What is Digital Fashion Illustration and How Does it Work?
Digital Fashion Illustration is a visual way of expressing fashion concepts, derived from drawing, painting and other forms of art.
Designers use sketches to get creative fashion art ideas on paper or digital platforms.
This practice has become an integral part of the fashion world. There are several online and offline courses for fashion illustration.
Digital fashion design software is a rapidly growing industry where all aspects of fashion design, from creation to the final product, are done through the digital environment.
It provides the opportunity for anyone to be able to create their own clothes and bring them to market.
Thus, virtual clothing is not just for gaming characters or movie superheroes. It’s becoming available to regular people as well.
You may be wondering what a virtual outfit looks like? So, here’s the answer: for plenty of things.
That includes consumption and the opportunity to generate revenue for a person or company, but there’s more!
Digital graphics gave birth to digital fashion design apps. With this, people began making patterns and clothing with data, leading to the emergence of virtual fashion design.
Initially, virtual fashion design was more for games and cinema purposes, but its potential for the common customer has been eventually discovered.
Several brands have already adhered to this concept. Among them are Supreme, and Gucci, Renner, which have already launched fully computerised fashion collections, that can be used as filters in photos or skins for video game avatars.
Brands recently collaborated to bring virtual art creations to life as physical pieces of clothing.
Top free online courses for digital fashion illustration:
Table of content
- Digital Fashion Illustration: JD Institute of fashion technology
- Digital fashion illustration: 3 weeks course at IstitutoMarangoni
- Digital Fashion Illustration Course: Lamode college, London
- Fashion Illustration Online Short Course: London college of Fashion
- Fashion illustration Course: Milan Fashion campus
The Different Types of Drawing Apps for Digital Fashion Illustration
Below we are sharing some of the best drawing apps for fashion design and online sketching tools.
1. Adobe Fresco
Owned by Adobe inc. Its a free design software used to draw, paint and create its designs for artists of all skill levels.
The vector brush option definitely rates this app higher than similar products like procreate.
It use both rector and raster technologies along with live brushes which helps you to design your essential artwork.
The premium versions starts at just $10/ per month and available on all devices and operating devices.
2. Autodesk sketchbook - Its for everyone who loves to draw
iPad users can now pick the ‘Digital Fashion Illustration‘ app from the app store.
It is one of the most convenient & realistic apps out there, with a range of brushes and strokes for you to choose from!
Adding more flair to the experience, this fashion illustration app offers a natural feel to its colurs and drawing.
It also enables synchronization with different devices so that your project can be retrieved anytime, anywhere.
It has more than 14 customised brushes and The design app is free for download but it has various in-app purchases available.
3. Paper by Wetransfer
It offers creativity at your fingertips and you can bring your ideas to life in all their messy glory.
The paper helps you to put your ideas into motion as it has perfectly tuned tools that make it easy to sketch, write, paint, and draw—wherever your thoughts take you.
They offer Freemium pricing for all its users, offerings its pro plans at just $10 per month, and premium pricing at $19 per month (Billed annually).
4. Concepts
Originally launched for iOS in the year 2012, It offers solid sketching for everyone, whether its house, hospitals, mobile phones, websites or video games.
All because Concepts is an advanced version of sketching paper, where natural tools meet vector manipulation so ideas can change and grow as you do.
Its available on App store, Google play store, Microsoft store and on Galaxy store, they are offering free software download for its users.
if you need they have 47+ extra libraries and services only available on In-app purchases.
5. Prêt-à-Template
It offers a real sketching experience for fashion illustrations and designs.
It helps you design all the clothes you can imagine as the Garments library on PAT (Prêt-à-Template) is the ultimate collection of clothing templates.
Arranged in more than 20 categories, from coats to skirts, gala to comfy – you need it, you find it.
PAT also helps you to design BAGS & SHOES along with its useful tutorial to use the software.
You can watch its free drawing tutorials online and its a free drawing and fashion design software and also offers a weeks long free trails along with IN-App Purchases for its designer community of more than a million users.
6. Affinity Designer
Affinity Designer is an graphic designing tool for businesses seeking a comprehensive designing and UX solution.
It covers all components of graphic design, allowing you to create concept art, logos, icons, UI designs, print projects & mock-ups as well as other illustrations with ease.
