Since I am going to finish the work using the lines I make in this stage, I will tidy up the rough lines drawn in the previous lesson, “2. Generating Ideas” to make the image clearer.

 

[1] Dividing the rough draft

(1) I delete the "Rough 1” layer.

Then, I duplicate one “Rough 2" layer as a backup. (Right click above the “Rough 2” layer > [Duplicate Layer])

I won’t use the “Rough 2 Copy" layer again, so I will hide it.

 

(2) I create a new layer folder.

I place the “Rough 2” layer inside it and change the folder name to “Illustration”.

 

(3) I divide each motif into parts.

Then, I click the [Selection area] tool > [Lasso].

 

(4) I surround the left character with the [Lasso] tool.

It doesn’t have to be perfect, so I select the approximate outlines.

 

(5) Then, I automatically create a new layer with [Edit] menu > [Cut] > [Paste], and only cut out the character.

I change the character layer name to “*Character 1”.

 

I repeat the same procedure for other parts of the rough draft. 

The names of the divided layers are “Foreground”, “Character 1”, “Character 2”, “Ground”, “Bottle”, and “Background”, each with a different color.

(Note: I always use the character “*” to indicate the line art layers.)

 

[2] Tidying up lines for each part

First, I will tidy up the lines of “*Character 1".

 

To check the balance, I lower or raise the opacity, and hide the other layers while drawing.

Here, I use the same “Darker pencil 2” as the draft. However, I will use a thinner line (around 10~20 px) this time.

I redraw some parts and remove unnecessarily thick lines with an eraser (Hard Eraser 1). I use a lighter color for the lines, and add decorations to make the character’s personality come out.

 

“*Character 1” looks like a boyish rabbit.

I tidy up the line art on the other layers (parts) in a similar way.

 

“*Character 2” looks like a girlish squirrel.

 

“*Bottle”: Since I am still drawing the rough draft, I draw the lines free hand.

Also, because the ladder is on top, I separated this into another layer (layer name “*Ladder") just in case.

The contents of the bottle are still vague, so I draw in more detail now.

Because the stage is set in the forest, I mainly drew vegetables inside the bottle such as onions, corn, tomato, cucumber, boiled eggs, beans, broccoli, and mushrooms. 

I also draw a handmade ladder made of tree branches.

 

“*Foreground”: Rocks and leaves. I add some nature motifs in the foreground such as grass, mushrooms, and butterflies.

 

“*Ground”: I add a stepping stone in the short grass.

 

“*Background”: I use a lighter color in the background to emphasize the foreground.

 

[3] Tidying up lines with layer masks

I will tidy up a little bit where the lines are overlapping.

Although the overlapping lines won’t be visible after I add the colors, I wanted a better sense of the overall image, so I used the layer mask feature to roughly hide the overlapping parts.

 

Hint:

By using the layer mask, I can hide (mask) part of the layer.

Read the following article to learn how to use layer masks.

 

I select the “*Bottle" layer and click the [Create Layer Mask] icon. When the layer mask is created beside the layer, I select the layer mask → [Eraser] tool → “My Erasers" sub tool group and choose the "Hard eraser”.

 

I delete the part where the “*Bottle” layer overlaps with the character.

Using the same method, I hide the other overlapping parts with layer masks.

 

Since the excess amount of leaves in the upper left created a cramped feeling, I reduced the volume of leaves.

I also created a version with no leaves at the top left, but I couldn’t decide which would be better at this stage. I decided to choose between them after adding the colors. 

 

The rough draft is complete.

 

Hint:

Clip Studio Paint is easy to use because you can quickly do things such as flipping the canvas even on files with lots of layers.

Select [Rotate/Invert] > [Flip Horizontal] in the [View] menu.

Then, select [View] > [Rotate/Invert] > [Reset Rotate/Invert] to reset the horizontal flip.