Want to take your fashion illustrations to the next level?

This course will equip you with the skills to create stunning and realistic ruffles, and trims for your designs! This course covers,

 

-Mastering frills or ruffles: Learn different techniques to draw these intricate details, from simple to complex.

-Digital magic: Discover how to transform your drawings into brushes, ready for seamless integration into your illustrations.

A. Mastering Frills or ruffles🤗🤗

1. drawing simple frill

the steps are as follows,

 

1- draw 3 horizontal lines as shown below

2- Use the pen tool or brush tool to draw a wavy line as the base shape for your ruffle. The complexity of the wave will determine how ruffled the final outcome will be. A straighter line will create softer folds

3 and 4- Draw short lines branching out from the baseline at various intervals. Make sure these lines create the illusion of folds and dimensions to improve quality by drawing them inward or outward accordingly.

5- For a more textured look, you can add even shorter lines branching out from the folds you just drew in step 3.

After adjusting the line weight a bit for more volume, you get a decent out come.

2. frills display; more details on frills

When it comes to creating intricate details in your designs, the way you draw the baseline is crucial, as we've previously noted in step 2. With the addition of a modified version of step 1, the range of possibilities is practically endless.

Below are several alternative approaches to help you visualize the above.

- You can have the two baselines define the arc and size of the frill’s base to obtain a more dynamic look.

- Use the third line as the point of attachment to the clothing. Depending on its position, the view angle of the frill gets affected and thus needs to be considered when moving to step 3.

- For step 3 draw short lines branching out from the curved baseline to create the illusion of folds and depth in the frill. Note that the direction and length of these lines will determine the style and texture of the frill and should be dependent of the folds.

- steps 4 and 5 are pretty much the same as above, where we just add the necessary details.

 

take the other example below.

3. frills pointing away or towards the camera

One can use these same steps to draw frills looking directly toward the camera or the opposite direction, and for that one needs to carefully visualize the 3d nature of the frill.

Using the three lines of step 1 can help a lot with that by looking at them as three ends of a volumetric triangle.

Also, steps 3 and 4 should be approached carefully because the way we connect the lines from the edge to the point of attachment or fold, indicates the angle. (the main reason step 4 is independent of the others even though it looks insignificant alone)

Similar process goes for a frill facing away from the camera.

Note;

- Step 1 is good for beginners, but as efficiency increases, it becomes tedious and can be omitted eventually.

- when drawing a frill that looks upward like in the first example, rotating the canvas might help a lot.

B. Digital magic; using pre-made decorations

1. Ruled lines

Notice step 2 is all about drawing the wavy line, meaning one can easily use any of the premade or customized brushes offered by Clip Studio Paint.

By default, you can find some custom lines/brushes from the sub tool [decorations] and then [ruled lines].

And here are some useful settings to consider when using these custom brushes.

The picture shows the clip studio default brush when moved horizontally with settings

1-       30 brush size

2-      50 brush thickness

3-       150 brush thickness

4- 100 brush thickness +pressure sensitivity on

 

(5) on the other hand, shows the result when the brush is moved in a zigzag or wavy manner rather than straight horizontally. As you can see, it produces a slightly more complex or more realistic frill line (ready for steps 3-5). Just make sure to check [post correction] from the tool property to help smoothen the jigs that might appear.

 

Note; if you can’t find any one of these settings in the [tool property], select the spanner icon at the bottom left corner of the tool property and go look for it in the [sub-tool property] window.

You can also try the clip studio assets store if these lines do not suit your drawing or create a new more customized line. Please check out how to make ones own custom brush from the link below.

who knows, you can even help increase the assets store and help fellow creators like me and you.

2. Pre drawn ruffle material

It's worth noting that ruffles often have a uniform appearance, which can be somewhat repetitive. Fortunately, with Clip Studio paint decorative brush feature, it's possible to create a brush that can produce frills directly.

The default brush [simple frill] is an examlpe of a premade frill which can be found in the tool property [decoration] then [clothing].

And just like the ruled lines, the brush size, thickness, and post-correction are also important when trying to use this brush.

All that is left is for you to just apply this brush where it fits best on your drawing.

To ease precision with the decoration one can use clip studio rulers along the edge or where it is attached to the clothes.