It enables web designers to build and preview gradients, adjustments, effects, transformations and curve edits in real-time.
It also have a learning portal to use the tool very effectively. They offer one-off pricing for each hardware: MacOs, Microsoft and IPad.
7. MediBang Paint
Its the free digital painting & comic designing app,
It comes with free fully loaded unlimited brushes, fonts, backgrounds, face packs and many more useful packs.
Medibang paint offers a premium for around 7,900 JBP per year with a 300GB cloud storage capacity.
you can download it on both iOS and windows platforms.
8. Repsketch
Its is a one stop solution to create fashion designs by repurposing thousands of premade vector designs & sketches.
Its a go-to tool for fashion designing professionals who dont have time to create designs from scratch and it also runs a community driven vector graphic platform to design professional technical sketches.
Within 3 steps it will help you to shape your product designs ideas into sketches your boss would love.
You can download, embed, or simply share a public link of your designs with the world in web-friendly SVG format. Its premium pricing starts with just $7 per month.
9. Procreate
Its a super popular and creative app among budding creative artists and designers.
Its a premium quality, low-cost app for artists of every kind. Procreate is an ideal tool for anyone wanting to give digital painting a go.
One of the biggest perks of Procreate is its massive library offering 100s of handmade brushes & over 100 customisable settings for every brush.
The biggest Cons of this app is that it doesn’t offer automatic iCloud backup.
Procreate has everything you need to create expressive sketches, rich paintings, gorgeous illustrations and beautiful animations.
This design platform offers a wide variety of tutorials and digital art tutorials to make you an expert in the designing world.
This app is only available on the app store for iPad and has a premium subscription starting with $12.99.
10. Tayasui Sketches
As they call themselves, The most realistic drawing tool you can find anywhere.
You will get an experience of drawing on a real paper as it offers advanced settings to play with for tools such as: Pencils, Rotring, Felt pen, Pen brush, Oil pastel, Acrylic, Watercolor, Air brush, Ink and Smudge.
It offers Freemium and pro versions and only available for MacOS, iOS & Android.
This is a popular fashion design illustration app because It has an attractive and fairly intuitive design.
It offers lots of brushes and tools, quick access to color and opacity options, and some standout features like screen recording, folders, and layering, which have tons of value in classrooms.
11. Fashion Design Sketches: Style
It is used to design your own fashion masterpiece of an outfit.
You can create your own dress collection and share it with your friends and family, Plus its available on all platforms.
It offers various modular design patterns and along with this they also offer all the necessary tools to draw your fashion sketch such as: pencils, color, markers, brushes and more.
It also has some unique custom made fabric textures to help you choose from its library.
Fashion design sketches: style supports Apple pencil and its completely free and offers IN-App Purchases only.
12. ArtRage
It’s used to draw and paint and offers various traditional tools to help you paint the canvas of your dreams.
It’s the most advanced stimulation of real paint on iOS.
It comes with a one time payment of $29 and only available on iOS.
Its free demo allows you to try all the features of ArtRage 5 for an unlimited time.
It does not require an email sign up or internet connection and that’s why it’s our digital art tools for beginners only and not useful for pro creative designers.
13. Adobe Draw
Adobe Draw is a powerful digital illustration platform that enables fashion designers to create stunning illustrations with ease.
It features an array of digital drawing tools, brushes, shapes, and effects that make it easy for users to create beautiful designs.
With Adobe Draw, fashion designers can quickly and easily create high-quality illustrations for their projects. It’s a great tool for creating professional-looking sketches and illustrations in no time.
Adobe Draw provides all the tools necessary to bring your fashion ideas to life with its intuitive user interface and comprehensive library of resources.
With Adobe Draw, fashion designers can take their creative ideas from concept to reality in just a few clicks!
14. Adobe Sketch
Adobe Sketch is a powerful digital illustration tool that enables fashion designers and illustrators to create stunning illustrations with ease.
It offers a wide range of features that allow users to create detailed illustrations quickly and easily.
With its intuitive user interface and powerful tools, Adobe Sketch makes it easy to create beautiful digital fashion illustrations in no time.
With its advanced features, users can easily customize their designs according to their needs.
Whether you’re a professional illustrator or just starting out, Adobe Sketch is the perfect tool for creating amazing digital fashion illustrations.
