Perspective in Clip Studio Paint

Tan Hui Tian shows you how to use the perspective tools in Clip Studio Paint, enabling you to accurately draw environments in perspective

Draw environments with Tan Hui Tian’s advice.

As children, most of us would draw houses as symbolic 2D shapes. In reality, however, it’s rare to see an object exactly head-on, and artists have been representing visual perspective in different ways even before the mathematics and science of perspective was properly established. One of the common methods today is by using linear perspective (one-point, two-point, and so on), although curvilinear perspective imitates how our eyes perceive reality more accurately. Rather simply, the rule of linear perspective follows Euclidean geometry, where the distance and apparent height of the object are inversely proportional: Apparent Height equals Actual Height divided by Distance

With the advent of computers and digital drawing software comes the convenience of not having to chart out perspective guides manually. Having said this, I’d recommend doing it the cumbersome, traditional way at least a few times before moving on to using the perspective tools within Clip Studio Paint, if only to appreciate the mathematics behind linear perspective.

This tutorial assumes basic knowledge of linear perspective, but if you don’t have this, I’ll try to bring you up to speed while showing you how to use the software.

1 Setting up the perspective ruler

In order to create a perspective guide, click Layer>Ruler–Frame> Create Perspective Ruler. In the pop-up window that appears, you choose your options, and in this instance I’ve selected onepoint perspective because this will make it easier to see how the lines correspond to each other clearly.

2 Adjusting the perspective guides

You can tilt the horizon by moving the green button on the lower left quadrant (outlined in red). The button at the vanishing point moves the vanishing point, and the green button closest to it moves the vertical guide. Dragging the circle along the magenta lines moves only those guides.

3 Drawing on the perspective guides

Here’s three-point perspective in action. Once you’ve settled on a perspective, you can lock the layer and draw on a new layer above it. To snap the drawing lines to the vanishing points and other guides, click the snap-to-guide button above.

4 Ellipses in perspective

A lesser-known function in Clip Studio Paint is that you can snap the shape tools to the perspective guides as well. Simply open the settings, click Correction, and click ‘Able to snap’. This makes it possible for you to draw not just ellipses but other polygonal shapes in perspective, with just a few clicks.

5 Using the Symmetrical Ruler

Given that a lot of architecture or objects may feature symmetry, you can speed up your work process by using the symmetrical ruler. Here I’ve created only one, along the existing vertical guideline, but it’s possible to create multiple symmetrical guidelines.

Add extra guides and vanishing points by rightclicking and adding. The diamonds toggle whether your drawing will snap to the guide. Click here to toggle grid visibility The blue line is the horizon line/eye level. The cross denotes the vanishing point.

The Special ruler creates curve guides – useful for fish-eye perspective. If ‘Create at editing level’ is selected, the ruler is created in the current layer. This enables you to lay down consecutive guides with a set rotation.

You can snap to certain guides to ensure you have greater control over your shapes. The shape tools are under Figure, denoted by either a line or ruler. Edit aspect type here and create duplicates of the shape. Access the Sub Tool Detail settings by clicking here.

Take care not to draw on the same layer as the guides. Toggle snapping to different guides (including grids) here.