Sometimes line work will have gaps that are a little bit bigger than the paint bucket tool’s Close gap feature can accommodate. We could use the paint bucket tool here as well to fill in the color, but I use the marker instead. We can see that the color will now not exceed the linework even if my cursor paints past it. Next, I will use the marker tool to color in the head.

When I click this icon, the selected linework layer becomes a reference layer that the color layer will refer to as I block in the color. This is the “ Set as reference layer” icon. With it selected, I will then click the lighthouse icon on the upper part of the layer palette.

Once I have confirmed that it’s turned on, I’m going to select the linework layer from the layer palette. In this window, we can find the same “Do not exceed line of reference layer” option under “Anti-overflow” which is located at the bottom of the left side of the list. Additionally, clicking the small wrench icon in the bottom right corner of the tool’s property palette will open the Sub tool detail window. First, we will need to scroll further down the tool’s property palette of the Fill-in-mono pen tool located on the left side of the screen and select the “ Do not exceed line of reference layer” option located just under “Stabilization.” Checking the box next to it turns it on. Next, with my colors roughly selected for my line art of Yooka, I will go over how to take advantage of Clip Studio Paint’s anti-overflow feature. I don’t worry about aliasing because I create full-color comics, so it’s not terribly important for me. Personally, I keep this pen anti-aliased when I draw. Next, I switch over to Marker located under the Pen sub tool palette and select the Fill-in mono pen tool option as shown in the image below. Then, I’ll make a new layer over top of the linework layer for coloring. I’ll start by cleaning up the canvas and getting rid of the pencil lines on the layer underneath the linework. To do this, I will use the linework below of the character Yooka from my full-color graphic novel Yooka-Laylee and the Kracklestone based on the video game Yooka-Laylee. For this tutorial, I’m going to demonstrate how to use Clip Studio Paint’s Anti-overflow and Area Scaling functions.

Clip studio paint line art