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Ever wondered how manga and webtoon artists draw intricate hairstyles week after week?

 

The secret isn’t magic—it’s the power of custom brushes in Clip Studio Paint!

In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to make your own brushes that create 3D-like stylized strands and fully shaded and outlined locks to fit your style and save you tons of time!

This tutorial is somewhat of a follow-up or a bonus tips for my previous Hair tutorial—tips and tricks for easy drawing hair in any style are covered there:

After you have tried your hand at creating your own brushes, links for free download of the brushes created in this tutorial await at the end of this article! :)

 

 

🟧 Pseudo 3D Hair Brush

Let’s begin with the simpler type, which I like to call the Pseudo 3D brush because it creates shaded strands that look dimensional with minimal effort:

1️⃣ Draw a black oval on a raster layer

2️⃣ Duplicate the layer

3️⃣ Invert it to white using Ctrl+I

4️⃣ Offset the white shape slightly from the black ①

5️⃣ Merge both layers ②

6️⃣ Right-click the merged layer ①

7️⃣ Select Convert Layer ②

8️⃣ Set Expression Color to Gray ③

To register the brush tip:

 

1️⃣ Go to Edit > Register Material > Image

2️⃣ Set the name

3️⃣ Check Use for brush tip shape (Important!)

4️⃣ Pick a folder, eventually add tags

5️⃣ Duplicate any basic brush to use as a base ①

6️⃣ Click the spanner icon to open the Sub Tool Detail palette ②

7️⃣ Go to the Brush Tip tab

8️⃣ Select Material, and choose the brush tip you just made ③

💡 Because the tip was grayscale, the black part will use the main color, and the white part uses the sub color:

🔸 You can adjust Thickness and set Angle to respond to pen tilt:

🔸 In the Stroke tab, set the Gap to minimal for a smooth stroke.

 

Your brush should now look like a flowing ribbon!

Finally…

 

1️⃣ Go to the Starting and Ending tab

2️⃣ Check Brush Size under dynamics ①

3️⃣ Set it to Specify by Length

4️⃣ Drag both the Starting and Ending sliders to the max ②

This makes the ends of your stroke taper into fine points—perfect for hair strands!

🟨 Complex Hair Strand Brush

Now let’s create a more complex variation.

 

The method is the same, but instead of a single oval, draw three black blobs—make sure they vary in size and placement to create a more natural effect:

Like before:

 

1️⃣ Duplicate layer

2️⃣ Invert colors

3️⃣ Offset the white layer

4️⃣ Merge both layers

5️⃣ Convert to Gray (important step!)

6️⃣ Register it as a brush tip

 

💡 To save time, you can duplicate the pseudo 3D brush we just made and simply replace the brush tip with the new one:

🔸 If your brush strokes appear jagged, go to the Stroke tab and set the Gap to Fixed. Adjust the value until it’s smooth but still performs quickly:

These brushes are excellent not just for concepts, but also for blocking in the base of painted hair—short or long, curly or straight:

🟨 Add Color Variation with Color Jitter

Want your hair to look more colorful? Head over to the Color Jitter tab and turn on Change Brush Tip Color:

Raise Blend with Sub Color and link it to pen pressure…

… Or add it to the automatic dynamics in the Starting and Ending tab:

You can also tweak Hue—or combine both settings for unique color effects!

🟨 Save Your Brush

When you’re done tweaking, to keep your new brush safe from crashes or sudden shutdowns:

 

1️⃣ Right-click your brush in the Sub tool palette ①

2️⃣ Select Save as Default ②

🟨 Adding Outlines

For a more cartoon-like effect, you can give your brush strokes a border by enabling Border Effect in the Layer Property palette:

This fluffy creature was made by drawing the strands on 3 layers (back, front and top details), to all of which a purple layer border effect was added. No other post-processing (except blue on Overlay along the back, quick highlights by selecting the brightest parts of strands with Auto select tool and adding yellow on Add glow, and smoothing the face part) was needed:

You can also try the Watercolor Edge option in brush settings, though its color can't be changed:

🟧 Webtoon Hair Brush

Let’s go further and create a brush that draws entire locks of hair with outlines and shading. These are fantastic for speeding up your workflow when working on webtoons or manga!

