Procreate App Fashion Illustration: PROS and CONS

[VIDEO BELOW} Curious to try Procreate app fashion illustration?

“Procreate” this.

And “Procreate t”hat…

Everyone is always talking about Procreate app for digital drawing/ digital painting.  As a fashion illustrator who “went digital” (it’s one of  the ways i love to create and share now),

Procreate app fashion illustration: Procreate is NOT my favorite app for fashion drawing at all!

But you can see I enjoyed it as best I could.

There are MANY posts here on the blog teaching my favorite apps for fashion illustration and art.  TO STUDY WITH ME ABOUT ART APPS join me in the ABOUT FACES online course!

But, I did have a wonderful time making this fProcreate app ashion illustration. (and there’s a behind-the-scenes video in this post!)

Come along with me and get a lot of insight to HOW I CREATED this beautiful piece of fashion art.

Let me explain…. why I do and don’t love the Procreate app.

I DON’T LOVE PROCREATE APP FASHION ILLUSTRATION BECAUSE:

1. it isn’t as gritty and natural as my favorite app, Tayasui Sketches– everything feels kinda too “smooth” to me.
2. there are LOTS of tools- TOO many for a beginner, in my opition
3. you can’t “undo” by simply swiping the screen like many other apps. If you try to swipe, the whole “sheet of paper” moves. Rather, you have to go to a backwards arrow in the margin and tap it every time you want to undo.
4. the page or paper you are working on can be moved around and rotated a lot: I like my paper straight and squarely oriented all the time
5. there are sliders to easily increase or decrease the point size or opacity for any brush you use, as most apps.

BUT PROCREATE APP IS AWESOME BECAUSE:

1. YOU CAN RECORD your process, as time-lapse, real-time, or even PERISCOPE live from the app!(*** UPDATE THIS FEATURE HAS BEEN DISABLED****)
2. there are a LOT of brushes in there:pencils, wide graphite, oil pastel, chalk, crayon, technical pens, brush pens, flat markers, calligraphy pens,…round , flat and pinted brushes..watercolor..a bunch of airbrush effects, and textures. Just click on the “paintbrush” shaped icon in the top right menu, and you’ll get all of your brush opetions.
3. try and fiddle with a lot of transforming tools such as flip, crop, mirror
4. ability to save as psd, pdf, jpg, png or pro file. (or just save to your camera roll)
5. you can upload photos into your drawing, which can be handy for some things.
6. you can save timelapse videsos of your process

PROCREATE APP FASHION ILLUSTRATION:

Here’s the blow-by-blow. ( the video has more in-depth insights with the time-lapse fashion sketching video, but these photos will be useful  to give you a peek how i work so YOU can apply it to YOUR own practice!!!!)

1. I used a wide, soft graphite to sketch out the figure’s frame, on a layer that I later erased. This is really important to me because it is more about shape than lines.… hence the wide, thick pencil.
2. Next, I selected a skin tone in Procreate app and laid it down (using a new layer) because she is wearing a slightly sheer dress, so I wanted to show the skin through everything.
3. Always paint your skintone if they are wearing sheer in: the more opaque and strong the skintone is, the sheerer the fabric will seem. If the skintone is very light /sheer and faded out, then the fabric over it will appear LESS sheer. Compare that to “full strength ” skintone anywhere that the fabric is fully exposed without sheer fabric over it, and to zero skintone where the skin is covered with opaque fabric.
4.  Next, I took that graphite/ charcoal skeleton away by making that layer “invisible”. I started a new layer to work on and took my skintone color from the watercoloring, but this time used it as a brush pen tip which is totally opaque but beautifully uneven  (thick and thin). Usually I do this in grey or black, but i was experimenting here with using the COLORED brush pen.  I used it to plot out the silhouette of the garment and hair, and then to define any seams, ruffles, or gathers I could see for fashion design clarity.
5. Time to add some MORE CONTRAST!!! (yay!). above, you see sheer, wide shapes, and opaque thin lines. NOW i’m pulling in the big guns: BLACK for deep , bright impact! I used lines for the hair contours and filled in with a chisel/square tipped black marker. NOTICE the impact! BAM.
6. FABRIC RENDERING is super-fun  and always so uncertain….. there is no one RIGHT WAY TO DO IT. So you experiment. What are the main colors of the fabric when viewed at a distance? What are the main motifs? How big are they compared to her body? How often do they occur? What color should you work with first? Which colors could be added on top of a base color? Here is the result of my choices on this sheer fabric for my Procreate app fashion illustration…  with a “plaid ” of opaque, rust-colored bands. I drew in the design detail slike seams and gathers with black, intentionally so that they would be visible independant and separate from the fabric rendering.
7. COMPOSITION .  Finally, not only do I come  out with a sheer overlay of a soft, golden hue to make the dress look more like the dress in the photo I worked from, but I also add in a horizon line and a strip of beach and stormy sky… this adds a lot of mood, a richer color palette, and TONS OF DEPTH TO THE PAGE!

I’d love to work with you!

one on one or in my group coaching or self-study online programs!

First, I offer a DIGITAL DRAWING  course to get you comfortable on iPad or Tablet.

It doesn’t include Procreate app fashion illustration (yet) but it DOES include my absolute favorite recommendation apps for fashion sketching and illustration.

You can dive in deep when you join FREEDOM FASHION online program to take you through a whole semester (16 weeks) of fashion study. I’ll take you from  beginner and basic model drawing to finally fashion croquisssketching and illustrating your own unique fashion collection with mood board, fabric swatches, and personal style.

Imagine the confidence you’ll have after completing this program, and  becoming so experienced

Don’t hesitate to comment below

with your thoughts or comments, or questions about my programs!

Can’t wait to meet you. I’ve been helping creatives go from beginner to portfolio in the world of fashion at Parsons the New School for Design since 1997 and now I’m here on my own.

Love,

Laura