Brushes

When rendering, it is encouraged to use a brush with color mixing properties. Here are the 2 main brushes I used in this tutorial, the download links are below.

 

1. Watery

(This is a CSP default brush found under “watercolor”. But if you cannot find it, you can download it via the CSP brush package below)

2. Palm meanwhile (ひらふでぽいやつ　改)

 

 

Outline

To simplify, we will be following 6 steps:

1. Line Art

2. Flats

3. Shadows

4. Lighting

5. Rendering

6. Special Effects (blur, glow, etc.)

Please note that this is a general outline, after step 6, there can be many more additional renders.

1. Line Art

One of the advantages of rendering is that your line art doesn’t have to be clean, it can even be considered a sketch! That’s because everything will be painted over later. After you complete this, set the blending mode to Multiply.

2. Flats

For Flats, I used the Watery brush and colored the character on one layer. Make sure the background is on a separate layer.

3. Shadows

So far, we have our Line Art and Flat layers. Create a new folder (folder icon) and drag those two layers into it. We will create a shadow layer on Multiply mode clipped onto the folder.

4. Lighting

Like the previous step, we will create a new layer and clip it onto the folder. Except this time the blending mode is set to Overlay. Here, I used an airbrush to paint in the lighting.

5. Rendering

For this step, we will need to merge steps 1-4 all onto one layer.

First, turn off any background layers by clicking the eye icon. This also includes the default Paper layer at the very bottom.

After this, we will be left with a transparent “background”.

Next, click the 3 dots next to the Layers tab. This will display the selection for “Merge visible layers to new layer(X)”. Once you click it, a new layer with only the character will be created at the very top.

Now you can start rendering! Here, I used the Palm Meanwhile brush to go over the line art and repaint different areas.

I also added a highlight to the character’s hair and eye.

6. Special Effects

Sometimes, the colors may look dull. We solve this by Tonal Correction! It can be found under Edit. There are many options available to adjust the colors of your artwork, I personally recommend “Hue/Saturation/Luminosity”. However in this tutorial. I will be using Tone Curve, this is helpful for contrasts and slight color deviations.

Clicking Tone Curve will open a graph. Depending on your artwork, the adjustments will look different for you. To create a point, simply click and drag anywhere on the graph. To delete a point, simple drag it out of the graph and it will disappear. Once satisfied, click OK.

Afterwards, I smoothed everything over with the Watery brush. Keep in mind of the the pen pressure: using light pressure with a large brush size will be easier to blend areas together while the opposite is easier for details.

 

Utilizing the Blur tool is also a great option!

Rim Lighting

A fantastic way of making your portrait pop is adding rim light! Here, I created a new layer and set it to Add (Glow) and then outlined with greater emphasis in the direction of the light source. Do use this sparingly, especially in areas where the light source isn’t direct but can still reach.

Here is the final portrait! I added a little more glow towards the bottom of the character and finished off the background using the Droplet brush (default CSP brush under “Airbrush”). Hope you enjoyed this tutorial!