A new mode is available for mobile Clip Studio Paint users: Simple Mode. Those who are used to mobile drawing apps might find this mode less daunting. I’m using iPad Air for this tutorial, but it’s perfectly the same in Android.

 

CSP’s default app is now called Studio Mode, by the way.

While it lacks functions that makes CSP such a powerhouse for comic artists, Simple Mode has more than enough features to support comic making. I’ll be drawing a webtoon page as I explain the functions and tools.

 

Let’s get started!

How to Switch to Simple Mode

To change it to Simple Mode, click the CSP symbol on the top left corner, then choose “Switch to Simple Mode.”

If no canvas is open when we switch the modes, we'll see the New Canvas page.

You can switch the modes back to Studio Mode from this page, click the three dots at the top right corner, then click “Switch to Studio Mode.”

A confirmation window will appear. Click “Switch to Studio Mode” again. And, voila.

If there’s an open canvas, it will keep being open even if you switch modes. Seamless.

But, if you have more than one canvas open in Studio Mode and want to switch to Simple Mode, you’ll be asked to close all canvases before switching.

 

Simple Mode can only open one canvas at a time. We'll need to close the current canvas before opening another one.

Preferences and Help

Let’s go to “Preferences and Help” to set the Simple Mode. You can access it by tapping the three dots icon on the top right corner for both the New Canvas page and when a canvas is open.

1. Dark Mode.

2. Brush cursor. It has three different modes. I usually use “Hide” which makes the cursor invisible. “Brush shape” changes the cursor depending on the brush. “Brush circle” makes the cursor circle no matter what.

3. “Adjust touch position” is for recalibrating the cursor if it is inaccurate. Tap on the arrows to adjust.

4. “Draw with Finger” is for finger drawing. If turned off, using our finger on the screen will be considered a gesture.

5. “Touch gestures” give you shortcut options to make our workflow better. Turn it on and off according to your needs.

6 .“Getting started” opens up a window that briefs us about Simple Mode. The rest are links.

User Interface of Simple Mode

What I love about Simple Mode is the minimalistic UI and more drawing area.

1. Clip Studio menu

2. Save

3. Undo/Redo

4. Materials

5. More options

6. Toolbar

7. Layer

8. Simple tool settings.

 

 

When the cursor overlaps with the items, it will become transparent. I love this feature the most, I guess. It effectively makes the whole screen a drawing area.

Canvases

Simple Mode has various canvas options like Studio Mode.

Some of the unique settings reserved for certain canvasses are still visible. Like the comic bleed settings and animation folder.

Change Canvas Size

This time I’m going to draw a webtoon page in Simple Mode.

The default canvas size isn’t good enough for me. To change it, tap the three dots icon on the top right corner, “Canvas Setting.”

 

There are two size setting options and a Record timelapse option at the bottom.

“Resize all” is for rescaling the canvas, similar to “Change Image Resolution” in Studio Mode. It keeps the aspect ratio of the canvas. The resolution is greyed out if the unit is in pixel. Extra explanation is available if you tap the question mark.

“Change Canvas Size” fits what I need better. You can rotate and flip the canvas according to your needs. The chain icon between the Width and Height is the toggle for “Keep Aspect Ratio.” When linked, it’s on. When there’s a diagonal line across it, it’s off.

I changed the Width to 1600 and Height 10000 pixels.

Toolbar

Simple Mode has plenty of tools that also exist in Studio Mode. Note that the settings of the tools aren’t shared between the two modes. Think of Simple Mode and Studio Mode as separate apps but related.

 

From top to bottom: Pen, Eraser, Transform, Selection, Fill, Liquify, Figure, Eyedropper, Colors.

The tools have different adjustable settings that you can access by tapping the tool icon twice. There are also simpler tool settings at the bottom of the screen that will change depending on the tools currently used.

Brushes and erasers has extra settings you can access by tapping on the arrow on the right side of the tool’s thumbnail.

The plus sign on the top right corner of the tool window contains three options.

1. “Duplicate brush” is self-explanatory. You can also duplicate a brush by tapping and holding the brush you want to copy until the “Duplicate brush” option appears.

2. “Import from Studio Mode” allows you to import tools from the other mode. A window where you can pick the tools will appear. The tool names in white can be imported for use in Simple Mode, but the ones greyed out cannot.

3. “Add recommended brushes” connects us to Clip Studio Assets where we can download more brushes. I’ll download a brush in a later chapter.

