Clip Studio Paint | Beginner's Guide

1. Introduction and Overview: Hello there you beautiful people. My name is Nathan Jones and I'm an illustrator and up-and-coming the creative who has been studying the art illustration for over ten years. A little over five years ago, I got started into digital illustration with Clip Studio Paint. And I just wanted to share with you the things I've learned over the years through studied, through trial and error, so that you don't have to go through the same struggles that I did. The first lesson is just going to be a beginner's guide on the program to make it seem a little less overwhelming, new and a little less intimidating the newcomers. Here I'm gonna be teaching you how to set up a Canvas, how to use some of its basic tools that every artist needs and how to save and export your work. So without further ado, let's get started. 2. Materials for Digital Art: Now of course, if you're gonna do digital artwork, you're probably going to want to try and tablet, unless you're trying to draw with a mouse or heaven forbid, Trackpad. You might think that giving the towers expensive. And I'm here to tell you, but it doesn't have to be sure. There are plenty of tablets after that break the bank, they don't need someone that to make quality artwork because it's not the supply of the Nikki artist. Sure, they can raise the quality of life or artist, but you can make great art without the best applies. Case in point, I used a pretty cheap tablet. Him I heard it's pretty good, right? To specify. I use an intuits comic, which is very cheap and probably pretty low in quality. In fact, 9999 on Amazon. But it's all I've ever used. So it's all I did was known and Clip Studio Paint itself only cost 4999 and it's a onetime purchase. Unlike some other art programs that I know. In fact, Clip Studio Paint actually came with my tablet and I got it. That's a possibility too. But now that you've got your materials, let's set up a digital canvas. 3. Creating a Canvas: When you first open up 50, okay, you're going to notice a bunch of stuff on the sides and a big empty space in the middle. That's normal. You can actually move all this stuff around and customize it however you like. But I don't think I've moved the single thing. This is probably how it will look for you as well. In order to create a new canvas, you have a few different options and go to the top left where you see the tablet file and click on the option that says new. It should be the very first one. Now as you can see, there's also a shortcut for opening new files. You can do it this way by pressing Control int. The third option is by clicking this little symbol here near the top. Once you do one of these three things, this window will pop up. And honestly, you really could just simply press OK and worry about all this later. Pretty much all of this is stuff that you can change later on even while you're illustrating. But we're gonna go through all this stuff now, starting from the top, you have a setting called use of work, which is basically a preset on what you're using the program for it. You'd have illustrations, wet tuned. We just basically a comment that's made him vertical format, which is found commonly in online comments like, well, incident. There's an option for traditional comics, an option for a traditional economies with more settings. And then there's animation. Obviously you can click on whichever you're trying to do at the time. Filename is just whatever the name of your project is going to be when she can decide later on when you save it. Preset basically just confused, ready-made canvas sizes. Greek recite them yourself just below it. The button right next to it really just gives you more presets. You can try experimenting with those. We can change all this when she went to Canvas, like I said earlier, resolution here that says the dots per inch of your canvas or DPI. Essentially, the higher the resolution, the bigger you can print things without your image getting all peacefully. 72 isn't okay DPI, but if you want to print bigger stuff, it's probably best to go with at least three. The paper color is pretty self-explanatory. What color do you want your canvas to start at? This template gives you several presets for the panelists. If you want a quick and easy way of doing it. If not, you can always set up your panels later. There's tool for that. Create moving illustration, I believe is more for animation. And as someone who isn't weld first and animation, I can't tell you too much about it. Record time-lapse is pretty self-explanatory. You can have Clip, Studio Paint, record the process of your illustration and credit into a timeless for you. You've probably seen this a lot on social media like TikTok or Instagram or Facebook. It's a cool way to get your artwork out there. That being said, it's going to make your file much larger if you decide to do that, you can also decide to do this even after making your Canvas already. Just now that if you decide to make a time, It's kind of an illustration while you're in the middle of doing it. The timeline is going to start from the moment you click Record time-lapse, not from the moment you started feeling iteration. You're satisfied with thursday. Go ahead and click Okay, and we can talk about layers. 4. Using Layers: Alright, so now we're going to be talking about layers, most notably raster layers from vector layers. There are other types of layers, but these will be the bread and butter for anyone who's studied in illustration. First things first, after creating your Canvas, there's gonna be a lot of stuff on your screen. I try not to be overwhelmed by all this and be sure to explore these one at a time. But for the time being, I want you to direct all your attention to lower right-hand corner of the screen, which is where I assume your layers will be when you first start off, you'll probably notice that you already have a layer there. More specifically, raster layer, original areas are most basic type of layer and probably the one you're gonna be using the most. It's very versatile and can accommodate just about anything you would want to do in this program where the fat is liner, painting, doing crazy visual effects or whatever else you might want to do with the art. The rest of layer is good for all. That's why it's there. By default, you can make as many raster layers as you want without messing with anything as in the previous layers. And you can make more of these either by pressing the shortcut Control Shift N, or by clicking this little button drip from your book or your individual layers. Now, if you're a curious about what these other buttons next to it, you'll find that the next bond over it's going to be the one for creating vector layers. Now as the name implies, vector layers have more of a focus on vectors are aligns. With this layer. You have a lot more control over the lines that you've already put down. With the press, the shortcut key, you can click on our line that you've already drawn. And with bet, you'll see a bunch of these things called control points. Click and drag those reshape online that you've already drawn. Furthermore, you can press the shortcut key. You don't take you towards me specifically made for offering lines in your vector layer. Here you'll find a bunch of options for adjusting your lines, such as adding control points, deleting control points, adjusting line with connecting lines that have a gap between them, smoothing lines by just stops. And I'm gonna be getting a little ahead of myself here because we will be talking about basic tools in the next part of this lesson. But if you press the shortcut key will be taken to the eraser tool. And she looked at eraser options. You'll find one that says vector only in a vector layer. And you can use this tool to simply delete unwanted sections of intersecting lines. And trust me, this is so useful for cleaning up your artwork without so much hassled. But again, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. This section of the tutorial is on layers. And even then, there are a bunch more layer options that provide more north utility to your art process. But this is just to get you started with the most basic options that you might use for pretty much any project that you're working on. We'll go into the necessary authentic art tools in the next section. 5. Basic Tools and QOL Functions: Let's see here. What are the basic tools that pretty much every artist is going to need at the beginning of their digital art journey. If you're like me, you're aren't beginning is probably include her pencil and paper. And you already have a canvas. So let's find the pencil. If you click this icon over here on the left side, you'll find your pencil, and in fact, several different pencil options. Go ahead and try those out to figure out what works best for you. Looking at the top of the list, you'll probably notice another sub tool alongside pen tool called pastel. Clicking on that, you'll get a new list with even more options. If you've used traditional media before, you can probably surmise how these tools differ from the pencils. Try them out. After finishing your pencil sketches. The likely want to clean them up with a pen tool to get that nice professional look. Looking back over to the Tool lineup, notice how my pencil icon has now changed. The pastel symbol now, pencil and pastel, while different lists, they're listed under the same tool, which happens quite often. If you thought this is the most complex already. It turns out actually even more complex than that. You'll get used to it pretty quickly though. It'll just be on the lookout for other options that might be available to you. Back to what I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself. Just above the pencil tool, you'll find the pen tool. It's a derail once more. Notice how there's a P in parentheses for both pencil and pin. That means that both tools use the same shortcut, which is the P key on your keyboard. Pressing it once gives you the pin list. And if you press it again while you're there, you get the pencil is same as with the pencil tool. You'll see a bunch of different options as well as another tab for markers. You know what to do here, tesla. And if any of the lines you make feel weird to you, make sure to set your pin pressure settings to wherever C2 best. You can do this by going to File and scrolling down to pen pressure settings. You can draw lines in a way that feels comfortable to you. This little graph here in the middle will adjust itself to your preferences. And that displays the pin pressure settings changing to fit your personal drunk works. Moving on. If you can find different paint brush settings by clicking this icon under the pencil icon or by pressing the shortcut beat. Here you'll find lots of different options from different kinds of watercolor to different kinds of paint. Clicking the airbrush icon underneath the brush icon, or simply president B again. And while on the brush menu, you can find a bunch of different airbrushing tools, clicking the icon under that, where it simply pressing B again, when you have the air brush menu, gets you to the declaration tool. Here, you'll get a wide variety of patterns and textures that you can implement into your artwork at anytime. Now, with all this drawing and painting, obviously, you're probably going to be messing up a lot unless you're perfect, in which case, I hate you. Why are you even here? But for the rest of us flips, you're going to need to know about the Eraser tool. You can get to this by pressing this icon or by having the E key. Once again, you'll have a bunch of different options, including the victory reasons that I showcased in the last video. Just remember that it only works on victor layers. Those are pretty much the things that pretty much every beginning rule need. But let me tell you about some quality of life tools that are really going to make your life a lot easier. First off, pressing the F key, let you flip your canvas. This is a lifesaver. If you wanted to check your proportions and make sure you've got everything correct before getting to the end of your illustrations. Only to realize that everything is distorted. Up here. You can find the selection tool or you can press the M key. With this, you can select areas of your image and offer them individually. You can transform it and move it and resize it. Or you can use the mesh transformation in work it. Or you can cut and paste or copy and paste. There's a lot of important correct with D you can make and this tool is very useful. And lastly, if you're doing a scene or just need help with prospective, you can click on the ruler icon for press in the UK and select the prospective ruler. With this, you can set up a certain perspective. And while this layer is showing every line that you make will follow set perspective, You're welcome. Next step, we're going to be teaching you how to save and export your work. I don't know how I forgot this, but Control Z to undo. It's like literally the most used keep adding for any artist. How did I forget this? 6. Saving and Exporting: Here we go and have it saving it as put your work. Because surely you want to show off to your friends and family with your expertly crafted artwork. Do you want them to praise him for the med skills that you have? Why else would you become an artist? Saving is simple. Similar goods a file and click Save As. But if you want an easier method, simply click this icon above your canvas. But if you want an even easier method, you can simply press Control S. After that, you can name your file wherever you want and save it anywhere you want. Easy. When it comes to exploiting, simply go back to file and click Export, single layer, export your image in whatever format you wish. And hit Save, simply hit OK and then OK again. And now you have your JPEG or PNG wherever you saved it. Now you can finally reflects on all of your friends and show that you're better than them. Just like how you've always wanted. 7. The Easiest Assignment Ever: Now for your assignment, your assignment is simple. Test out the tools and functions and Clip Studio Paint and get acquainted with them. Get the basics in your blood and get comfortable swapping between tools for silky smooth workflow. And then I want you to draw something, anything really. It doesn't have to be anything special. They could literally just be an image of new testing out different tools. I have a few of those safe. They can be a good reminder of stuff you're capable of but have forgotten because let's be real. You're not going to memorize all the things that you can do. I just wanted you to find a nice bread and butter list of tools that you can get really comfortable with it and save it and upload it somewhere if you want to, anywhere. But most importantly, don't stress yourself out and just have fun.