Fashion illustration is just like any other illustration work but Its FASHION! Just like any other creative work, fashion illustration is loved by people who love to draw portraits of people. But for being a professional fashion illustrator, you should know and practice drawing figures and fabrics over them but you can add your creative style in your drawing as well.
To add your unique style to your fashion illustrations, you can use different mediums as well. Yes, there are many options you can go creative with. I have listed different tools and materials you can use for your fashion illustration and add more feel to your drawings.
WATRECOLOR
Watercolor is great for loose, sweeping strokes and also good for fine details. They’re available in different types. To make your drawings look little close to professional, use professional or artist quality colors. Student quality watercolors lose their vibrancy when they’re dried.
To know more about watercolors – tools and techniques. You can read here.
COLOURED PENCILS
Coloured pencils are great for detailed drawing that required lots of control. You can use them for different techniques such as layering, with cross-hatching, blending and other different strokes. You can use an eraser as well. The paper to use with colored pencils in up to you but smooth paper is great for glossy images and textured paper catches the colors more rapidly.
Watersoluble pencils enable you to blend your mark-making with water for a more painterly effect.
MARKER PENS
Marker pens have a good range of colors and they are a strong way of expressing line. You can experiment with few lighter shades if you are just starting to use them and go forward with darker shades as you gain confidence with them. Marker pens come in different pin sizes. Few of them are chiselled-tip, double-ended tip for different sizes line. Fine-liner and felt-tip nib for fine lines.
CHARCOAL
Charcoals sticks’ and pencils are fun to work with as they come in different sizes and they’re darker than graphite pencils. They create beautiful smudge effect as well. Charcoal sticks’ comes in two type which are soft and hard. Soft sticks’ are easy to smudge and they’re darker on the other hand hard sticks’ are good for fine lines which won’t get smudge easily. They also come as pencils which have different shades as well to choose for you. Charcoal pencils are good for fine lines and smudge or shading.
They can great with textured paper but I have used them with smooth paper as well and it is not bad either. You can experiment and find your way which is good for you.
INKS
For strong, vibrant color, try inks. These can look incredible when blended on really wet paper – the bleeds create their own interest. You need to exercise control so that the medium does not overpower the design. Black ink with a dipping pen is something you can use, especially when you want crisp, thin lines to show delicacy and details. There is still an element of chance as ink is likely to splatter occasionally, especially if you are using quick, hard lines which are great for edgy drawings.
PASTELS
The ad vantage of pastels is that you don’t have to wait for the colors to dry. They are great to blend or draw over to create unblended strokes. When blending colors, you do it directly on the paper instead mixing on palette.
The paper needs to have a texture for the pastel to stick. Ingres, watercolor or rough rice paper are all good and your results will be even better if you use colored paper.
GOUACHE
Gouache is more opaque than watercolor. It dries quickly so you can paint layers on top. You can dilute it with water for washes or use it straight from the tube and apply with brushes, sponges or palette knives – anything that might give an interesting texture.
Conclusion
So this was a list of tools and materials which can be used for fashion illustration drawings but don’t forget to practice before you try to make a serious drawing to not disappoint yourself. Once you learn more about these or any on them mediums with your practice, you can include them in your tools kit and make your drawing for unique.
I hope this article helped you in some way. If you want to add your points and how you like this article, you can leave few words in comment section below.
