Hi there! This tutorial will cover some simple and easy ways to make your artwork more vibrant and colorful using Clip Studio Paint.

 

Even after you have already finished your drawing, there are many ways to easily adjust or add colors to create beautiful effects and enhance your art!

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I am using CSP EX V.1 PC version in this tutorial. Some differences in interface may occur, but most information should still be accurate across most versions.

But first, a little introduction to color theory! 🎨

I should make this clear: I am not an expert on color theory. But I am steadily learning, and I’d like to share what I know so far.

 

Knowing even just a little bit of color theory can help you a long way in using colors to the best of their ability. I will only cover the basics here the best I can. I highly recommend you study it deeper on your own when you are ready. 🙂

 

 

Look at your color wheel. If you can’t find it, go to the top of your program and click Window > Color Wheel.

There are a few ways to find colors that go well together by simply observing this wheel.

The easiest thing most might do is use two or three colors in the same color family. This is called “monochrome” and “analogous”.

 

For example, if you are adding shadow or light to green. You might think of making the green lighter or darker to convey that.

While this is a great way to pick colors, it can often feel boring and not very eye-catching.

 

So, how do we improve this?

It comes down to picking complimentary or contrasting colors.

A straight line across the color you are using on the wheel can get you a complimentary color.

Another way is to use a triangle shape, a square, or sometimes a “Y” shape to find colors that contrast or complement each other nicely.

The image above is just a few examples. You can rotate or spin the shapes to create many different combinations using the colors you want.

 

The result is an artwork that appears much more colorful!

Another thing to note is two sides of the color wheel represent two color types, “warm” and “cool”.

Warm colors may remind you of the bright glow of a sunset. While cool colors are reminiscent of a shimmering pool of water.

 

When coloring something in “shadow” it will likely have a cool tone of color in it. The same way you might find warm tones within something in the “light”.

It’s also common that a warm color will complement a cool color. In the same sense, a cool color will complement a warm color.

 

 

In the example below, the darkest part of “shadow” in this character’s hair is painted in blue, a cool tone.

If you want a particular color to “pop”, add the opposite color type to it.

Sometimes this can be an easier way to remember a little bit of color theory over shapes on the color wheel!

💡 You can find plenty of examples of color theory in real life too! From the shade of a tree on the sidewalk, to the colors of a cloudy sunset. Look closely at nature around you and you might notice that there are many more colors involved than it seems at a glance!

Be aware of your color values!🔦

Color value is how dark and light the colors become. A deeper contrast in values usually presents richer colors. The values are much easier to see when converted to a black and white state.

For example, the number of shades of grey you have between the darkest and lightest colors you use is going to represent more color variations.

 

 

In this case, there are 5 potential shades of grey.

1: Ambient shadow color.

2: Darkest shadow.

3: Base color.

4: Highlight rim.

5: Highlight.

*I forgot to include the shadow cast by the sphere.

You should check your values as you paint to make sure everything looks accurate.

It’s also very important for representing 3D forms, as it conveys the sense of depth of a 3D object.

 

One way you can see your color values easily is by making a New Correction layer > Hue/Saturation/Luminosity.

Turn the saturation slider ALL the way down -100% (this is the left side on PC). Now you have your art in black and white!

Another way this can be done is by using a layer with a blending mode.

 

Create a new layer above your art and set the blending mode to “saturation”. This is in the pull-down menu in the layer properties that is usually set to “normal”.

 

I’ll go further into detail about using blending mode layers a little later on!

Then use the fill bucket tool to fill in the entire layer with black. White works the same way.

The two methods produce slightly different results, so keep that in mind.

This is one of the easiest ways to get a black and white image without changing the settings on your operating system.

As long as you have this correction layer on top of all of your art layers, you can toggle it on and off as you need by clicking the “eye” on the layer. Making it very easy to check on your color values as you paint!

 

You may feel like the colors you choose look good until you change it to black and white. Now you might realize it appears really dull because the colors are too similar in value.

Take a look at this example, the colors of this frog look cute, right?

Now I will check what it looks like in black & white…

Oh… The purple and green colors are nearly the same shade of grey! Even looking at the green color on the square color space, you can see it’s nearly in the same level of hue.

While there is not always something particularly wrong with this, it does bring to question how “colorful” you want the end result. Usually, some level of contrast or variation of hue is far more appealing.

I will adjust the colors by moving the color-picker deeper into the square diagonally and turning the wheel a bit more into the next color.

As a general rule, the center of the square is the safest to pick from. Anything around the edge of the center may be too bright, or too dull.

However, if you are painting vibrant pop art, you may want to choose a hue closer to the upper right.

And if you are painting a moody scene, something from the left side will help convey that emotion.

It’s entirely up to the artist and how you want your art to “feel”.

Here is the result after adjustment:

As you can see, the purple and green colors are now much easier to tell apart in grey. The colors also look more vibrant! I didn’t even realize I was using such dull colors until I checked the values in black and white…

 

It’s very helpful to check it a few times while painting and even after you are finished. Just to make sure the colors are looking okay.

 

Some artists might even choose to color the entire art in black and white, relying purely on values; and add color afterwards!

 

Which I’ll explain in my next point:

Using gradient maps and filters.

I’ve colored this rose from Clip Studio’s pre-installed assets. I painted the light and shadows completely in black and white. I’m going to add some color by using only gradient maps!