Layers

The layer menu in Simple Mode is very different from Studio Mode. Tapping the arrow icon at the hides and unhides the layers. When the layers are hidden, only the thumbnail of the layer you’re currently on is on the menu.

To add a new Raster Layer, tap the icon on the top of the menu.

Tap and hold the icon to get more new layer options. You can create a Folder and import images.

 

“Add merged layer” is the same as “Merge visible to new layer” in Studio Mode.

Tap the thumbnail of a layer to access the layer setting.

Swipe left for the detailed Layer menu. Functions, like the long tap icon, are still working.

Tap the Folder button to create a new Folder. Drag and drop to rearrange the layers. On the right side, there are icons that work as shortcuts for layer settings.

Top to bottom:

1. Hide/unhide

2. Delete layer

3. Blending mode

4. Clip to layer below

5. The three dots icon opens the layer setting to access more settings like lock layer, border effect, duplicate, and so on.

Figure Tool

I’ll use the Figure tool to draw the panels. It’s really similar to the Figure tool in Studio Mode. Pick Rectangle for the panels.

There are 6 types of figures and 3 types of line/fill. For comic, Lines only is best.

Tap on the Figure tool icon on the toolbar or the sliders icon at the right end of the bottom bar for more options.

Then, I’ll start the webtoon sketch.

3D Model

We can use 3D models in Simple Mode to help us drawing poses. Tap the Image icon next to the three dots icon.

 

There are three tabs: All Materials, Favorites, and History. History documents the latest material we use.

To add a material to the Favorites tab, tap the heart icon on the material’s thumbnail. The heart will turn blue. To remove it, tap the heart icon again. You’ll be asked if you’re sure you want to remove the material from favorites .

There are many kinds of materials available, but this time let's focus on the 3D models.

Tap on the model’s thumbnail and it will appear on the canvas.

 

Undo and redo buttons are between Cancel and OK. Right in the middle of the screen.

Proportions and Poses

We can adjust the model’s sex and proportions with the sliders.

To change the pose, tap “Apply pose material” and pick the pose you want.

To change the pose, tap “Apply pose material” and pick the pose you want. Unlike Studio Mode, Simple Mode doesn’t let us adjust the pose manually only with presets.

Download Poses from Assets

CSP prepared poses that we can download directly from the app, but there are tons of great stuff on Assets. Tap “Downloads” and then tap “Add recommended materials.”

This will open a page of curated materials by Clip Studio. Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap “Search Other Materials.” It will open the Assets website through your browser.

When we tap to download, it will ask us to open Clip Studio. Tap OK and wait until the download is finished. We cannot rearrange the materials, unfortunately. By the way, 3D backgrounds cannot be used in Simple Mode right now.

To use the downloaded poses, tap “Edit 3D layer” and “Apply pose material.” The poses will appear.

Adjusting the Angle and Lighting

Use two finger to make the model smaller or bigger. You can move the model around with two finger gesture too.

The camera icon on the left lets us adjust the angle. Swipe the screen around with one finger to change the angle of the model.

 

 

The square icon lets us the canvas, not the model. The model stays in the same position.

 

 

The sun icon is for lighting. The slider adjusts the intensity of the light.

The 3D arrow below it determines the direction of the light source.

If you don’t need the shadow, turn the “Apply light source” off.

Camera Details Tab

The “Camera details” tab has a Perspective slider that can make the pose look more dramatic. Same angle looks very different.

“Apply angle preset” below it has various angle options. Click OK when done.

Recreating Layer Color Effect

The initial draft is done.

In Studio Mode, I usually turn the draft layer into blue before sketching. I usually use Layer Color effect in Studio Mode, but in Simple Mode, no such effect exists.

 

We can switch to Studio Mode, use Layer Color, and then switch back to Simple Mode. The Layer color effect will stay.

The layer settings will have this note saying “Incompatible layer,” but the layer stays blue and can be drawn.

Of course, we can recreate the effect without switching to Studio Mode. On the Draft layer, Lock Transparent Pixel.

Use the Selection tool on the whole canvas, pick the color.

Use a brush with maximum size, and paint the whole layer in blue.

Flip the Canvas

To flip the canvas, tap three dots at the top right corner, and tap Flip Horizontal View.

We can flip the canvas back to normal by tapping the blue icon next to undo.

Vector Layer

I love using Vector Layer for line art and borders, but it doesn't exist in Simple Mode. If you prefer to use a Raster layer, you can skip this part. This time we can’t recreate the vector layer in Simple Mode.

 

Switch to Studio Mode, create a new Vector layer, then switch back to Simple Mode.

