I. Introduction

Getting into the spooky season the Halloween spirit is among us. My favorite time of year when all of the ghouls come out to play, the movies are more bone chilling than a skeleton in a freezer. AAAAHHHHHH! Pumped for this month to be a memorable one full of new fantastic experiences. I am here today however with another tutorial video, trying to see how far I can go with making one every month of the challenges with ClipStudio Paint. But we are not going to talk about September…. I got engrossed in the Chicago Med like a motherclucker, so I had to jump onto the contest for this month. My attention and interest was drawn to the theme “Composition for Character Art”, because I enjoy the idea of creating exciting signature designs for character concepts. As a way to highlight the unspoken traits, personality and demeanor of the character being brought to like Frankenstein's monster. So using the tools within the realm of Clip Studio  to show you how you can compose close- up face focus expressions, dynamism within whole body drawings and then multiple character’s displayed impact towards their perception of each other with the lively program of ClipStudio paint with steps.**

II. Character Art for Whole Body

Before embarking on the journey of drawing, you must remember to look up references to use for your inventory of photos. I tend to build a board of ideas, with inspiration images, from the background, facial expression, poses, outfit and color scheme. It makes it easier for me to flip through the process of me drawing and basing unclear aspects of my drawing to reality.

Now that I get into drawing I really get into it! I start off strong with creating a sketch out the overall form of the character. Sometimes I use the lasso tool to adjust locations of specific features. While also using my good ole reliable pen tool. Before going into a blocking out a medium gray sheet over the drawing to provide myself a boundary to remain in so my pencil, pen or paint strokes do not go outside of the character.

Notice how I am going back and forth with looking at my reference and adding the corresponding detail to my overall character composition. One of my favorite tools to use is the selection layer tool, that you access by right clicking, now this tool will keep you away from drawing outside of the line.

I begin working on the flat colors for the face using the thick oil paint tool making sure the color mixing option is checked because that will change the ability of the pen to mix with previous placed colors on the current layer.

Work my way into using flat color in the hair and clothes, before blocking out areas that are being neglected from light

or directly being impacted by it.

 

Then I am going to be blending, and flipping the drawing around for a good while. This is the part where I start adding refining highlights and shadows within the aspects of the pieces, starting off with general additions. Before the smaller less reconsidered areas that you would have to zoom into to see.

 

I mainly use the soft airbrush tool to apply the:

Color Dodge

Screen

Multiple

 

Effects the drawing when it is needed to bring a sense of vibrance to the work.

 

When specific part/areas of the pieces, like the hat connection to the head or the creases for the sweater were becoming less visible I went back to the trusted “Thick Oil Paint” Tool.

III. Character Art for Close Up

Another technique that I use is “HARSH” gesture drawing the concept for the composition of the piece, lowering the opacity of the drawing to outline a clearer depiction of what I am wanting the facial expression to be.

What would save you a lot of sleepless nights would be taking the Selection - Lasso tool for a spin, I attempted drawing the eyes a few times but simply. Selecting the copy and paste tool, allowed for there to be a second eye/ eyebrow and no stress.

 

One shading layer before lowering the opacity, then a second sharper shading layer before adjusting the opacity to add in highlights and the darkest shade layer.

So after experimenting with what tools I can use to blend them together, good ole Thick oil paint, and Thin Gouache paint.

Until I started to see a sensible blend within the grayscale layout of shading lighting and depth. I feel comfortable adding details around the most noticeable places. Eyes, nose and lips.

Cheaping the system with the liquify tool, to adjust the placement of features that were looking a bit wack.

 

Before getting back into the beauty of color,I start off with big blotches of color before filling them in with the bucket tool making sure that they remain in an overlay layer effect so the color saturates the gray. Before switching them over to soft effect on layer because there is an enriched present in the color being shown.

Now color dodge for the highlights, around the face, lips, eyes etc before adding a soft brush tool over the skin.

IV. Closing Remarks

Ooooh congratulations you've made it to the end of the video. I am thrilled to see that you've enjoyed learning more about how to use Clip Studio for your own creations in Character Art. Trust that using Clip Studio paint will allow for flexibility in the realms of tools that you can explore in the drawing process in order to bring your imagination to life on a canva. Remember that tools  that you are uncertain about, anything you don't encounter as much doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to draw with them. There are some character design concepts in the tutorial that I did not go over because I wanted to introduce y'all to the presets that I use and can best go into detail about without overwhelming individuals that are wanting to get a start on creating Character Art. As of right now I feel its best to take it day by day as cheese and annoying as that may sound.

 

Consistent practice makes art that you can appreciate, and love for the development you've grown over time. Imma be joining yall on that boat too, so don't be shy scoot over. Remember that consistency builds progress, copy what you see, study what you copied, practice what you studied from imagination, construct what you observe, study what you observe, then practice what you studied. It was an absolute pleasure making this tutorial! Wish all of you artists good luck, and this has been AlluringCalamity.

V. The End