introduce

Hello everyone! I'm Kimmy, and today I'm going to show you how to draw cute and realistic sea creatures.

 

I was so excited when I saw this theme because I just had the inspiration to complete this cute little sea otter. (Although my dad thinks he looks like bread?)

 

And it just so happens that jellyfish is the animal I want to draw recently among the marine animals. So today I will explain in the style of these two animals.

 

 

funny realistic jellyfish

sketch

I don't know how people find inspiration for their creative ideas. But I personally start to look for relevant photos of the object in the mobile phone album or the Internet after I have decided on the object to be painted.

 

After viewing a large number of photos, the brain will slowly arrange and combine an imaginary picture in the brain.

 

After that, I drew sketches based on the image in my head. And my brain came to the conclusion that jellyfish should be: mushroom head, flower skirt, love thorn

 

So I first create a draft layer, pick any color and roughly sketch with the pencil tool.

Next, create another layer as the base color and choose a mid-tone gray.

 

No other color was chosen as the base color because gray is best for contouring light and shadow without being affected by other colors. Later, in the coloring session, I will share CLIP STUDIO PAINT's very considerate gadgets.

 

My draft is just here so I can fill in the colored blocks and then turn off the draft's layer.

 

 

light and shadow

At this time, you can close the draft layer and then use a soft eraser to modify the edge of the shape.

 

Next, create three more layers and click to make them clip to the layer you just painted the base color on.

 

Specifically use black to add shadows, and white to add brightness to the bright spots.

 

At this time, you need to think about the shadow of the mushroom head and the position of the light and shadow of the petals. If necessary, look for reference photos of mushrooms or petals to observe.

 

brush texture

One of the little tricks to add texture to the brush strokes is to use Overlay Mode on the brush layer you just created.

 

And use the thick coat brushes with dry paper opaque watercolor or you can also choose other brushes with distinct strokes.

 

to add touch.

On the left is a brush overlay layer with dry paper opaque watercolor. The image on the right does not have any brush overlays added.

 

This part is added according to personal preference~

Line art and changing layer colors

The next step is to add a vector layer to draw the line art of the petals and tentacles with a G pen dipped in water pen.

 

You can use black or a darker color to better determine the position of the line. Then you can change the color.

After the line art is drawn, click Change Layer Color, select all colors as white and change the layer mode to Linear Light.

Toning (Tone Compensation)

Next comes the coloring stage that everyone is most looking forward to!

 

First, click "Layer" in the upper toolbar, click "Add Tone Compensation Layer", and then select "Gradient Correspondence".

After clicking, a window will pop up. In the window, you can freely adjust the color you like, or directly use the gradient set provided by the system.

 

And place the layer in the clipping layer that has just been lighted and shadowed.

 

Since jellyfish are creatures that glow in the deep sea, I set the layer state to Solid Light and slightly reduced the opacity.

You can also click "Layer" in the upper toolbar, click "New Layer", and then select "Flat Paint" inside. Select the desired color system and it will automatically help you to place it in the desired position.

 

Because in the original layer of black and white and gray, we create different layers to paint light and shadow.

 

So we can increase the level of color by adding layers of different colors.

Background (color mix)

Next, add a dark blue background and put it at the bottom of all layers, and we will have a basic seabed feeling.

 

And add a new (Additive Glow) layer above the background layer and use the Airbrush tool to draw the halo behind the jellyfish.

 

Next comes the most important thing, jellyfish are basically transparent, especially the tentacles.

 

So we had to use a "soft" eraser to erase some of the tentacle color to let the background color behind it show through.

At this time, the layer that is erased must be the parent layer that only has a gray tone at the beginning. Doing any wiping action on other sublayers will not make this transparent effect, please bear in mind!

Next, in order to make the background less monotonous, feel free to use a thick paint brush to overdo it with different colors.

Then you can press the shortcut key "J" or click "Color Mixing" in the toolbar next to it.

 

Choose a blend of fibrous smoke with distinct brushstrokes and paint on the borders of different colors.

It came out like this~

Tone Compensation Layer

The final decision is made before this jellyfish map is completed. I'm about to introduce the aforementioned CLIP STUDIO PAINT very thoughtful little tool.

 

In the same way, click "Layer" in the upper toolbar, then click "Add Hue Compensation Layer", and then click "Hue." chroma. Brightness" option.

