Introduction

Throughout this tutorial, we will aim to cover the basis of costume design, starting with a review on different styles and silhouettes and then going over different methods for conceptualizing and creating your own designs.

Design Style Quick References

To begin, let's start by exploring a few different styles. Please note that there are many different possibilities and while I have tried to be as comprehensive as possible, these are meant to serve as a starting point and are in no way a complete representation of what you may want to use.

✧ Necklines

✧ Collars

✧ Sleeves

✧ Skirts

✧ Pants and Other Bottoms

✧ Design Lines

In addition to the above items, there are also endless options for accessories. Different types of bows and ribbons, pockets, buttons, hats, shoes, dolls, parasols, glasses, lace styles, and anything else you may want to use to set your design apart.

 

Even the addition or subtraction of one thing can drastically change a design. Let's take a look at the example, below.

Working with References

Now that we've explored a few different styles, let's take a look at how we can add detail to them.

 

We'll start by setting up a mood board or a page of references.

The images I've chosen are a combination of different photos I've taken. You may choose images for the general feel, because they convey an idea you like, or even because you like the color, contours, or shapes. Don't worry if you don't use all of the images as inspiration in your final design; you may decide to focus on one or go a different route, entirely.

Developing Ideas and Concepts

To draw more ideas from our images, try sketching related concepts, as if we're creating a web: one idea linked to another with varying degrees of relation, but related, nonetheless. Ideas can be inspired by opposites, shapes, colors, feelings, or even combinations between them and something else.

 

Notice how the flowers in the top left image can inspire bells or stars, and then from there, different kinds of bells and stars, or even a combination of the two. We can keep combining items and drawing from them, until we have something we're happy with. Some examples below:

Now that we've sketched a few ideas, let's try putting them in practice:

Notice how the arrows link a few points of inspiration.

Getting Started

Now that we've gone over the design process, let's create a new document and set our resolution to 300DPI (standard print resolution).

Let's start by sketching a few concepts; you can sketch as many as you want, but three might be a good number to start with. Sometimes we'll like certain aspects of one sketch and find that combining them with another makes for an overall better design and sometimes, we'll enjoy a later sketch more than our first.

The sketches above are based on the moodboard we've previously created, with some aspects being more prominent, and some that are related from similar concepts. Notice how changing the type of hat on the first sketch changes the overall feel of the design.

 

On the base sketch, I used a simple and versatile hairstyle, so it would easily lend itself to different concepts. You don't have to draw your hairstyle from the start, but sometimes the type of hair you choose can evoke different moods and inspire different kinds of designs.

 

The base sketch (Layer 1), as you've noticed is also in a much lighter color than the costume sketches (Layer 2). To quickly change a layer color, first select your layer, and then click the [Layer Color] button in your [Layer Property] window.

I like the default color, but you can always change your line color by clicking ❷. This will fill it with your current brush color. You can also click the ▶ next to it, to bring a color selection wheel.

 

Press [ X ] on your keyboard to quickly switch between foreground and background colors.

 

✦ If you don't see this window, you can find it under [Window] > [Layer Properties].

 

 

Looking at my sketches, I've decided to work with #4. Since our sketches are rough, we'll use the Layer Color on our costume sketch and create a new layer above it for our lineart.

 

To check for errors in your sketch before inking, try using the [Navigator] to flip your canvas view horizontally.

 

Since my drawing is set to 3/4 view, I won't be using the symmetrical ruler, but if you have any pieces in your work that you'd like to mirror, it's a useful tool to use. After selecting the [Symmetrical Ruler] from the tool panel, click anywhere and draw.

To turn off the ruler in a layer, uncheck where it says [Show Only When Editing Target]:

Once we have our lineart completed, we can start coloring. Since we want to make sure the color is filling in our lines all the way, let's create a new window for our work and drag one of the windows to the side. We'll keep one zoomed out and set one on a closer zoom.

Now that we have our two windows ready, we can begin coloring.

 

❶ Set the lineart as a Reference Layer.

❷ Set your fill tool to either ❸ [Refer to other Layers] or another tool with multiple referencing.

While the [Refer to other Layers] tool is a default to Clip Studio, the other two I've highlighted were created by others and can be found in the asset store. I've included a link to each below.

On your color layer (below lineart), fill in or draw a selection around the area you want to fill (depending on the tool).

 

✦ You may want to fill colors for different pieces of clothing on separate layers.

Creating a Pattern from an Image

Now that our base colors are in place, let's add a a pattern to the design. I've painted a few watercolor style flowers on a separate canvas and saved it as a .png to preserve transparency.

 

First, select the layer you would like to apply the pattern to. Under [File] > [Import] > [Pattern from Image].

❶ Our pattern will appear above our color layer.

❷ Select the pattern and [Clip to Layer Below].

❶ To scale our pattern, go to [Operation] and select [Object].

❷ Drag the bar up or down to change the pattern scale. Under [Scale Ratio], you can also change [Rotation Angle].

Below, I duplicated the pattern layer until I had three and then changed the scale of each for a more detailed look.

 

Adding a layer above your pattern and then clipping it to the layer below will clip through all clip layers onto the first unclipped layer under it.

Creating a Stripe Pattern

To create a stripe pattern, we'll create a new layer ontop of the base color we want the pattern to apply to.

 

Select the [Gradient] tool and then [Stripe].

 

With the stripe tool selected, drag a line on your new layer. The longer the line, the wider your stripe will be.

 

Clip your stripe layer to your color layer.

Since we don't want our stripe to be flat, let's use the [Mesh Transform] tool, located under [Edit] > [Transform] > [Mesh Transformation].

Move the grid points and hit OK.

For more complex shapes, we can increase the number of lattice points (grid points) up to ten.

Creating a Brush: Adding a Border

Since our design originally had a floral collar, we will need to create a new brush for this.

 

Start by creating a new file at a minimum of 300DPI resolution. We want to make our brush larger than we anticipate needing, due to scaling.

 

On a new, transparent layer, draw an image you'd like to turn into a brush. For this brush, I've drawn a few different pansies.

To paint the flowers, I blocked in the shapes of the petals, instead of starting with a lineart. This is fine, and we can always add some quick lines around each flower, before we make it into a brush.

 

❶ Select the image layer you'd like to add lines to.

❷ Select [Blending Mode] in the [Layer Properties] panel.

❸ Change the size of the border (I chose 1px). You can also change the border color, below.

The border effect will now also apply to anything you draw on the layer. If you like the border but don't want new items to have it, we can rasterize our layer. You may want to save a copy of the layer without the border, first.

 

To rasterize, right click the layer and select [Rasterize].

Here's a comparison of our image with and without the added lines:

Creating a Brush: Registering Materials

Before we register our brush, we'll want to decide if we want to preserve our original colors or not. By default, our expression color is set to color mode. If you want to keep the original colors, leave this alone and skip the following step.

 

If we want the brush color to ignore the original color and use our foreground and background colors, we must set the [Expression Color] to [Gray].

 

❷ Make sure you select [Apply Expression Color of Preview].

 

✦ (Skip the above step to preserve original image color in brush.)

If your images are not on different layers, draw a selection around the image you'd like to make into a brush.

 

To register, [Edit] > [Register Material] > [Image].

 

 

A material property dialog box will pop up. The displayed image represents how your brush tip will look. If you kept the expression mode to color, your image will be color. If you set it to grayscale and it is still appearing in color, go back and make sure you've selected [Apply Expression Color of Preview].

 

 

Let's take a look at some of our material options.

 

❶ The name you give your brush can be used to search for the tip shape.

❷ Make sure [Use for Brush Tip Shape] is checked.

❸ You must select a folder to save your brush to, before you can save it.

❹ Optionally, you can add multiple search tags that will apply to your brush tip shape.

Creating a Brush: Final Steps and Brush Settings

Now that we've registered our brush tip(s), we can work on the final stages of our brush.

 

If you have a brush with settings you already like, you can create a duplicate of it and replace the brush tip. If you create a lot of brushes, this can save you time later on.

 

For now, let's start by working from a new brush.

 

Under your brush panel, select the ▶≡ icon and then [Create Custom Subtool].

We are now presented with the create custom subtool window. Let's give our brush a name.

 

❶ Clip Studio comes with many nice brush icon we can use for our brush. I've selected the flower icon for this, but you can select another or even create your own.

❷ If you want to use your own icon, simply select the [User Settings] and browse for a file.

❸ Here, we can optionally add a background color to our brush icon.

