Digital oil painting is my absolute favorite and I'm happy to share what l've

learned.

I'm using the tablet version of Clip Studio Paint but these tips should still be helpful if you're using a different version.

In this article I will share my painting process and helpful tips, including some things you can do to practice and improve your work.

And yes, I will be showing you how I painted the unicorn! 😊

---

The first tip I want to share is the brush I recently found and absolutely love.

It's the “Oil Nylon 01” brush by Clip Studio Paint Official and I highly recommend downloading it (for free). I used it in the painting featured on the cover photo above. It has a smooth quality but it's still very painterly.

Below I've demonstrated some other oil style brushes by CSP that I love to use.

1- Oil Nylon 01

2- Oil

3- Thick Oil

4- Pointillism

5- Oil Pastel

I recommend trying several and choosing some that are easy to use and customize. I also recommend that you play around with the settings on each brush. I save duplicates of my favorite brushes with various settings and sizes. It's one of the best things I've ever done and has saved me a lot of time and hassle.

Because this article is for beginners, I want to mention simple mode. It can be helpful if you're a bit overwhelmed by the workspace in Studio mode. This is one of the best features of the tablet and smartphone versions of CSP.

The Painting Process

I chose to paint a simple still life in this example because it's something that is easy for beginners to practice. Think of it as a mini study.

I actually recommend painting something you don't necessarily like, or with colors you don't normally use. This will force you to go outside your comfort zone and get better. Try to do something like this as often as you can.

Drafting and sketching are the foundation of any piece. It's very important to take your time and do it right. Nothing is worse than realizing you have wonky off kilter shapes in the finishing process!

Using your references during this stage can help you make clean shapes with proper scale, and choose colors that are harmonious. As you start painting more complex pieces you may also benefit from the ruler and line tools in CSP.

I like to sketch in color sometimes because it adds more information to

guide me. I've used a more saturated green for my shadow shapes.

It’s also helpful when making my final selection (the dark green outline) and it's easier to see both the sketch layer and new painting layer at the same time.

One perk of digital oil is painting in any order you'd like thanks to layers. I actually like to wait and paint the background after I finish my subject or focal point, but in this case I did complete the background first. I wanted to use it like under painting and allow it to show through in some areas.

For the pear I've started with the outline and some colors that I want to blend in with the base color. At this stage I felt comfortable making the sketch layer invisible, but I don't delete it just incase I need it later on.

I've already selected most of the colors I'm going to use in this piece so I go ahead and make a pallette layer while they're fresh in my mind and color history. This is something that has been extremely helpful with complex pieces that can not be completed in one sitting. Aside from saving my colors, it's also helpful to see them together. I get a better idea of how they interact and I can make a confident decision in where to use them.

Next I start to fill in the pear and pull from the shadows with my base color. The base color is generally going to be the color you can see the most of. In this case, it's the lighter green.

I repeat strokes in one direction starting with my brush touching the outline of the shadow and stopping where I want the shadow to stop. As you can see in the finished piece, this creates a very smooth color transition.

For the highlights and other colors I want to blend in, I've used more of a back and forth zig zag motion. This is because I wanted to keep them more in one small area.

The highlights almost always get lost and typically my last step is adding them back in. Plus it's usually the most exciting part.

Another part of my finishing process is always going around the edges or lines and making sure that they're smooth and crisp. I also check all of the corners to make sure I've filled them completely.

If I were going to use a blender this would be something I did towards the end, but in this particular piece I did not use a blender. In the next segment I will explain why.

Practice and Improve

Smooth color transitions are one of the best qualities of digital oil.

We can achieve this with the brush, blender, or a combination of both.

It's something you should definitely practice and it will benefit you in the long run.

 

I like to try and do most of the work with the brush because it's easier to preserve the painterly quality. Below I've demonstrated a few techniques I use. The orange arrows indicate the direction of the brush strokes used.

My favorite is what I call the “push/pull” technique. I use the brush to both push and pull each color, which results in stronger color blending than the other techniques. It works best with the color stretch setting increased to around 50.

 

Depending on how many times you repeat the process, it can look very painterly or very smooth.

Below is a complete digital oil painting in which I've used this technique

The hair (or mane, I suppose) has many colors with soft transitions. I did this by starting with one stroke of each color and leaving space between them. Next I used white to push and pull the colors which blended them slightly and filled the remaining area.

I used the painterly blender to get the smooth effect of hair but I decreased the size and used it lightly to preserve the original work done with the brush.

(Remember, there's no need to paint every stand of hair. Start with shape, shadows/highlights, then add detail with a few individual strands)

The clouds demonstrate a lighter use of the same method. I only make a few passes with the brush to connect each color. The pink arrows indicate my brush placement and stroke. I used the color in the middle (#2) because it's touching both of the other colors, and it's in the mid range as far as saturation. If I used the lightest color it would create disruption when blending colors #2 and #3.

I've also used the eraser and a smaller brush size to smooth out the edge of the clouds and any other shapes I want clearly defined. In many cases this is more efficient than painting the entire shape with a small brush.

Remember to keep practicing and spend extra time with your sketching or drafting. Both will pay off.

I hope this article has helped you and thanks for reading!