A separate layer will be set up to adjust the overall hue, chroma and lightness!

 

The reason why this function is very convenient is that when we have created too many layers, there is no way to change all the colors from the "Color Compensation" in "Edit". This can be a very powerful tool!

 

The image below is the difference between using a separate layer to adjust the overall color compensation.

 

This small tool is very suitable for doing the final fine-tuning when you add countless layers to the end of the painting and feel that the colors are weird.

 

That's it for the jellyfish tutorial!

cute little sea otter

Next is the little sea otter tutorial~

 

I have already introduced the idea of sketching, so I will go directly to the topic here.

 

First create a draft layer to outline the rough shape of the sea otter and water.

 

Create two more layers and paint the water base color and the sea otter base color.

 

The drawing method of this drawing and the previous jellyfish drawing will be different from the beginning. This little sea otter will paint on the basis of color.

background color

Then use the airbrush to add an ambient light clipping layer to the "water" and "sea otter" layers.

 

Choose a yellowish-white color.

Next, choose a color that is a little yellower and brighter than the base color.

 

The right side of the picture below is the original background color, and the left side is the color of the face and body of the sea otter we chose.

 

Use the same airbrush tool to apply on the middle face and body.

Remember to create a new layer and choose "Screen" for the coating mode.

 

This layer can be said to be the second base color so the position is placed at the bottom of all clipping layers.

The result will be like this~

 

Everyone should have noticed that I secretly added eyes, mouth and nose. Now the cute feeling comes out a bit.

hair

In order to increase the cuteness and innocence of the little sea otter's hair, you can use the G brush in the water pen to slowly outline the appropriate curling hair.

 

Remember to operate this part on the mother layer of the little sea otter! No matter how hard you try on the sublayer, you won't be able to paint outside the border.

Then create a sub-layer of "Color Value", select the color of the sea otter's existing color and paint it, there will naturally be a difference in dark color.

 

# I basically just use the "Airbrush Tool" for coloring, and I use the "G Pen" for the parts that want to express obvious hair strokes.

The next step is to repeat the creation of the "Color Value" layer to increase the shadows. As shown by the red arrow in the figure below.

 

And add another layer to paint the bright fur texture.

 

Add a new layer behind the background, select yellow and use an airbrush to create a halo. Do the same for the layer on the sea otter. As shown by the yellow arrow in the figure below.

 

color balance

After the shape of the little sea otter is almost drawn, I feel that the color is not strong enough or even a little dirty. At this time, you can click on one of the layers to draw the shadow of the little sea otter to adjust its color balance.

 

From "Edit", select "Color Compensation" and then "Color Balance".

This window will pop up for you to adjust the color balance of light and shadow, which is a very convenient gadget.

 

Here I am generally making the colors a little more red.

The effect will be like this, is the color very suitable~

water & shadow

Next comes the water at the bottom.

 

Add a clipped sublayer to the original water layer and select the "Color Value" mode.

 

Select the color of the original water directly on this layer and use the "Mixing Round Pen" and "Smudge & Blend" in the airbrush or thick paint brush to outline the shadow of the water.

The approximate effect will be something like a red arrow.

 

And another little trick is to click on the water mother layer and use a soft eraser to wipe off some of the paint in the water. It's as if we can see the body of baby sea otters through the water. As indicated by the position of the red box.

Water Luster & Water Vapor

Create another layer and select "Highlight Color (Glow)", and use the same brush mentioned above to draw the luster of the water.

Finally, select the built-in auxiliary tool effect "cloud" of CLIP STUDIO PAINT. Choose white for color.

Create a separate layer again, and draw some water vapor-like effects in the circled area in the image below.

Finally, use the adjustment method for the overall color balance of the jellyfish described earlier to add a little yellow tint and you're done! (As shown below)

 

Finally, thank you very much for reading the full long article!

painting process

If you are interested in the painting process, please watch the video below.

 

You will find that my drawing process is very disorganized and the final product has nothing to do with the first sketch :)

 

But painting is a process of constant exploration, exploring the style of painting that suits you, and exploring the brushes you have used.

 

Through continuous exploration, I gradually understand myself.

 

Finally, which one do you like the cute little sea otter and the glowing jellyfish?