Hello and welcome to another one of my tutorials. This time I will be showing how you can create a Magical Fire Effect in Clip Studip Paint that is easy and quick. Let's get started.

Setting up the layers

First, go to the Layer Palette and create a new folder by going to Layer > New layer folder or by simply clicking the folder icon at the top of the Layer Palette. Now create two new layers inside this folder by clicking on the folder and then go to Layer > New Layer > Raster Layer or clicking the 'New Raster Layer' icon found at the top of the Layers Palette two times.

 

Use the bucket tool to fill the second/last layer in the folder with the color black.

Then, fill the last layer in the folder with black using the Bucket Tool.

Adding Gradient Map

Now, it's time to add the Gradient Map that will have the colors we want to be in our Magical Fire. Click on the first layer in the folder, then go to Layer > New Correction layer > Gradient map. A dialogue box will pop up. Ensure the 'Specified Color' option is selected. Now click on any position on the 'Color Bar' where you want to add a color, and a node should appear. Then click the colored box below the 'Specified Color' option. Another box will pop up where you change the color to the one you want. Click 'OK' and add the other colors you want to your Bolor Bar. Add the colors you want the brightest parts of your fire to be to the right of the color scale, and those that you want the dullest parts of your fire to be to the left of the color scale. You can move the nodes of the Color Bar to adjust the positioning of the colors.

If you look in your Layers Pallette you should see three layers in your folder being: The Correction Layer (Gradient Map), a blank layer and finally, a layer filled with black.

Finally, set the Blending Mode of the folder to 'Screen'. You do this by going to the Layer Palette and clicking the drop down arrow at the top which has the words 'Normal' beside it. A list will drop down, look for 'Screen' and click it. Your black background should disappear so don't panic because this is expected.

 

This part is essential for our effect to work properly. This blending mode makes the color black transparent while the color white remains as is. So colors that are near black would have a low opacity while those near white will have higher opacity. Then Gradient Map maps the colors that are selected onto your image based on the value of the areas on the image. So those with a higher value will have the colors that are to the right of the color scale that you made, and those with lower values will have colors to the left of the color scale. The Screen blending mode together with the Gradient Map helps to achieve the effect.

Which layer to paint on

First, I recommend that you add a dark background. This background layer should be outside of the folder and below it.

The blank layer between the Correction layer (Gradient Map) and the the layer filled with black is where we paint. If you want to add more layers, just make sure they are between these two layers with the Gradient Map and Black Fill.

 

Before anything else, select the color 'White'. If you choose a brush with different opacities like the airbrush, you will notice that the opaque parts in the center of the brush are the colors to the right of the Color Bar while those that are more transparent near the edge of the brush are the colors to the left of the Color Bar.

If you choose a brush with no levels of opacity like the G-Pen, lower the opacity of the brush and make various strokes on the canvas so that they overlap. You will notice that the same effect is achieved.

Brush

The brush we will be using is this free smoke brush from Clip Studio Assets. Download it by going to the link below and clicking the red download botton. Go to Clip Studio Paint and select where you want it to be stored by selecting a brush that is already there. For example, I selected the 'Decoration' tool and choose the Effect sub tool . Then click the 'Import sub tool icon at the bottom of the palette and select the smoke brush that was downloaded. You will see it added to list of brushes.

Magical Fire Effect

This is the image I will be working with. It has a nice dark background to contrast with our Magic Fire.

With the color white and our smoke brush selected, set the size and lower the opacity of the brush. Draw your Magical Fire by repeatedly drawing strokes ontop of each other. Use long soft strokes for the body of the fire with a large brush size, then use wiggly hard strokes for the heart of fire.

Well, this is the end of the tutorial and I hope you found this helpful. Bye.