When your drawing skills develop you will crave for new techniques and experimenting with new drawing media. Here you can find a list of things you can add to your basic drawing kit as you progress to higher levels of fashion illustration. It is always good to be in the loop with the new art and craft products continually coming to the market and you can do that by reading magazines or blogs for artists.
Drawing and Coloring Media
Now that you have experience with your chosen media, you can try experimenting with others or enhancing your work by mixing them together.
- Rapidograph pens - When you start drawing flats for your fashion designs, you can use rapidograph pens for detailed, technical work.
- Indian Inks- These vibrant inks are perfect for drawings and caligraphy. You can make unique artistic style fashion illustrations.
- Marker Blender - This is actually great to have in the beginning also as it will prevent streaks and make your work look more polished. Marker Blender should be used right away before color dries or you can get the complete opposite effect.
- Gouache - Many fashion illustrators and designers like using gouache as it can be used opaque or like watercolor if you add more water. It is great for coloring large surfaces or trying to achieve artistic fabric prints.
- Acrylics- Great for painting on canvas, quick drying and they give a more vibrant finish than gouache. You can also use them to add texture or paint over different surfaces.
- Poster paints - If you are looking for a bold effect, then poster paints could be a great choice for you. They are similar to gouache but more intense.
Paper and Other Useful Items
1. Marker paper- If you find markers are your go to media in fashion illustration, you should definitely invest in marker paper as it will compliment the advantages of sketching with markers and prevent bleeding.
2. Watercolor paper- You can choose texture that suits your style when working with watercolors or use it to achieve different texture by using colored pencils on watercolor paper.
3. Other decorative paper - Colored paper, textured cards and decorative papers can be very useful in presentation or if you are creating a collage.
4. Q Tips- This very simple,budget friendly item that you can find in every drugstore can be very helpful for clean ups and blending on paper.
5. Miniature mannequin - mini wooden figure with movable joints is a great way to present body positions, proportions and perspective.
6. Light Box - Artists and illustrators use light boxes for tracing a sketch onto the drawing paper or illustration board.
Now you are prepared to do some serious fashion illustration and drawing work while having fun experimenting with your art kit.
I’m enjoying the discussion. One distinction that comes to mind is – illustration is a commissioned work, where the client decides the subject and probably the style too. Fine Art comes from the heart of the artist and is not necessarily intended for a specific buyer. I think both are art and both take tremendous skill.