This video tutorial shows how to draw, ink, shade and paint a Cosmos flower from the first steps to the finishing touches. The topics we'll be covering are creating guidelines, sketching in Clip Studio, light and shadows, hatching, inking, painting with gouache, adding a background, making the flower pop off the canvas, highlights and deeper tones and more.

 

You can see the full tutorial here https://youtu.be/2Pfc-XyEzck but below are the steps with timestamps to that part of the video tutorial.

 

Step 1 - https://youtu.be/2Pfc-XyEzck?si=wdsvM9gKRUormQJf&t=186

 

First we are going to create some boundary boxes for our flower. The flower is pretty much round, which makes it easier to work with. With the figure tool we will create the outer square and the heartlines. Through the heartline we can find the middle of the flower and place the square for the heart of the flower. Inside these 2 squares we will place 2 circles, one for the petals and one for the heart

 

 

Step 2a - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=504s

 

Now that we have our guidelines, we’re going to sketch the flower. For that we use the pencil. We’re sketching the heart and the petails.

 

Step 2b - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=895s

 

Once done with the sketch, we will determine where our light and shadows go. The shadow we’re going to hatch and the darkest shadow we’ll cross hatch.

Step 3a - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=1080s

 

Now that our flower is done, we are going to ink the drawing on a new layer on top of the sketch. To ink we’re using the Mapping Pen. We’re starting with the outline.

 

Step 3b - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=1385s

 

Now that we have our outline, we will do some shading on the flower using hatching and cross hatching.

 

Step 3b - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=1689s

 

The flower is done, but why not add a stalk and some leaves to make it interesting.

Step 4a - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=1798s

 

In this step we’re going to paint the flower. Before we can do so, we’re going open a new document with the reference photo. That new document we use to pick our colors from.

 

Step 4b - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=1860s

 

Now we can paint. We will use the Gouache Brush for painting the flower.

Step 5 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=2389s

 

A white background is a little bit boring. With a contrasting color and the Gouache Brush set on large we are going to create the background. In the background we will simulate where the light comes from to make it even more interesting.

Step 6a - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=2602s

 

While this looks good so far, we want to seperate the flower a bit better from the background. To do that we’re going make a duplicate of the flower layers and flatten/merge those into one layer. This layer we set on alpha lock and paint in black. Once black we switch the alpha lock off again and gaussian blur the layer. Now it looks like a shadow. By moving it into the right position behind the flower it really looks convincing.

 

Step 6b - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pfc-XyEzck&t=2910s

 

In this final step we are going to add to layers on top of everything. One layer is set on Multiply to add some stronger shading with a dark color. The other is set to Overlay to add some highlights with a light color.

Now our flower in Clip Studio Paint is done!