My name is sdt, and I draw illustrations using a combination of analog and digital methods.
Here, I will explain how to create illustrations with a watercolor and analog-style texture using my custom brushes and materials.
Target Art Style
Even though it's called 'watercolor,' the style varies greatly among artists.
There are those who paint delicate, fantastical landscapes and still lifes, those whose works are so realistic they could be mistaken for photographs, those who draw character art with vibrant pop colors, storybook styles, sketches, fluid styles that use a lot of water, and thick painting methods that involve careful layering. All of these are watercolor works if painted with watercolor paints.
With so many different directions, I first clarify what kind of watercolor style I want to achieve.
Here, my usual analog painting style serves as the foundation. I want to reproduce the texture and atmosphere of the watercolor paintings I create digitally.
My usual analog watercolor illustrations look like this.
These are illustrations with a heavy composition, featuring characters or people combined with substantial backgrounds and small objects. They are not the type that emphasizes the beauty of negative space or fresh transparency.
And here's a painting drawn in a watercolor style with CLIP STUDIO PAINT.
While not completely analog, I believe the nuances are quite close to an analog feel, don't you think?
This time, I will explain how I drew this picture.
Since this article has a lot of text, if you find reading tedious or just want to grasp the general atmosphere, please check out the time-lapse I posted on Instagram.
What is a Watercolor Brush?
When I refer to 'watercolor brushes,' I generally categorize them into two types:
(1) Brushes that allow you to layer paint while creating brushstrokes, as if painting with a real brush.
(2) Brushes created by scanning actual watercolor depictions, used like stamps to add subtle nuances.
Not all 'watercolor brushes' can be categorized into one of these two types, but this is the guideline I use when painting in a digital environment.
The brushes I'll be using this time are generally of type (2). It feels more like coloring with stamp brushes rather than 'painting' with a brush or pen. Conceptually, it might be similar to stenciling.
Even with textured brushes like (2), if you layer them too much, they just become a flat solid color. So, the idea is to place textures on the screen like stamps without over-painting.
Rough Sketch
Let's start the production. First, the rough sketch. This time, I'm drawing a type of illustration where I don't ink the main lines. The rough sketch was drawn with the pencil tool.
Since taking photos of stairs and windows is my hobby, I drew the background by referencing accumulated photos.
The lighting model is based on this 3D material.
This illustration is divided into background, characters, and confetti.
Layer Structure
I'll explain the layer structure.
Basically, layers are separated into folders for rough sketches and colors.
To achieve a paper texture, I place a drawing paper layer at the very top. I will explain the effect of this layer later, after the coloring is complete.
Preparation for coloring.
The 'Background Color' folder is placed above the 'Background Line Art' folder and set to multiply.
Layers for coloring the background will be placed inside the 'Background Color' folder.
Background Coloring
Place the image material 'Texture Gradient Sunset' in the 'Background Color' folder and set the layer opacity to around 30. By laying this image at the very bottom, the overall image will have a subtle, faint color gradient texture. It's a subtle difference, but let's believe that accumulating these subtle differences adds richness.
The color will change as more layers are added and adjusted, so I'm not too concerned about the exact hue; it's simply placed as a mottled base.
Explanation of Masks
With 'Texture Gradient Sunset' selected, click the 'Create Layer Mask' button to display the mask. A mask is a function that allows you to adjust which parts are displayed. Here, you can think of it as being able to use an eraser while preserving the original image, and if you make a mistake, you can always revert to the initial state.
Select the mask area and start creating the background base.
With the mask selected, erase the parts where color texture is not needed.
Erase with the eraser tool.
This is the erased state.
Watercolor and Analog-like Expression
Using the 'type (2) brush, created by scanning actual watercolor depictions and used like a stamp to add subtle nuances,' as explained in 'What is a Watercolor Brush?', I will create watercolor and analog-like texture expressions.
