Splash Art 101 – Designing Iconic Characters in Visually Tempting Scenes by Kaz

Kaz walks you through her full process for turning a rough idea into finished splash art — from anatomy and expressions to backgrounds, tasty food props, and final color polish in Clip Studio Paint.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• Design original characters from anatomy basics to fantasy stylization
• Draw varied expressions, gestures, and dynamic action poses that don’t look stiff
• Build character sheets and turnarounds to lock personality and usability
• Use basic perspective, photobashing, and simplification for believable backgrounds
• Paint food and small props with shape breakdown and texture detailing
• Compose, light, and color a full splash art scene with strong color harmony

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic drawing fundamentals, no prior splash art experience needed
• Tools: Clip Studio Paint Pro or EX installed
• Hardware: PC or laptop capable of running Clip Studio Paint, drawing tablet recommended

📝 Description

This isn’t theory for theory’s sake. Kaz teaches like a working freelancer because she is one. You start with bodies — real anatomy, different ages and body types — then bend it into anime-style shapes that still feel solid in motion. Expressions, gestures, action angles. The stuff that makes a character feel alive instead of posed.

Then you get to know your character. Not just what they look like, but what they like, how they stand, how they’d react. You’ll build a proper character sheet with turnarounds and color keys, and learn how to simplify details so you can actually draw them again and again without pain.

Backgrounds get the same practical treatment. Basic perspective with Clip Studio tools, using real photos as reference, photobashing and simplifying them into paintable scenes. You’ll learn to place a character indoors and outdoors, set light direction, and push near / middle / far values so the scene has depth.

The fun part? Food. Kaz is known for it. You’ll break objects down into simple silhouettes and geometric shapes, study light and texture, then build detail back up — from minimal to highly rendered. Same approach works for props, drinks, desserts, anything you want the viewer to almost taste.

Finally, you put it all together into one big splash piece. Composition sketches, base colors, ambient light, foreground to background rendering, and final polish with curves, layer modes, and bright accents. Plus the boring-but-important part: organizing layers and exporting for print without getting cropped.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Artists who want practical, job-ready skills beyond textbook basics and want to expand their range
• Artists building a portfolio around original characters and personal IPs
• Artists who want to get better at backgrounds and props that actually support story and mood

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Kaz is a self-taught freelance 2D artist with 7+ years in the industry, currently working with XII Braves Pte Ltd. She spent two years as a 2D Senior Artist at Xrosstales Studio and specializes in novel covers, VTuber design, and personal comic projects. Her client work includes Identity V x Pixiv Collection [2019], Identity V Official Festival Splash Art for Asia Server [2020-2021], Alchemy Stars Illustration Contest Special Guest Award [2021], VTuber designs for Aisha Channel [2021-2024], and guest art for the Arknights 4th-5th Anniversary Artbooks [2023-2024]. She started out intimidated by complex splash art herself, so her teaching focuses on simplifying, working efficiently, and covering weak spots while you finish strong pieces.

🏁 Final Result

• A complete portfolio-ready splash art illustration featuring your original character in a detailed food-themed scene, plus a character sheet, prop designs, and background design studies built during the class.

📢 Guys, this is a Group Buy campaign, check the GBC forum thread to get access

You can find the course preview in the download section below.