INTRODUCTION

Introduction

Hey guys. This is Faranak.

In this tutorial I’m going to teach you how to create traditional looking watercolor and ink landscapes in “clip studio paint”. We are going to discuss the underlay drawing, which brushes to use and how to use them, and taking your work to the next level. to make this tutorial simpler and have more of our focus on brush work and values we are going to create this landscape only using greys. or as if you were creating an artwork using black ink or black water color. in my next tutorial I’ll teach you how to use color for your digital water color.

Before we dive into the process, it’s really important to know that no painting tool and software, can create an artwork for you. they merely give you the tools to create. so don’t expect to jump into clip studio painting without any knowledge or experience of watercolors and think the watercolor tools are going to give you a realistic master piece. when it comes to traditional looking digital art, you have to know how that medium works and interpret that knowledge and experience in your digital workflow. which is just what we are going to do.

 

Which brushes Should you use?

As I said in the last in the last chapter, you need to interpret real life techniques and usage of your traditional media. so, I’m going to talk about some of the most common techniques using watercolors. and show you How to recreate them in CSP.

The first one is when your paper is wet and you want to have consistent color in a large area.

effect I usually use the tapered water color, or I use the round water color blush and use the blending tools to get a gradient effect if I need it.

The second one is when you are doing wet on wet. if you don’t push colors around excessively, the color is going to bleed out.

so, we are going to use soft bleed brush. either on its own or in combination with other brushes such as round watercolor brush.

The third one is a typical round brush. in the areas which are already wet, your colors bleed out.

use the soft bleed brush to recreate this look.

The last ones are the flat brush which gives varying width on a simple stroke and a sharp end .and dry brushes. for dry brushes I’ve created my own brushes based on what I want. creating brushes is really simple in CSP. for these ones I mainly played around with the texture and pressure opacity of the brushes.

The underlay drawing

Now let’s get started on our landscape. I took this photo on the suburban parts of Yazd which is one of my favorite places. My first step is the underlay drawing.

It’s best to use pencil brushes for this. I mainy used the design pencil and the real pencil to have that pencilly texture.

 

now it’s important to remember that water color is a tool mostly used to create moody pieces. And I want mine to be especially moody and atmospheric. so don’t get caught up on all the details. focus on your simple statements, shapes, focal point, and a good composition.

Add you details on top of this design.

And lastly, I used the color orange, because it gives a beautiful contrast when used with greys.

 

painting demonstration

Now that we have our drawing let’s get to painting.

First off, I changed my drawing a bit because some parts of the composition weren’t working for me and wanted it to be more dynamic.

First, I want to give my whole canvas a gradient look. so, I use the tapered water color. I used the lasso tool to make a selection of my clouds, because I want them to remain white.

 

Then I use the soft bleed brush to give my sky a misty look.

I use the round watercolor brush to build shapes and slowly start to build up my work using lasso, gradients, round water color brush and flat watercolor brush. And I use the soft bleed brush whenever I want to make a part more wet.

I use the wet bleed blender to not only soften my cloud edges, but also to give it a wet atmospheric look.

 

I further push and build up my values. Remember to always check the navigator while painting.

 

I use my self-made dry brushes for parts I want to have a dry texture. And use the soft bleed brush to give it a misty look.

The rest of the process I’m pushing and pulling everything. especially my values and shapes. Using all that I’ve said so far and the correction layers.

pushing it to the next level

Now it’s time to really make your work come to life. these steps are really easy but the effects are really significant.

I used a mask to create taking off the mask tape effect. played around with my underlay color. pushed my values even further using my brushes and tonal curves. And gave my work a texture in some places. By dropping the texture on my work. and setting it on texture in layer properties.

 

And… we have our final work.