In order to create this natural effect, I use brushes with a watercolor border and texture added. The faint colors of watercolor painting create the effect of traditional painting. (4) Create an overlay layer above and adjust the overall color. Then, continue to smooth out the edges of the shadows. (3) Create another multiply layer above, and paint in darker shadows using the painting pen. (2) Create a multiply layer above, and paint some gradients with the airbrush. Select the layer with the shadow, and remove the sharp edges of the shadows with the airbrush and blur pen. (1) Use the same layer structure as anime-style painting. The steps for CG painting are as follows:

I created the above illustration using the line art pen, painting pen, air brush, and blur pen. Use tools such as the airbrush and blur pen after anime-style painting to achieve this effect. I recommend you to chose a shadow color with the same luminosity as the base color, as it will make the illustration look neater.ĬG painting, also called “2DCG” is a Japanese style of painting that is like a more detailed version of anime-style painting. (3) On the clipped layer, use the painting pen to paint the shadows. (2) Create another layer above the base color layer and clip to the fill layer. (1) Fill the line art using the bucket tool. The steps for anime-style cel shading are as follows: This method mainly uses solid fill, so I will use my customized line art pen and painting pen to create my illustration. The main feature of anime painting is sharp boundaries. Now, I will explain various ways of painting and the pen settings I use. You can choose from four strengths of anti-aliasing. This feature is similar to blending modes for layers, but with some extra settings such as “Delete” and “Background” which are unique to brush settings.Īnti-aliasing smoothens the drawn line to avoid jagged lines. Here’s an overview of the different pen settings.Ĭhange this value to alter the brush size.Ĭlick the button at the right to edit the pen pressure settings.Ĭhanging this value affects the transparency of the brush itself. In this tutorial, I’ll introduce some of the most useful features. Since Clip Studio Paint has so many customizable pen settings, it can take a long time to understand every single feature.

In this tutorial, I will use Clip Studio Paint and SAI as an example. Pen and brush settings differ depending on the software. I’ll introduce some brush settings that I use for different painting styles. Until you get used to digital painting, you might be wondering how to set up your pen and brush tools for a particular painting style.

Paint tool sai line art brush