Texture Examples
Before starting to paint, I'll talk about what makes something look like watercolor or analog-style.
Digital painting is based on flat, solid colors, but analog watercolor painting has the characteristic that even if you paint with a single color, it's difficult to achieve perfect uniformity. A quick way to reproduce this is to have 'uneven color.' While there are many subtle details, here I'll simply think of it as 'not a flat color.'
The following example uses my custom 'Buwa: Watercolor Brush.' The brush itself has a paper texture, allowing for uneven, analog-like coloring. If you layer it too much, it becomes a flat solid color, so it's not suitable for careful layering on a single layer. It's a brush that is effective for stamp-like drawing.
The basic painting method is to roughly apply paint and then erase the excess.
Roughly apply paint
Erase.
From here, are examples of creating complex colors.
I added another layer and painted it with red and yellow in the same way.
For now, I've painted the entire thing. The clothing parts were separated into blue/red-yellow layers, but the hair part was colored on a single layer.
From here, I'll change the color of the clothes using layer effects.
The clothing area is made up of two layers: one painted blue and another painted with red and yellow.
By changing the layer settings for the red and yellow layer, various color tones can be achieved, which is effective when you want to create variations that go beyond your own color sense.
Instead of mixing colors on a single layer, I create complex color tones by layering one layer per color. This is because separating layers allows you to change density and layer settings, thereby altering how colors overlap and their textures.
Here, I'm demonstrating the effect with vivid colors, but in actual drawing, I often use it more subtly, just to add a slight nuance.
Furthermore, you can apply a split-tone effect using a gradient map.
Brush strokes with an uneven analog texture have rich variations in light and shadow, allowing for the creation of various color tones through layer settings, color correction, and other processing. I think it would be interesting to experiment with different approaches.
The image above used the following gradient map.
Below are samples from when I was experimenting with what effects my custom brushes could produce. Various colors and textures can be achieved by combining watercolor brush drawing with gradient maps and layer effects.
This time, I'm using my own custom brushes, but CLIP STUDIO PAINT can also use Photoshop brushes. Therefore, if you are an Adobe user, you can import and use watercolor and analog-style brushes distributed officially by Adobe, as well as Photoshop watercolor brushes sold on various material sites, in CLIP STUDIO PAINT. There's a vast accumulation of resources from previous artists, so I think it would be fun to look for your favorites.
https://www.adobe.com/jp/products/photoshop/brushes.html
Brushes Used for Coloring
The four types of watercolor brushes I'll be using this time are listed below. I'll paint with these.
'Fuwanuri' is a brush whose tip, which stamps texture, is slightly optimized for painting. It creates a soft, damp-looking stroke with fluffy edges.
It's used with a larger brush size for applying texture, and with a smaller brush size for detailed painting and drawing. I frequently change brush settings while painting, so please consider the initial settings of this brush as merely the values it had when the material was registered.
The 'Boa,' 'Buwa,' and 'Maru' brushes below are used like stamps.
Painting Process
The basic painting method is:
1) Use a large brush size to apply paint like stamping over the entire area.
2) Erase unnecessary parts with an eraser or mask.
I fill in colors according to my mood, as I'll adjust them later anyway.
It's common to want to 'change the color' after painting. Unlike analog, there's no need to get it right on the first try, so you can adjust to your liking by inserting color correction layers and so on.
▼ I layer colors, considering where I want to make them darker or brighter.
▼ I drew the black door frame on the right and the view outside the window.
I applied a light color, then duplicated the layer, set it to multiply, and adjusted the layer's opacity, or made the brush color transparent to erase parts, thereby adjusting the intensity and gradients.
▼ The handrails of the stairs and the patterns on the pillars are drawn using 'Boa,' 'Maru,' and 'Buwa' brushes. I drew them like patterns, then made the brush's drawing color to transparent to erase parts. I layered several randomly drawn layers, then multiplied, overlaid, combined, color-corrected, and applied a gradient map until it looked like a stone pattern, and then stopped. It's similar to what I did in the 'Texture Examples' section. The rough texture on the stair steps also uses the 'Boa' brush.