 

There are so many amazing gradient maps available in the ASSET store. Most of which are free or super affordable!

Here are just a few I like to use:

But even the standard sets the program comes with are great in their own right.

To apply a gradient map to a layer, go to Edit > Tonal correction > Gradient map…

Alternately, you can create a new layer with the gradient effect by going to Layer > New correction Layer > Gradient map…

Once you’ve clicked that, choose the gradient map you like from the options.

You can preview what they look like in real time, so be sure to click through lots of them to see what you like best! Below are just a few of the options that I chose.

The rose was colored in one click of a button! How easy is that?

When you want to add new gradient maps to use, in the gradient map window, click on the wrench icon > Add gradient set.

If you have downloaded gradient sets before, they should show up in the following window. Simply click on them to add it to your list of gradient sets to choose from.

Not only can you quickly color greyscale or black and white art this way, gradient maps are also a great way to quickly adjust the colors in your art! They can even act as a filter to create a certain feeling.

Some gradient maps with more colors rely on the contrast and value of your art to add color to. If your art has more or less values than the gradient map you want to use, it may not work out and look strange…

This gradient map didn’t work correctly on this illustration… But it may work for a different one!

💡 As a bonus tip, I think it’s useful to send the art you are drawing to another device (smartphone, PC, tablet, etc.) and preview it on that screen.

Everyone’s screen resolutions are different, so your art may appear completely different on someone else’s device. It can be helpful in trying to find a balance of color that looks great on any screen!

Using blending modes!

As for adding more color to your art, perhaps after it is mostly painted, blending modes can be one of the best tools in digital art! These are layers that have certain effects applied to whatever you draw on them.

To use a blending mode on a layer, just click the button here in the layer properties. It’s usually set to normal by default. Choose the mode you want from the pull-down menu!

 

For example, multiply and overlay blending modes will make any colors painted on this layer darker or brighter, respectively.

You can set the blending mode on a new layer and clip it to your color layer to add new color on top. Doing it this way can sometimes preserve your rendering, instead of worrying about ruining your progress so far.

 

For now, let’s focus on Color and Hue blending mode layers. They can be the best for easily adding more colorful effects.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I have the layer thumbnail set to “largest” in order to show you what is on which layer. You can do this by clicking on the layer thumbnail (to the left of your layer’s name) and go to Thumbnail size > Largest.

Let’s add some color to this rose again. This time using blending layers!

 

If painting on a “color” mode layer, you might get this:

Here I’ve only used the bucket tool to color the rose yellow. It now has color… but the shadows remained quite dark.

 

I added another color mode layer above the yellow one and clipped it as well. I used the airbrush to softly add some red-orange to complement the yellow color and bring more color to the deeper shadows.

Below is the result!

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Now let’s try a “hue” blending layer.

This time I’ll use one of the roses I already added color to using a gradient map earlier.

 

Just like before, create a new layer above the layer with this color.

Set the blending mode to “hue”

 

I used the soft airbrush to add some blue to the shadows and some yellow to the highlights.

Remember what I explained about warm and cool colors earlier?

It’s getting there. But it still looks like it could use more color variation.

 

Let’s try another blending layer above this one: “overlay”. It will make the colors brighter.

 

I added more blue, purple, orange and yellow on this new “overlay” layer.

It certainly looks more colorful this way!

You can experiment with layer modes and different colors to find what works best for you!

 

Alternately, most brush and even decoration tools have a blending mode built into them, too. You can toggle it to the mode you like in the tool property window here:

It doesn’t always work as effectively as a blending layer. But it may still be worth experimenting with.

I personally like using blending modes with decoration brushes!

 

Anyway, the rose has been colored, but doesn’t it seem like something is still holding it back from its colorful potential...?

The line art is still in black ink!

Coloring your line art

If you are an artist who uses line art in their work, having colored lines might seem like a difficult task at first.

You might not have all of your colors planned yet, or maybe you chose a color too bright or dark for your lines.

Here’s a way to color your line art really easily. It’s even easy to change if you decide you don’t like it!

Create a new raster layer above the layer with your line art. If your lines are in a folder, make sure the new raster layer is not inside that folder.

 

Click this button to clip the layer to the one below it. You can even clip it to a folder, if that is where your layers are. Just be aware it will affect every layer within the folder! It should look something like this:

This basically creates a mask that will only draw on your line art.

 

Now you can paint any color on top of your line art! I personally like to use the airbrush to paint soft colors that match the surrounding area. Be careful not to color the lines any lighter than the colors the around it.

 

You can use any tool you like for this! Gradient tool, fill bucket, watercolor brush, even decoration brushes might add a unique touch.

 

Since it is on its own layer, I don’t need to worry about destroying my lines or what I’ve painted so far. I can erase or color without too much worry!

And there!

The line art is colored and clean without touching the painting I’ve already done.

Closing words

I know digital art can be difficult to learn at first, but with these simple tricks, I think you can level up your art at an incredible pace! I definitely wish I knew them when I started out.

 

Every artist will work with tools differently, or desire different results. So, I recommend experimenting with what you learn to find your own way to make your art the best it can be!

 

If there is still anything left unclear, please feel free to ask in the comments. I would be happy to help explain further! If you found this tutorial useful, please remember to leave a ❤.

 

And if you are interested in my art, you can check the link below or follow the links in my profile.

Thank you for reading. Until next time! ☆