A making-of tutorial with explanations for watercolor-style illustrations that can be easily created in Simple Mode. It's drawn using a minimal number of brushes and textures, following the simplest possible steps. There's also a video version of the making-of at the end of the article.

 

 

About the Brushes and Materials Used

The brushes and materials used can be downloaded for free here. CLIP STUDIO ASSETS has many brushes and textures, but finding your favorites can take time, so I've created two simple brushes for now. They may not be suitable for professional production, but they might serve as a temporary solution until you find better brushes.

Rough Edge Watercolor is a brush where colors overlap with each stroke, featuring watercolor borders, no texture, and no color mixing. Blur Water is a brush that doesn't apply color but blurs and mixes colors already on the canvas. With watercolor borders turned on, it can also create a water-drop effect.

For textures, I've prepared three types of Wpaper to add paper texture, and Water color tex to add watercolor bleeding. Paste them from the Material palette and layer them using blending modes like Overlay.

I created this method by separating the roles of applying color, blurring color, and adding texture, believing it would make painting clear and easy. Basically, you paint by repeatedly placing color with Rough Edge Watercolor and blurring with Blur Water on a layer below the Wpaper and Water color tex layers.

 

 

Making Of

I will be creating this in Simple Mode of CLIP STUDIO PAINT PRO for iPad. I selected the preset square canvas (1668x1668px). I'm prioritizing ease of drawing over print resolution. First, I drew the rough sketch, underdrawing, and line art using a chalk brush from the pencil category.

From the Material palette, I adjusted the size of Wpaper_np and Water color tex, pasted them, and set both to Overlay. For now, I set the opacity of Wpaper to around 30% and Water color tex to around 80%. I also locked the layers to prevent accidental drawing on them. After this, I'll create new layers below these texture layers and start drawing.

Base Coat

Create a new layer for the base coat above the line art layer and set it to Multiply. From here, I'll mainly use Rough Edge Watercolor and Blur Water to paint. First, apply a light color over the entire area, then blur it for the base coat. Here, I turned on watercolor borders for Blur Water.

 

 

After blurring, the color was still too strong, so I slightly reduced the opacity of the base coat layer.

 

 

Overall Painting

Once the base coat is finished, create another Multiply layer and start applying the main colors with Rough Edge Watercolor. The colors will overlap with each stroke, creating unevenness, but don't worry about it; in fact, I intentionally paint to create such unevenness.

After roughly applying the colors, blur them with Blur Water. Here, I turned off watercolor borders for Blur Water. When blurring, don't flatten everything; instead, allow some unevenness, edges, and unpainted spots to remain. Also, if there are minor overlaps where paint went outside the lines, leave them without erasing. This creates an analog watercolor-like atmosphere.

Add a Multiply layer and continue painting. Paint the entire piece by repeatedly creating a Multiply layer, applying color, and blurring. I switch the watercolor borders for Blur Water on and off as needed to achieve specific effects.

 

 

Shading

Once the entire piece is colored, paint the shadows. Again, it's fine to repeat creating a Multiply layer, applying color, and blurring. When painting shadows, instead of just making them darker, apply them with a shift in hue to create a sense of transparency. The shadows were too strong, so I reduced the opacity of the shadow layer.

 

 

Highlights and Texture Adjustment

After finishing all the shadows, create a new layer with the Normal blending mode above the line art layer and draw white highlights using a pen or pencil. Then, unlock the two texture layers created at the beginning, adjust their opacity while observing the overall texture strength, and that completes the painting.

Overall Color Adjustment

Finally, I'll adjust the overall colors. Since adjustment layers and filters are not available in Simple Mode, I'll use layer blending modes. Long-press the "+" to add a layer and select "Add Merged Layer." A merged layer is a layer that combines all currently visible layers on the canvas into one. Adjust the contrast and saturation by changing the blending mode and opacity of this layer. Here, I created two merged layers: one set to Multiply at 10% to deepen the colors, and another set to Overlay at 10% to boost saturation and contrast. If you're happy with the result, add your signature and it's complete.

The method described in this making-of uses few brushes and relies on repeating the same steps, so I believe it's a painting style that can be done without overthinking. From here, you can also develop your own expressions by using various brushes or changing layer blending modes.

Addendum

2024/05/08 Addendum: An example of an illustration drawn with the same steps as the making-of above, with added effects using preset brushes like Splash Watercolor and Droplet, and the Dodge (Glow) blending mode.

Video

Timelapse

Making-of with Commentary (Video Version)

This video was created based on the making-of content above.