▼ I created separate layers for the areas I wanted to brighten, used the 'Buwa' or 'Maru' brush to apply a soft white, then erased parts, adjusted density, set layer modes to glow, or added highlights.
▼ I added shadows and dirt. These were painted with the 'Fuwanuri' brush.
It might be hard to see, but I used the 'Buwa' brush to softly paint white air in the middle of the space.
The shadow areas have watercolor-like edges applied through layer settings.
By clicking the circle button in the 'Effect' section of the Layer Property palette, a border is applied to the drawn elements.
For the border type, you can choose between 'Border' and 'Watercolor Border.' Selecting 'Watercolor Border' displays parameters to adjust the border's appearance, allowing you to set it to your preference.
In this painting, the shadow on the pillar at the far right of the screen also has a watercolor border applied using layer effects. The shadow itself was simply painted roughly with a brush.
For now, the background coloring is complete.
Character Coloring
Layer Structure
Next, I'll color the characters.
Let's review the layer structure.
The 'Character Color' folder for coloring is placed above the 'Character Line Art' folder, and all coloring layers will go into this folder. The folder's setting is 'Multiply,' just like for the background.
'Hane' is the folder for the male character's coloring layers, and 'Mimi' is for the female character's coloring layers.
I also set 'Clip to Layer Below' for the 'Character Color' folder.
When the 'Character Color' folder is selected, clicking the button indicated by the red square in the image below will ensure that colors are only applied to the parts of the image within the 'Character Line Art' folder directly below it. Folders and layers that are 'clipped to layer below' will have a red vertical line on their left side.
Let's compare with the finished image. If you turn off 'Clip to Layer Below,' you'll see that the overpainted areas of the character coloring are also visible.
My painting method isn't about carefully painting within the lines without overflowing; it's about 'painting the whole area and then erasing the excess.' So, by turning on 'Clip to Layer Below,' I can color without worrying too much about going outside the lines.
While it's fine to finely divide and clip parts like clothes and faces, I feel that the time spent dividing parts and the time spent erasing overflow after quickly painting are roughly the same. So, I structured it this way, thinking it's sufficient if only the area outside the character's outline is masked.
Skin Coloring
I created a 'Skin' folder inside the 'Mimi' (female character) folder, which is within the 'Character Color' folder.
For skin coloring, I create layers in the 'Skin' folder.
The first layer is randomly dabbed with blue.
The second layer is yellow. I randomly add color in the same way.
The third layer is reddish. I dab color all over the skin.
Apply a layer mask to the skin folder and erase the parts that overflow onto the clothes with an eraser. By masking the folder, all blue, yellow, and red layers can be edited at once.
Adjust the skin tone by manipulating layer opacity.
Here, I changed the opacity of the blue-colored layer to about 40.
I'll continue painting other parts in this manner.
Again, the basic operation is to loosely apply color with a brush and erase any overflowing parts with an eraser. To create unevenness or gradients, I set the watercolor brush's drawing color to transparent and loosely erase some of the applied color.
I forgot to mention, but the tool I generally use to 'erase' unnecessary parts is the 'Lasso Eraser.' It's easy because you can enclose an area and quickly erase it.
Coloring Layer Structure GIF and Explanation
I thought simply posting layer composition images might not be clear, so I created a GIF that shows layers sequentially. The colors are slightly altered in the GIF, but it's for reference.
The trousers and bag are painted with the 'Fuwanuri' brush, while other areas are filled with 'Boa' and 'Maru' brushes. I apply colors by feeling, and if I think 'the color is too light?', instead of repainting, I duplicate the layer, set it to multiply, and adjust the layer opacity.
I also created a GIF that displays the layers for the other character sequentially.
