trouble finding something, you can also make your own brushes and patterns.

Here are some examples of tools you can use to create different fabric textures. I will go over some of these tools and how to use them below.

Above, you can see the CSP 'Braided Rope' brush being used to create a knitted sweater-like fabric pattern. This tool is great to use for any size knitted style of clothing you can imagine, even for just adding a small amount of 'woven' texture to an otherwise simple piece of clothing.

 

*It's important to pay attention to which dark or light color you have selected with this brush, because the brush uses your first color for the inside color, and the second for the line color.

The many cross-hatching tools can be great for creating a mesh clothing, or for adding a gauze-like texture to fabrics.

Using the Patterns that come with Clip Studio Paint is easier than it might seem. To find them, go open the 'Material' window and go down to 'Color Pattern' and click 'Pattern'.

There are two simple ways to add your pattern to a piece of clothing. One is to select the area you want to add to with the Magic Wand, and then drag and drop the pattern into the canvas.

The other is to have your layers set to Clip to the layer below, and drop it into the canvas that way. From there, you will need to make sure it's clipping the exact base-layer you want to fill the clothing's area. From there, you can resize the pattern by dragging in or out on the modifier box that appears when you drop the pattern into the canvas. Once you've reached the size you want, you can leave it how it is... or take it a few steps further.

If you want to modify the pattern, you're going to need to Rasterize it. To do this, right-click the layer and select 'Rasterize'.

From there, you can make changes to the colors, lightness, contrast etc. You can also use the new Liquify tool to adjust your pattern to better fit the bends and folds of your fabric.

3: Lighting and Fabric

One of the best tools in the artist's toolbox for creating clothing is lighting. Good lighting techniques can help you show exactly what type of texture, surface, or opacity your clothing is. For example, from the above image you can see that there are at least three different fabrics being shown. One, thicker and less reflective fabric makes up the body of the dress. Another is a lighter, ruffled fabric that makes up the under-dress. The last is the see-through tulle fabric that falls around the dress and makes a train in the back.

 

One of the tricks to getting these fabric differences is not just changing the opacity of your entire fabric layer, but gently erasing parts to show variation. This is important when you have a see-through fabric that is folded, or overlaps itself anywhere in the image.

In the image below, you can see the use of highlights vs shading to help the patterns used on the fabric to feel more natural. The pattern follows the creases in the clothing. Consistent shading from the light source helps the pattern and texture feel more a part of the fabric, while highlights give it depth.

This image also uses another important tool: the 'Add Glow' layer option. This helps make your shiny fabrics and metals really pop.

To create this effect: use whatever brush or tool you like in the area where you want the glow. Go to the top of the layer window and click the tab that says 'Normal'. Scroll down to Add Glow, and click it. Ta Da! You now have a satin shirt ready for that disco!

Lighting is also important on darker fabrics like plastics and leather. These might not be as reflective or 'glow-y' as a satin, but they still have a certain amount of texture and highlight to them.

For this, it's usually best to work with a mid-gray, not quite black base. From there, you build up some shading, making sure to follow your light source and stay consistent around the form.

Once you've done that, it's time to add your highlights. One simple way to do this is to use your Marquee tool to select the areas you want to highlight, select the Airbrush tool with a lighter color (I used a blue-gray here), and softly fill in these areas to the amount of highlight you want.

You can leave it at that, or add an additional texture to it with the Gauze brush to add that leathery feeling to it.

4: Final Touches and Extra Tips

Something that isn't often addressed is how to age fabric. Above I used multiple, home-made brushes to get the grungy, old look for these fabrics. But one of the best brushes for this comes with Clip Studio Paint! Under the Airbrush tool, scroll down to find the Droplet tool. This works great on its own for adding that splattered look to clothing, but sometimes using the Blur By Fiber tool under the Blend tool option helps bring the effect to a whole other level of ick.

Making your own, complex patterns can be much easier with the Symmetrical Ruler (found in the rulers) and you can easily manipulate the pattern to fit different angles by Skewing it and/or using the new Liquify tool.

And there you go! You're making textured clothing!