In this tutorial, learn some effective and efficient methods Clip Studio Paint has provided to select areas on your illustrations for base colors!

Intro

Hello, all! My name is Dreamer! Welcome!

 

In this month’s tutorial, I will be teaching you all different ways to select your illustrations to apply base colors to them!

 

This is my personal way of doing things; you may find another method you like!

 

But no matter the case, I hope you find this helpful!

 

Now then, let’s get started!

The Lasso Tool!

The lasso tool will be the first thing I will be teaching you how to use to select your drawing!

 

It is located on the side bar over the eyedropper tool!

To select your drawing with the lasso tool, you must trace the overall shape of the drawing! Then, once you do that, a toolbar will appear underneath the selected area!

 

 

Using this toolbar, we’re going to fill in our illustration with the desired base color! Make sure you have a new layer underneath your sketch or line art layer, because if not, you will end up filling in your drawing layer!

 

But, if that’s the work flow you have, go for it! :)

 

You see the paint bucket icon on the tool bar (see the above image for a better view!)? Press that, and it will fill in the selected area with your base color!

 

And just like that, you’ve applied your base color! Great work!

Tip! Zoom Out!

I recommend zooming out to an overall view of your canvas when you are selecting the area of your drawing! That way, you can see everything, and you don’t have to worry about moving your canvas around or adding on more selections to what you already have, which is what I’m going to tell you how to do in this next section!

Press + Hold Shift!

If you’ve missed a portion of the drawing that you wanted selected (for me, it was the flowers), just press and hold the SHIFT key on your computer and proceed tracing what you want to be added to the selected area of the drawing!

 

You have to press shift while doing this, because if you don’t, whatever you trace without pressing and holding shift will be registered as a new selection, and it will take away what you’ve already selected!

 

Don’t stress if you do that, though! Just press “undo” and press and hold shift to add it on to the original selection! :)

 

Make sure you’re on a new layer underneath the drawing (unless that’s not how you work,) and with that, repeat the step I taught you in the last portion and press the paint bucket icon to fill in your drawing! Great job!

Press + Hold ALT!

If you added too much in your selection, just press and hold the ALT key on your computer while tracing what you want to be erased from the selection area! It does the exact same thing as when you press and hold the SHIFT key to add on to the selection! :)

The Lasso Fill Tool!

To find the lasso fill tool, you will need to go under the sub tool that has all of the shapes you can make (like a straight line, a rectangle, etc.). It will be very easy to spot once you select that sub tool! :)

The lasso fill tool is the exact same as the lasso tool; it just takes out the extra step of pressing the paint bucket tool to apply a base color to your drawing!

 

For this, you DEFINITELY need to make sure that you have a new layer underneath your drawing, or it DEFINITELY WILL cover your drawing! But again, if that’s how you work, disregard that advice! :)

 

To apply the base color to your drawing, simply trace the overall shape of your drawing on this new layer (or on top of the drawing, if that’s how you work), and when you release your mouse or stylus, it will automatically fill in the selected area with your base color!

 

This tool is not as stable as the lasso tool (you may have to repeatedly trace within your drawing to get places you missed), but in the long run, it can be a little more efficient for filling in base colors when compared to having to press a button after tracing the selection! I highly recommend trying it out and seeing how you like it!

The Magic Tool!

To find the magic tool, simply look to the right of the lasso tool! :)

This tool is personally my FAVORITE to use, because it is more stable than the lasso fill tool, and it is more efficient than the lasso tool! That said, this tool can be a little tedious when it comes to making sure it works properly.

 

But, if you do the necessary step prior to using it, it makes applying an overall base color to your base illustration a breeze!

 

What’s the necessary step? Read below to find out!

Check For Gaps!

This is VERY necessary when using the magic tool, because the “refer to editing layer only” option depends on the drawing that’s within the layer to know what to select around! If you have any gap anywhere in your drawing at all, it will not work like it should! It will register everything outside the drawing as something you want to have selected too, and it will proceed to fill in everything, including the spots you DIDN’T want selected! So, please; check for gaps in your drawing! It may be tedious to do, but I promise it’s worth it in the long run!

After you’ve checked and confirmed that your drawing has NO GAPS, you can select the area OUTSIDE of the drawing! Not within! I promise this will all make sense in a little while! Hang in there!

 

After selecting the area OUTSIDE of your drawing, the same tool bar as the one with the lasso tool should appear!

 

But for this step, instead of pressing the paint bucket icon first, we’re going to press this button! This is the “invert selection tool!” This button will make the selected area invert from outside your drawing to WITHIN your drawing! Isn’t that cool? :D

Once the inside area of your drawing is selected, make sure you’ve opened a new layer to apply your base color to underneath the drawing (unless your workflow is otherwise)! Then, simply press the paint bucket icon that we talked about earlier, and just like that, you’ve applied your base color!

 

Nicely done! :D

Bonus: Use Clipping Masks!

If you don’t know where to find the clipping mask button, here it is! :D

I find this a very handy tool to use in tandem with the selection areas I mentioned above, because once you have your base color applied to your drawing, you can then make new layers on top of it and clip them to it! That way, the colors aren’t affecting anything but the area you filled in on top of the base color!

 

I personally love using the lasso fill tool with the clipping mask layer after filling in everything with the magic tool! I’ll usually have the base color be the character’s skin color, and then have the clipped layer be the colors other than that (like their hair color, clothing colors, etc.)! It’s a very quick process for me :D

 

And after you’ve made your new layers of color with the clipping masks, you can just alpha lock those layers and add your shading and highlights to them! :)

This is the alpha lock button, by the way! :)

Outro

Congratulations! You’ve just learned three different tools you can use to select your drawings to apply base colors to them, as well as how you can use clipping masks to further speed up your color application process!

 

Again, this is how I do things! You may not want to apply your colors this way, and that’s completely fine! Find a method that works for you!

 

Just remember to credit all the artists you’ve studied and observed! Shout out to all the ones I’ve learned from!

 

And with that said, I wish you all the best and will see you next time!