In this archived live stream, I show you some Clip Studio Paint tips and tricks!
Clip Studio Paint is my preferred drawing program. I’ve been using this for years, yet it feels like I learn something new every day. And here, I wanted to share with you some Clip Studio Paint tips and tricks I’ve recently learned!
I streamed this back on May 29 on YouTube. Now it can be archived here for your reference.
Here are some timestamps for easy reference:
BASICS:
3:00 for opening and setting up a new document. (Includes how to change canvas color)
4:00 recording timelapses
4:45 hand-lettered effects
7:00 coloring entire layers
8:17 how to change colors of specific elements in a layer using “lock transparent pixels”
INTERMEDIATE:
10:30 a nifty trick erasing bordered lines
13:00 add outlines to objects already drawn
13:45 add shoelaces and other costume details
25:03 my old method of adding symmetry
26:00 make rulers visible
27:20 add guidelines
28:20 group layers together
31:20 how to make custom brushes
Did I forget something in the live stream? Leave a comment below and let me know!
Do you have questions? Let me know, too. I plan on doing another live stream like this one, showing even more tips and tricks.
I drew this skeleton fiddler as a commission for someone last month. I think he turned out well!
I drew this entirely digitally, on Clip Studio Paint. It’s my program of choice, because PhotoShop is a hard drive hog and CSP is much smoother and easier to manage.
Here’s part of page 9 of my webcomic The Legend of Jamie Roberts.
Ever since I switched from PhotoShop to Clip Studio Paint, I have LOVED how much easier Clip Studio Paint is to use.
That said, on occasion it can be a bit of a headache. One specific way it can bother me is when I’m adding shading to a comic page.
See, I cheat a lot – I’ll trace a shape over where I want my shadows to be, and then I use my Bucket tool to fill in the blanks. When I do this I often have the bucket tool set to “Refer to other layers.”
Why? Because my line work is on a separate layer from my shades. I don’t do all of my art on the same layer, you fiend.
That said, sometimes CSP will have a brain-fart, especially if the shade color is very close to a color I’m painting over. So instead of only filling in where I want, sometimes CSP will be like, “color THE WHOLE THING? OK!”
But I figured out a way around this. And it’s made producing comics WAY easier.
The secret?
Well, I need to show how I do a comic page first.
I have the following layers to work with: the base drawing. The Edits (where I clean up lines and smudges). Colors. Shades. Letters.
The secret is: I turn the Color Layer off.
It’s super easy: just click the little eyeball on that layer and boom – it turns off.
This has made shading A LOT easier. My Bucket tool no longer tries to fill in a space that’s the same/similar color to the shade color.
Also – it has made looking at what I’m shading WAY easier.
I tend to include a lot of dark colors in my pages. That makes shading a thing pretty tricky to the naked eye. So turning the Color layer off has made it far easier to judge how far shadows need to go.
Another plus is if I wanted to make a black and white version of a color comic, this cheat makes it easy.