15. Notability
Digital fashion illustration is becoming increasingly popular as a medium for fashion designers and illustrators to showcase their work.
Notability is an app that makes it easier for these creators to create digital illustrations of their designs. With Notability, users can easily draw, sketch, and illustrate their designs using the app’s tools and features.
It also provides a platform where these creators can collaborate with each other on projects or share their work with the world.
Notability has become an essential tool for many fashion designers and illustrators as it helps them create beautiful digital illustrations that stand out from the crowd.
16. Sketch Club
Sketch Club is a revolutionary digital fashion illustration platform that is revolutionizing the way fashion designers create and collaborate.
With Sketch Club, fashion designers can create digital illustrations of their designs in real-time and share them with others in the community.
It also allows them to easily store and organize their sketches so they can access them anytime.
Sketch Club makes it easier for fashion designers to create beautiful designs quickly, efficiently, and collaboratively.
18. Adobe Photoshop Sketch
Adobe Photoshop Sketch is a powerful app that helps fashion illustrators create digital illustrations quickly and easily.
With its intuitive user interface, it allows users to draw on their iPad or iPhone with the same precision as they would with paper and pencil.
It also has a wide range of features such as layers, brushes, and effects that allow the user to create stunning designs in no time.
Adobe Photoshop Sketch is an ideal tool for fashion illustrators who need to create digital illustrations quickly and accurately.
With its easy-to-use tools, it allows them to draw on their device with the same precision as they would with paper and pencil.
It also has a variety of features such as layers, brushes, and effects that make creating beautiful designs easier than ever before.
19. Paint Tool SAI
Paint Tool SAI is an incredibly powerful and versatile digital painting software that has become increasingly popular among fashion illustrators.
It offers a wide range of features that make it ideal for creating stunning digital illustrations, such as vector-based drawing tools, customizable brushes, and an intuitive user interface.
With its help, fashion illustrators can create beautiful digital images with ease. Paint Tool SAI also provides a wide range of features specifically designed for fashion illustration.
Such as the ability to add textures and patterns to clothing items and the ability to create dynamic poses with its 3D-like animation tools.
With Paint Tool SAI, fashion illustrators have access to all the tools they need to create stunning digital illustrations in no time.
20. WGSN
WGSN is a global trend forecasting agency that provides insights into the latest fashion trends. It helps fashion designers, retailers, and brands stay ahead of the curve to create products that appeal to their customers.
As part of its services, WGSN offers digital fashion illustration services that help designers create stunning visuals for their collections.
These illustrations are created using advanced digital tools and techniques to ensure accuracy and consistency in design.
With this service, designers can easily visualize how their collection will look like before they start producing it.
This helps them save time and money while ensuring that they create products that are on-trend with the latest fashion trends.
Conclusion
We have shared All these apps that have features which make them great tools for using to learn and create digital fashion drawings or as part of a digital fashion illustration.
If you Want something super simple? I’d go with Adobe friesco and If you Want to create beautiful and professional fashion designs? I’ll highly recommend Procreate and Sketches.
Concepts however, is a very interesting app for me. I think I’ve still got a lot to learn in terms of utilising all of its functions efficiently, but I love that it uses vector graphics and produces very sharp, clean images no matter the scale.
I’d highly recommend testing out several of the free designing apps which we recommended above yourself to see which you like the best.
I think that the drawing and designing apps that you will enjoy the most will depend on what sort of fashion art style you enjoy, and how much control you like to have over the different tools, and how simple or complicated you want your app to be.
Hopefully you’ve found this review helpful in narrowing down your choices. Happy drawing!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1. HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF DRAWING APPS TO CREATE PROFESSIONAL-LOOKING DESIGNS?
There are several digital fashion illustration tools which offers free digital art tutorial or you can use drawing tutorials app such as Adobe photoshop sketch, Procreate and more.
Q2.THE BENEFITS OF USING DRAWING APPS FOR DIGITAL FASHION DESIGN?
These digital fashion illustration art tools are useful for designers as they can create new sketches quickly and more precisely you can use the above best free drawing apps in 2022, we have shared some of the best art apps 2022.
Q3.WHAT ARE THE BEST DRAWING APPS AND RESOURCES IN THE MARKET?
Our top sketching apps 2022 is Procreate and Paper as they are easy to use and is a complete professional art software based upon several digital fashion illustration software reviews.