The Vector layer will have a note saying it’s not compatible.

 

Vector has convenient functions that cannot work in Simple Mode, but the basic functions, that allow us to erase up to the intersection or the whole stroke, still works. Which is enough for me.

So far from draft, sketch to line art, the process are streamlined.

Line art done.

Color Set

Time to color.

 

When you click on the color circle in the Toolbar, you can access the Color Wheel, plus the Color Set and Color Sliders in the same place. You can also use the HEX number for accuracy.

 

Since we’ll use certain colors over and over again for the webtoons, Color Sets is a great tool to use.

CSP prepares various color sets you can choose by tapping on the current color set. Scroll down to see if there’s a color set you like. Hold and drag to rearrange the sets.

Downloading Color Set

You can download more color sets from Assets, by tapping on the icon on the top right corner and choosing “Add recommended sets.”

A page of recommended sets will appear. If you don’t find what you need, scroll down and tap “Search other color sets” at the bottom of the page.

The browser will open and direct us to the Assets website. As you can see, the results are already filtered so that only color sets will appear. Download any color set that catches your interest.

Create Custom Set

Back to CSP, we can create our own set by choosing “New color set” instead.

To change the set name, tap and hold, then choose “Change name.”

Tap on the color set twice to use it. The plus icon in the color set lets you add colors to it.

 

1. If you want to add a color to the right of an existing color, tap and hold the color box, then choose Add.

2. To replace the existing color, tap and hold the color box, then choose “Save.”

3. There’s a delete option, too, if you need it.

Coloring the character.

The characters and a part of the background is done.

Downloading Brush

I drew sky in one of the panels and I need a Cloud brush.

To download, we can tap the icon on the top right corner of the tools menu, or tap the Download tool and “Search new brushes.”

Like the Color sets, the results on the website are already filtered and only brushes will appear. Type “cloud” in the search bar and choose from the results.

Tap download. It will ask us to open Clip Studio Paint. Tap “Open” and wait until the download is finished.

Create a new raster layer for the clouds and clip it to the Sky layer.

Border Effect for Sound Effects

Then, it’s time for sound effects. Create a new raster layer, tap the thumbnail, and tap “Border.” Turn the Border effect on.

It works the same way the Border effect in Studio Mode works. We can adjust the thickness and the color of the border. Edit both whenever.

I’m adding effects with Soft Airbrush and Droplet airbrush to give sparkle. The pictures are pretty much done.

Texture

For the last touch, let’s add texture. Tap the image icon, then “Monochromatic Pattern.” I’m going to use Paper. Tap on it.

Then, tile the pattern. There are three tiling direction options but “Vertical and Horizontal” is what I always use for textures.

Tap the “Free Transform” tab for more adjustments. Note that the adjustments here will be permanent and cannot be changed after we press OK.

Tap the Texture layer’s thumbnail, change the Blending Mode to Overlay, and Reduce the Opacity.

Text and Word Balloons

For text and word balloons, I prefer to switch to Studio Mode. As of now, there’s no text tool in Simple Mode.

 

But if you want to do it in Simple Mode, you can use any word processing app with a plain background for the text and turn the text into an image by exporting or screenshotting.

To import the image to the canvas, long tap the icon in Layer window, then tap “Add from Images”

 

Adjust the position.

Word Balloons

For the word balloons, create a new layer below the text layer(s). Use the Ellipse tool with “Line and Fill” and choose the colors for the line and the fill—usually black and white.

For the tail, use the Figure tool Polyline, also with “Line and Fill” and with the same colors.

Clean up the excess lines and it's done.

Exporting

To export the image, tap the three dots icon, then tap “Export Image.”

 

Compared to the Studio Mode, the settings are very minimal. We can only choose the type of file exported.

The exported page:

If you’re recording the timelapse and want to export the video, tap “Export Timelapse.” The settings for timelapse export are very similar to the Studio Mode.

1. Duration of the timelapse video. It can compress the video to 15, 30 and 60 seconds for social media post.

2. There are three options: 720, 1080 and 1280 pixels.

3. Ratio of the video. It has many options to suit different social media.

4. CSP logo.

Publishing on Webtoons

On Webtoons website, go to upload episode page. You can upload directly from CSP by tapping “Upload from Clip Studio Paint.”

A new page will appear and it will ask you to open CSP.

After CSP is open, choose the files you want to upload.

Wait until it’s finished uploading.

Go back to your browser, the files are uploaded and ready to see the world.