Pinup Process - Clip Studio Colouring Trick

SO! You like my pinups, but maybe you're wondering: what goes into making my art? Well here's the first of what I hope will be a good hefty series of behind-the-scenes videos for my drawing process when designing my pinups. I'll start with some pretty simple approaches for the first few vids and get to the more trickier tips down the line.

So first off: colouring! I use a program called Clip Studio Paint, which has - in my opinion - one of the simplest, most effective color filling functions I have ever used. (Sure, if you get into the nitty gritty of it, other programs like Photoshop have a similar method, but as far as simplicity goes, this one takes the cake)

When I go to fill my art with color, I naturally make a new layer under the ink layer. Then I hit this one little button under the Paint Bucket's sub tool titled Multiple Layers.

This little checkbox is a HUGE time-saver for colouring. It effectively makes the Paint Bucket recognize all the layers on the canvas when filling in color, meaning that if there are any layers with, say, lineart, the paint bucket will only fill in the color layer with colors mapped to those other layers. The only trick to THIS, however, is that you need to make sure your lines are closed. If there are any gaps in the linework, it will fill the WHOLE canvas with color instead of just, say, the hair or the boobies.

This trick is also super helpful with shading colors, too!

Since this function recognizes all layers, it also means it recognizes both the ink AND colors at the same time, as well! So with that in mind, what I do is simply draw in my shade and highlight lines (either on the same color layer or on a new layer above the color layer), make sure the shade lines are closed off well, and fill in the shade area with the Paint Bucket tool.

This is why I love Clip Studio Paint so much! It has some of the most accessible tools for art to help streamline my drawing process and make things way faster. And hopefully, I taught you folks something new and interesting with this first tutorial/behind the scenes lesson.

I've been meaning to make lessons like these for the Legendary tier for a while and I'm thankful you've been patient for these. I'm getting a better system in place this year for putting out these tips more regularly, so look forward to more in the coming months!