The coloring layers are divided in this way. The colors around the trousers change several times because of the color correction layers inserted.
The feather part wasn't drawn with detailed strokes; instead, I dabbed gray with the 'Boa' brush, then changed the brush's drawing color to transparent and slightly erased parts of the gray area. So, the feather texture was created with about two strokes.
Mostly, I used a larger brush size to stamp textures. The areas that felt like actual painting were around the socks and shoe soles. The only parts that required fine detail were the basket and the white line on the conical hat.
The shirt color and shadow layers have the watercolor border edge setting enabled.
The overall shadow applied in the final stage was created by filling the entire area with color using the 'Fuwanuri' brush, setting the layer to multiply, and then erasing the brighter parts with the lasso eraser to achieve this shape.
The background and character colors have been applied, confetti has been colored, and highlights and fine details have been drawn. For areas that require fine detail, I also use the pencil tool.
With this, the coloring is mostly complete.
Because colors are applied with textured brushes that create unevenness, the sharpness is reduced, resulting in a softer impression for the painting.
Adding Analog Texture
Adding Paper Texture
From here, I'll further emphasize the 'analog feel.' This is the 'drawing paper' part that I skipped explaining earlier.
Prepare a 'drawing paper' material. Here, I used official CLIP STUDIO PAINT material, but many people create paper texture materials, so please find and use your favorite.
Place the 'drawing paper' material at the very top of the layers and turn ON 'Texture Combine' in the Layer Property palette.
When magnified, it looks like this.
A rough texture is applied.
This paper texture is essentially like applying noise to the entire image, so even if you replace the drawing paper image with a noise image or a stipple tone, you'll still get a 'rough, analog-like texture.' The degree of roughness is a matter of preference, so please experiment. Not limited to paper texture, using images with rough textures can also create an interesting analog-like effect.
Whether exporting illustrations for the web or printing them, you'll ultimately view the image significantly scaled down from its original drawing size.
(I forgot to mention, the canvas settings are A4 at 350dpi for this artwork.)
Differences in texture, depending on layer settings, will mostly be subtle when scaled down, often just a 'you can tell there's a slight nuance if it's pointed out' kind of difference. Even on the web, it's not common to view large images zoomed in to see every detail. Even so, the paper texture slightly changes the overall impression. Let's believe that the accumulation of subtle differences creates character.
The stipple tone above uses layer opacity 27 with an overlay setting, not texture composite. Since it uses a coarse stipple tone, a finer stipple would likely produce a slightly different result. I used the following material.
It might depend on the artwork, but I personally think the texture created when applying RGB noise is similar to fine-grained Waterford paper.
When painting with analog watercolors, variations in shading and color often appear in the drawing due to the characteristics of the paper, brush, and light source when viewing the painting, making it difficult to achieve a completely flat, single color. In other words, I believe various 'fluctuations' are elements of an analog feel.
Highly skilled watercolor artists can create beautifully flat washes and smooth, unwavering gradients, but since digital coloring defaults to flatness, it's a natural progression to find value in fluctuations.
I believe that adding noise creates an 'analog feel' because it slightly increases the range of these fluctuations.
Color Adjustment for Unevenness
Now that the drawing is complete, I'll adjust the color tone to my preference using a gradient map.
Add a gradient map layer at the very top of the layers.
From the menu, select Layer → New Correction Layer → Gradient Map.
This time, I used a soft atmospheric gradient.
Adjust the gradient map layer.
Set the gradient map layer to Overlay and change the opacity to 30.
Select the mask of the gradient map layer.
Set the 'Buwa' brush's drawing color to transparent, and then loosely erase parts of the mask to adjust the density of color nuances.
Finished
I believe I've managed to create an atmosphere close to analog watercolor, don't you think?
What constitutes a watercolor or analog style is a matter of personal preference, but I've written this illustration making-of as an example.
I hope this proves helpful in some way for your drawing endeavors.
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