When ready, hit OK.

 

Your brush will now appear as a basic round brush in the Sub Tool panel you've created it in.

 

To add the brush tip we made earlier, select the [Show Sub Tool Detail Palette] or wrench icon ❶.

 

In the Sub Tool Detail window, select [Brush Tip] ❷ and then the page icon ❸.

 

Using the name of your brush tip or search tag, search for your brush image. To select more than one image, hold [Shift] or [Ctrl] on your keyboard. Hit OK.

 

❹ Let's save our changes by selecting [Save All Settings As Default].

Try experimenting with other brush settings and then saving your settings as default, once you've found settings you like.

✦ If your brush image does not change with your brush size, try changing the [Particle Size]. Select the [↓] can change the particle size settings, such as pen pressure.

Making a Ruffle Brush

In black, draw a set of ruffles (the longer, the less repetition in the brush). Fill with white, and then change the color mode to [Gray].

 

✦ When making a ruffle brush or brush that you want to be seamless, make sure that both end points are in line with each other.

When the end points match up, follow the previous steps for creating a brush and then set your brush to [Ribbon Mode] in your [Brush Detail] window.

Because we drew our brush horizontally and our brush defaulted to a 180 rotation, it does not yet resemble the example above. Instead, it looks a bit something like the this:

By changing the [Direction] to 90, we can achieve the desired effect.

Applying Details

Now that we've created our brushes, let's go back to our design and start applying them.

 

We can also add a simple background by lightly airbrushing pieces of the layer our pattern is set to clip to.

✦ To add lace and other details, we can use a decoration brush. For this design, I've used a few brushes custom brushes, as well as the flower and ruffle brush we just made. Clip Studio also comes with its own ruffle brush, as well as other decoration tools. Additionally, you can find other brushes in the asset store. Here's where you can find Clip Studio's decoration brushes:

For the boots, I've used a lace-up decoration brush. It doesn't quite fit, but we can adjust this with the [Mesh Transformation] tool. To review, you can find this tool under [Edit] > [Transform] > [Mesh Transformation.]

 

In our previous example, we used a 3x3 grid, but we'll try a 10x10, this time.

Move and pinch the corners. Try experimenting with moving different points and see how each affects the result.

 

Let's erase a few parts and add a tie to the top. I've also added some details such as stitching.

 

To create the tie, we'll create a new layer and apply a border. Now, when we draw the tie, it will already be outlined. Remember that the tool for this is located in the [Layer Property] panel.

We can also apply a border to our brush layer to make it stand out and look more like the texture on a real boot.

Consider that adding a border might make it hard to color the washers below the brush layer and you may instead have to color on top. Let's compare the different effects from each decision.

❶ No border on brush layer. Washers colored below brush layer.

❷ No border on brush layer. Washers colored above brush layer.

❸ Brush layer is set to have a border. Washers colored above brush layer.

 

As you can see, when we add a border, our colors are more muted, whereas without, we can achieve more a more vivid color. You can always create a more vivid appearance with a border, but the examples below are to showcase the differences using the same color layer.

 

If you want a border where the stitching would go, but like the color from ❶ or ❷, simply duplicate your brush layer without a border and place it under your border layer.

 

Right click the layer with the border > Rasterize. And then erase over the washers and/or laces.

Finalizing the Design

Now that we've applied all of our decoration brushes, let's finish coloring our design.

 

Though we added some detailing to our laces, we'll want to wait until last to finish shading the ruffles. When finished, create a new layer above our ruffles and set it to clip mode.

 

The reason we wait for shading the ruffles is so that we can use colors from surrounding areas as part of the shadows.

Let's take a look at the final image:

Closing Thoughts

Though our final design was inspired from our mood board, remember that it is not always necessary to stick to it, but rather to treat it as a tool and let it inspire creativity. There may be times when we have to work within certain perimeters and you might also enjoy assigning yourself different styles or concepts to work with and seeing how many designs you can make that fit the theme.

 

Try to keep a copy of all of your designs, regardless of whether or not you end up using them, as it may inspire something else, later on, or serve as reference to look back on, asking yourself why it wasn't something you used.

 

 

For any further questions, feel free to send me a message via Twitter or leave a comment below.

I hope that this tutorial was helpful to you and you have a happy time designing.