Clip Studio Paint
Learn the tricks Jolene Yeo uses to power the visual storytelling in her paintings, then flip the script with a brand new iteration
Mood and atmosphere are essential in the realm of art. They help immerse viewers into the image and can have a dramatic impact on how the artwork is interpreted.
There are a couple of things that contribute to setting the mood in art, with colour and lighting being key elements. Colours invoke different feelings and emotions, and delving into colour psychology can help you decide on what colours can be used to bring your art to life.
Another contributing factor would be the lighting setup and how you wield light and shadow. Employing strong, dynamic lighting will usually invoke a sense of drama, and softer, subdued lighting will provide your image a more serene look.
The atmosphere is what helps us set a sense of dimension, depth and space in a painting. This helps the viewers place themselves into your work a little more, and can also affect the mood of a piece.
In this tutorial, we’ll be working in greyscale before moving on to colour so you can set the lighting without needing to be too concerned with the colours initially. This also makes the process of changing your colours much easier as we’ll be doing two variations of the same painting.
Hopefully you’ll find this a fun exercise and pick up some useful pointers for your next project.
PHOTOSHOP CLIP STUDIO PAINT
1 Plot the perspective
Because this image will feature a deep background, we’ll need a perspective grid. As I’m using Clip Studio Paint, the Perspective Ruler feature is perfect, and I chose a one-point perspective for this piece. However, if you’re using Photoshop you can create your grid using the Polygon tool with the settings as shown in the above screenshots. The width and height will be according to your canvas size.
2Sketch a character
Start with a character sketch and roughly plot the distant background. I use G-pen in Clip Studio Paint, but any brush you’re comfortable with will work, ideally one with a harder edge. Try to avoid soft edges in the drawing as the forms can become muddied. I always like to add a little movement in the character’s hair. Even if they’re just standing still, I feel like it adds some life.
3 Draw your background landscape
Next we’ll sketch the landscape, which is where the Perspective Ruler in Clip Studio Paint becomes so useful. Ensure that Snap to Special Ruler mode is enabled, and check that your current drawing tool has the f
