6 Steps to Fashion Sketching in the Digital Age

Visualization or fashion illustration is not something new. However, the ideas in your mind could be blurry as your only image was your imagination. Yes, the pencil was helpful. But even, it needed some practice and the right perception of the human mind to get the best results. Some fashion designers still prefer pencils for fashion design sketches. However, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, basically all fashion designers and fashion brands must and do use CAD. Now, the thing is, if almost every industry is moving to automation, why should designers stick to the old-school practices? Besides, fashion illustration tools give you more photographic clarity. This piece will 6 steps to fashion sketching in the digital age to achieve the perfect illustrations. We will create a dress sketch for example. sketch.

Just keep one thing in mind – the newbies with a passion for fashion designing. You don’t need to be a hand drawing artist to be a fashion designer. All you need is passion and creativity. Moreover, you need to use the liberty of your mind to draw without any limitations and boundaries. But yes, a great design starts with the sketch, so you must know about it.

6 Steps to perfect sketch and design for fashion illustration

We understand the topic of designs, and it involves more creativity and imagination than science. Yet, there is some science involved in fashion design too. We are talking about the human body’s anatomy. If you do not understand that shape, the figure, you will probably never be able to bring your imagination alive and see your favorite dress on a real human being. So, the first step is to understand body perceptions. Even using a digital tool, you still need to understand the steps. Some of the steps will remain the same. Such as, if you use illustrator software, you will still follow them. The benefit of using an app or software tool is that you don’t need to be a pro at crafting perfect lines.

1 Understanding body perceptions
The demographics of your audience vary. The same design may or may not be suitable for a kid. Therefore, you need to build different croquis. It will help you understand the look and feel of a specific age. For example, if you need a croquis for a tall slim woman, you can sketch a 12/12 dimension. Simply draw the vertical line from head to feet using this dimension and then create the head and rest of the body.

2 Sketching your figure draft
Keep your first draft of the figure rough. YES. This is the most significant as you apply your creative process. It has to evolve with time; therefore, a rough sketch will give you much room for improvement. With that one draft, you can also create multiple variations and create multiple designs with different poses. Using the variations, you will have sketches of all kinds of poses. Different poses will bring the most clarity to the final figure and design of clothes.

3 Fleshing out your figure draft
Fashion sketching isn’t only about perfection but suitable design. Once your croquis is designed, you only need to flesh out the figure draft. Now, add the details to the croquis: Chin, belly, legs, arms, and any other details. Finally, when you flesh out the figure, you have a dummy ready to be dressed.

4 Choose the color palette
Now choose your color palette. It will also include the skin color you want to choose for the design. Moreover, you need to have the color of the dress in mind (if you were designing a dress for example). Be it in contrast or the same color in different shades. Decide on it, and then move further to the clothing design. Now, with the tool, you have one advantage you don’t need color markers. You have a whole pallet in the tool. You can do it by choosing the right shade for the color.

Flat Color Vs. Digital Fabric / Digital Patterns vs. coloring pens (Digital Fashion Pro Che Fashion Print Featured Below)

5 Draw clothing
The tools like Digital Fashion Pro are offering ready-to-use clothing templates. For example, if you have a dress in mind, you can simply choose the template, draw the pattern, use their digital fabrics, scan in your own fabrics or use the regular system colors to perfect the design. So, you can use the custom dimensions and design templates and give your input for the next project. The following is the template for the dress; you can customize the dimensions as you GO.

6 Designing and coloring your outfit
Once the clothing is finalized, the final step is to design and color the outfit. Tools have the colors and the designs. Drag and drop or modify them according to your model needs and just use them to give your design a final sketch. If your design feels out of shape or needs more body, you can easily add it. There is plenty of room for improvement till you have a perfect design.

vs. Flat Color:

With Digital Design Tools like Digital Fashion Pro – you have the freedom to easily test variations and colorways. This is harder to do with a pen or hand coloring. The possibilities are endless!

See the Digital Fashion Pro Gallery of Sketches Here

The benefit of using fashion Sketching & illustration tools

When you draw with a pencil, you will get frustrated erasing the lines and then perfecting them. However, when using tools like Design Fashion Pro, for the fashion designer drawing or sketching, you will have plenty of room to improve your design. Experiment with the design until you get the final outlook you wished for it. Check out the different contrasts as well.

Working backwards – turned a Digital Fashion Sketch into a Pencil Version by using an Effect

If you are not using a tool like illustrator and using a more automated tool, you can design the dress and try it on the model and VOILA. You have your design for a real human body. Using a design tool like Digital Fashion Pro, you can put your finalized design sketch on one of the included models that come with the system. Now, you need to adjust a few more things, or maybe not. Then, you are DONE.

Bottom line

So, the bottom line is that the digital age is giving fashion designers more clear visualizations. Having a fashion illustration done using a digital tool or fashion sketch software, you can have 2D and 3D images of your perfectly crafted model dress. If you are just starting as a fashion designer and do not really know how to draw a straight line on the paper, then Digital Fashion Pro is for you. Just perfectly use your imagination. Design the clothing and use customizable clothing templates as you wish, and you can have your perfect dress design right away. The Digital Fashion Pro Style Blast Edition can even help you bring your design to life.