🟨 Blocking in and Line Art

1️⃣ Start with a large canvas (mine was 5000 pixels high)

2️⃣ Draw tall rectangles to guide the size of your brush tips - Two thick and one thin strand should give you enough variety:

💡 Draw on a vector layer for easy editing.

 

3️⃣ You can block out the shapes with an oval-tipped brush like the one we created earlier. I used a similar brush, which is available in my assets.

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💡 Hair can be simplified into a ribbon-like shape. I prefer to add more volume by giving that ribbon a bulging, rounded form—and large, oval brushes are perfect for this:

 

 

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4️⃣ Once you’ve got your basic shapes, add thinner parallel strands following the same flow, and use the Pinch Vector Line tool to tweak them. Try to create a mix of thick central strands and thinner ones surrounding them:

5️⃣ Now go over the shapes with clean line art on a new vector layer.

 

🔸 Adjust your brush stabilization as needed:

🔸 Use gentle, curved strokes and adjust with the Pinch Vector Line tool.

 

🔸 Overlap strands and vary their thickness for a dynamic look:

🔸 Use the Mesh transformation to tweak the shapes if needed:

🔸 Use Correct Line Width to thicken lines in shadow and thin lines in the highlights:

🟨 Coloring

1️⃣ On a new layer, fill the strands with color. I used a custom fill tool with the line art folder set as a reference—you can grab that tool from my assets too.

Add shadows on a clipped layer if it fits your style.

(Here I used colors for preview but you can draw in gray from the start.)

Optionally mask the strand roots with a soft brush:

2️⃣ Convert the lineart to black, base to white, and shadows to light gray.

 

3️⃣ Merge all parts into one layer and convert it to Gray mode.

4️⃣ Make a rectangular selection of the largest strand

🔸 Leave a little blank space at the root:

5️⃣ Just like before, register it as a brush tip (Edit > Register material > Image):

6️⃣ Without deselecting, move the box over the next strand, register it as material (step 5), and repeat for the third one.

 

 

🟨 Creating the Brush

You know the drill:

 

1️⃣ Duplicate a basic brush

2️⃣ In the Brush Tip tab, load all three strand materials

3️⃣ In the Stroke tab, check Ribbon and set the method to Random so each stroke picks a different strand:

4️⃣ In Brush Tip, set Flip Horizontal to Random for additional variety:

💡 If your strands are drawing from the roots but you'd prefer to start from the ends, just change the Angle by 180°. Personally, I find drawing from the ends more intuitive and practical because your stroke defines the length of the hair:

🟨 Using Hair Strand Brushes

There are several ways to work with them. For example, you can:

 

1️⃣ Use sub color only to draw without outlines and build the hairstyle silhouette

2️⃣ Fill in the gaps using Lasso Fill

3️⃣ Add a color border effect in the Layer Property palette:

4️⃣ Draw more detailed strands using both main and sub colors

5️⃣ Erase areas with messy overlaps:

These brushes are also great for long hair fluttering in the wind.

 

1️⃣ Draw the strands on at least two layers for more depth

2️⃣ Blend the back layer into the background with a new clipped layer in Add glow or Overlay mode:

Check out my Hair Drawing tutorial for more on these effects:

Want even more color variety? Try a Gradient Map adjustment layer to control the midtones and highlights:

🟧 Conclusion

Creating your own hair brushes in CSP is easier than it looks. With just a bit of setup, you can create amazing, stylized hair brushes that look detailed and polished while saving time!

 

Whether you're working on a tight schedule or just want to explore new techniques, custom brushes are your best ally.

✨ Brushes from this tutorial for download ✨

Find out more about drawing hair in my other hair tutorial!

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🌟⭐✨ If you enjoyed this tip, it will make me happy if you give a like so that I know I’m doing things right, eventually leave a comment on what you liked or didn’t and where I could improve. Suggestions for what I should cover in the future are also welcome! ✨⭐🌟