In this tutorial, I will go over how I use reference to create an original fashion illustration.

Preparation

Unless you are a fashion designer by trade, it is best to look at existing fashion. One great resource for fashion is pinterest. For this example, I found several examples of a fashion style that I want my female character to wear (blurred here because I do not own the copyright).

Sketching

I start by using the basic watercolor brush to sketch the reference photos.

Next I user the eyedropper tool on my reference photo and add color to the sketch.

I put the skin and hair on one layer, and the clothing on another layer.

This allows me to adjust the clothing color as follows:

 

Edit > Tonal Adjustment > Hue / Saturation

 

Slide the Hue adjustment bar so that the color of the clothing is to your liking.

Using this process, I draw all of the reference photos and adjust colors to my liking.

At this point, I decide which fashion style I like the most. This is possibly also a good time to:

 

• Ask mentors or collaborators for their opinion on which design is best and why.

-Mix and match different articles of clothing, jewelry and footwear.

 

For the sake of brevity for this tutorial, I personally decided on the second one from the right as-is.

Preparation II

I then go back to Pinterest and start to look for a pose that I feel represents my character who will be wearing this fashion style. I decided on this photo.

Final illustration

Utilizing the fashion design from earlier and this new pose, I compose a refined illustration.

Note: The brush I used after the watercolor stage is below: