Hello! My name is Liz Staley and I’m a long-time user of Clip Studio Paint (I started using the program back when it was known as Manga Studio 4!). I was a beta-tester on the Manga Studio 5 program and for Clip Studio Paint, and I have written three books and several video courses about the program. Many of you probably know my name from those books, in fact. I write weekly posts on Graphixly.com and on CSP Tips, so be sure to come back every week to learn more Clip Studio Tips and Tricks from me!

When you’re starting your artistic journey there can be many challenges, from anatomy to perspective and much more. But something that doesn’t have to be a challenge is shading your characters in a way that is believable! In this article I’m going to share a simple method of setting up shading layers as well as tips for how to plan shadows and where to place them.

In this article we will cover the following topics:

Creating Shadows

Adding Highlights

Finishing Touches

Let’s get drawing!

Creating Shadows

You will need an image with flat colors laid down to start with. These flat colors can be on one layer (my preferred method) or each color on its own layer (i.e. skin, hair, shirt, pants, etc). If you’ve put each flat color on its own layer, put those layers into a layer folder before continuing on with this tutorial.

We’re going to create our shadows on a clipping layer, which is a layer that shows only where it overlaps with the contents of a layer or layer folder directly below it. Create a new layer above your base colors, then right-click the new layer and go to Layer Settings - Clip to Layer Below.

Set this new layer to the Multiply blending mode using the dropdown menu in the Layer palette. I like to change the opacity to about 50%.

Now fill the shadows layer with a shadow color of your choice. To keep the shading more realistic, stay away from using black. In most cases if the light source in the image is warm, such as sunlight, then the shadows will be a cool color like blue or purple. I tend to favor a dark, desaturated blue color for my shadows but feel free to experiment. Also this method will allow us to change the shading and highlight colors later if we want to so don’t feel pressured to make the ‘perfect’ choice right off the bat!

Once you fill your shadow layer with your chosen color you should see it appearing just on your base color layers. I’ve added a background from CSP Assets in the image below so you can see how the shadow color is only on the character thanks to the clipping feature.

I’ve also added a background so that we have a light source to work with. If we look at the shadows and highlights in the background, we can see that the light source is coming from the top right because the shadows are at the bottom left. 

If you need to when you’re starting out, create a new layer and draw a little ball with arrows coming out of it to remind yourself where your light source is coming from. It helps!

With the light source in mind, take a large hard eraser tool and erase the areas that won’t be shaded. This doesn’t need to be perfect, we’ll refine these shapes later. Just try to get an idea for the areas that will be hit by the light.

Once you have the general shapes set out, zoom in and refine the shapes and make the edges neater. I used a combination of the hard eraser, lasso selection tool, and my favorite pen tool to clean up the edges of the shadows and make the shapes fit better. Remember that objects that stick out from or overlap other objects will cast a shadow on to the object below them, such as the character’s bangs and hair casting a shadow on the face. There are also some areas of a typical ‘humanoid’ character that will almost always be in shadow unless the lighting is coming from below, such as under the nose, between the top eyelid and eyebrows, and under the chin.

If you are new to shading faces and not sure how the shadows would be shaped, check out the William Nguyen light reference tools. (https://williamnguyen.artstation.com/projects/6a0Par)

Continue this process for all the shadow areas. For areas like fur or hair remember to make your shadows jagged and following the direction of the hair strands so it doesn’t look like a lump of smooth plastic on your character’s head!

Complete these steps with a second layer to create another layer of deeper shadows. You can use the same color you used before or a slightly different one if you want to add more color and interest. I like to keep these shadows to the far areas of the character or parts that are behind others. These include the hair behind the neck, far side of the face, under the nose and chin, and inside the sleeves. Adding this second layer of shadows can really add dimension to your illustration!

Adding Highlights

Where there are shadows, there is also light! And where there is light, there should be highlights! These are areas where the light hits the strongest, making the lightest area of the character or objects. 

Create a new layer above the shadows and base color layers. Right-click the layer and set it as a clipping layer, as we did in the beginning of the previous section with the shadow layers. You can stack many clipping layers on top of each other and they will affect only the first regular layer below them.

Now take the color of your light (in my case it’s yellow because the character is in the sun) and fill this layer with it.

Set the blending mode of the highlights layer to Overlay and lower the opacity. I went down to about 65%, but you might choose a different number depending on the intensity of the light source in your drawing. 

You can do the same process of erasing and refining that we used before on the shadow layers or you can add a Layer Mask to this layer, then hide the highlight color and ‘paint’ it back in with a pen tool if you wish. 

Unless your light source is very intense, I like to keep my highlights pretty minimal compared to the main shadows. Also there will usually be some of the base color between a shadow and highlight area, so make sure not to overlap the lightest and darkest color!

Finishing Touches

You can either leave the edges of the shadows and highlights very hard or you can blend them out a bit, depending on the style you want to achieve. I like a slightly-blended look on mine rather than having a completely hard edge. To do this, select the layer you want to soften and then use the Blend tool to soften the edges of the shadows. I usually blend more on curved areas, such as the face and sleeves, and less on sharp edges such as a fold in the clothing or a cast shadow coming from the bangs. I also tend to keep the edges of shadows and highlights quite sharp on hair to keep it looking like strands.

Note that if you used a layer mask on a layer instead of erasing and drawing back in parts, you will need to use the Blend tool on the Mask and not the layer itself.

Adding a rim light can help define the form of the character more if you have details getting lost in the shadows. Create a new layer and set it to Overlay or Screen. I like to lower the opacity to about 25-30%. Choose a color and use the soft airbrush or your favorite drawing tool to add very subtle light just on some of the edges of the character away from the main light source. This type of lighting occurs either in a studio setting when there are multiple light sources or in natural light when light is reflecting off of other objects. 

In the screenshot below I added yellow rim light to the left side of the hair, face, shoulder, and hakama to bring some of these details out. 

Check to make sure you like your lighting colors. If not, use Edit - Tonal Correction - Hue/Saturation/Luminosity to change the color of the layer. I chose to change the color of my rim light to blue instead of yellow. 

As a final adjustment, I raised the Opacity of the background layer. Since my background layer is quite yellow, the character’s lighting then looked a little strange. To fix this, I put a new layer over the entire image, filled it with a light yellow, then set it to Overlay at 30% opacity.

I have an entire post about integrating characters with a background! You can find it here (https://tips.clip-studio.com/en-us/articles/11085)

Conclusion

Just like everything else in art, your shading can improve with practice, using reference, and studying. But a few simple tips and tricks can make the beginning process a lot less painless and help you gain confidence to continue improving!

For more information on CLIP Studio Paint, please visit https://www.clipstudio.net/en or https://graphixly.com