The video has subtitles in various languages. Please turn on subtitles to watch.

Introduction

This time, I will explain how to use selection areas conveniently for drawing manga in Clip Studio Paint.Using selection areas effectively can save a lot of effort and significantly reduce the time spent on drawing.In the first half of this video, I will explain how to efficiently use selection areas for finishing, and in the second half, I will also explain how to use selection areas conveniently for drawing backgrounds.

1. Useful Selection Areas for Finishing

1-1. Character Finishing

We will quickly finish this character by skillfully using selection areas.

First, to draw the black shadow in the eyes, I want to create a selection area only for the eye part to prevent it from spilling out.

In such cases, use the Shrink Selection tool.Set the *Target color* to *black areas only*, then tap the mask part of the screentone you want to select in the Layer palette, and then use the Shrink Selection tool to enclose the eye area. This allows you to select only the eye part.

The Shrink Selection tool can select a closed area of line art or a painted area by enclosing it. If you've already painted a spot once, the second time you can select it instantly just by enclosing the desired area.It's convenient when you want to apply a flat fill to an area where screentones have already been applied, or when you want to layer more screentones.

Another way to select only the desired part is to Ctrl-click the thumbnail to select the entire area, then hold Alt and use the Lasso Selection tool to erase unwanted parts.

Remember that selection tools, just like creating a selection from a layer, can add to a selection by holding Shift and erase from a selection by holding Alt.

Next, I'll use a selection area to draw a line pattern on clothes without spilling over.If you draw without a selection, you have to be careful not to let the lines go out of bounds, but if you enclose the area with a selection, you can draw freely without worrying about spillover.

When you want to adjust a pattern slightly with the Distortion (Liquify) tool, leaving it as is can interfere with adjacent patterns like this.

If you enclose it with a selection area, you can adjust only the selected part, which is convenient.

You can also select just the eye area when drawing a rough sketch and adjust it with the Distortion (Liquify) tool. This is more flexible and convenient than Free Transform or Mesh Transform.

1-2. Panel Processing

I will explain how to finish characters when they are on top of a panel.I will show how to use selection areas so that the character appears on top of the panel in the upper part, and the character is hidden by the panel in the lower part.

First, hide everything inside the panel folder, leaving only the panel borders visible. In this state, Ctrl-clicking the panel folder's thumbnail creates a selection area of only the panel borders.

Apply a mask to the character using this selection area of only the borders.

Fill the upper part of the character's mask to make it visible, and for the lower part of the character, create a selection area inside the panel and hide it with a mask to complete.

Next is about filling panels without borders like this. As shown, you can remove panel borders by touching them with the Object tool and unchecking [Draw border] .

If you try to fill in this state, the fill tool will bleed outside the lines and try to reference the entire canvas, not only failing to fill but also significantly slowing down Clip Studio's performance.

The Shrink Selection tool is also useful in such cases.

The panel folder's mask still retains the areas without borders. If you enclose this mask area with the Shrink Selection tool, you can select the mask area of panels without lines.

With a selection area, you can fill without spilling over, even if there are no borders.

When you want to select a borderless panel at the edge of the manuscript, you can successfully select it by turning ON the *Refer to image border* checkbox in the Shrink Selection tool.

Supplement: Canceling Fills

By the way, if the Auto-select tool or Fill tool spills over and Clip Studio Paint freezes, you can cancel it by pressing the *Esc* key once.

2. Application to Backgrounds

2-1. Editing Pattern Brushes

Next, I will introduce a method to adjust backgrounds drawn with pattern brushes using selection areas.Backgrounds drawn with pattern brushes tend to appear too uniform and flat. However, by utilizing selection areas and vectorizing the line art for adjustment, this impression can be reduced.

First, as preparation, use *Select Color Gamut* from the *Selection* menu to select the black line parts, cut them to separate them from the base, and then fill the area where the base lines were with white.Convert the line art to a vector layer using *Convert Layer* from the *Layer* menu.

By converting the line art to a vector layer, you can add nuance to the line art using the Line Width Correction tool.

Next, I will introduce how to draw a silhouette from a pattern brush.First, I want to add a bit more depth, so I will draw another layer of grass further back.

Ctrl-click the thumbnail to select the background grass, then fill it with white.

Add lines with *Border Selection*,

Applied screentones to make the background in the distance a silhouette.

As an illustration, it might be better to add a bit more detail, but for distant views or less important backgrounds, this level of quality can be sufficient, so please remember this method.

2-2. Arranging Texture Materials

Next, I will show you how to arrange background textures using selection areas.

Prepare a brick material like this.

Here's what it looks like when pasted directly onto the background. It feels a bit lacking.

So, let's try arranging this brick material to make it a bit more elaborate.

First, change the material's [Expression color] to gray, and then

Blur it slightly with [Gaussian blur] from the [Filter] menu.

Change the [Expression color] back from gray to monochrome, adjust the alpha threshold so the brick corners become rounded, and then click Apply the expression color in preview.

Select the brick material layer by Ctrl-clicking its thumbnail,

Create a new layer and outline the selection.

A new brick material has been created.

Furthermore, by applying screentones to the entire area, then selecting and deleting the original material part, you can apply screentones only to the brick parts.

When you paste this onto the background, it will look like this.

Furthermore, by converting the brick linework to a vector layer and then randomizing the brush size with the Object tool, you can achieve a more hand-drawn feel. You can also adjust line widths or erase screentones to create an even greater sense of depth.

Next, let's try making a fence using the same method. First, prepare a grid material like this,

blur it,

adjust it to create rounded parts,

change the color to white, then apply a border.

The fence material is complete!

When this is pasted onto the veranda, it looks like this. It's more stylish than the original material.

Supplement: Selection Tools and Perspective Ruler

The Rectangle Selection tool and Polyline Selection tool can snap to the perspective ruler.This is useful when applying screentones or texture materials along a perspective.

Conclusion

That concludes the tutorial on convenient selection area usage for drawing manga.The speed of drawing itself might not increase easily, but Clip Studio Paint operations can become much faster with an understanding of its functions and practice, so please do your best.

Techniques using selection areas have been explained in other TIPS articles as well, so please check them out if you like.