Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Tuna, this is my first time sharing a tip and I hope I can explain it well!

Since I don’t have a human form, today ~~my son~~ Ian, will become my assistant to teach you guys how to draw frills :D

 

 

What is frill?

Let's begin by understanding what we're drawing!

Frills are decorative strips of gathered or pleated material sewn onto a garment or other piece of fabric.

Creating frills can be done in several ways, here, Ian will show you how!

• Gathering the fabric

With this method, you have the flexibility to adjust the number of folds that are compressed together, just like when you adjust your curtains!

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• Pleating the fabric

Pleats are a fold or doubling of fabric that is pressed, ironed or creased into place. You can easily identify this type of fold in school skirts!

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There are numerous other types of frills out there, and I encourage everyone to explore and discover them on their own. There's so much to learn beyond what I can explain here!

How to draw Frills

This is one of the simplest way to draw it. The key is at the bottom part, try drawing different type of “waves”

It can become more complicated once you put it into an actual clothes. There are several factors to consider such as: the thickness of the material, angles, the impact of wind and gravity on the frill shapes, and the effect of contact with other surfaces

 

Try playing around with a piece of fabric, use it as a reference, and observe how it works! :D

Using Frills from Clip Studio Assets

You might spot frills while enjoying your favorite isekai or historical webtoon and wonder how much time the artist spent drawing them all. Well, here's a secret: they might have been drawn manually, or... they're all Clip Studio assets! Drawing frills can be time-consuming, so using these assets will save you tons of time. So let’s get to it!

1. Open Clip Studio Assets

Go to: https://assets.clip-studio.com and log in with your account

2. Search for frill brushes

Quick Tip: try searching with other keyword such as ruffles, folds, cloth decoration, etc

3. Find the brushes you like and download them

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Drag the downloaded brush to the sub tool group you want

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Download as many as you like! who knows if you’ll need them in the future

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4. Apply the frill brush to your character

Here we’ll have Ian with a plain shirt as the model~ let’s add the frills to make it more interesting!

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Create a new layer on top of your lineart, you can rename the layer if you want to.

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Make sure you set the upper color (main color) to black and lower color (sub-color) to white.

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You can start drawing with the frill brush! Here I’m using “Frill 02” from Ruffle Brush set made by EfKa! I will link the brush below so you can download and try them too.

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Next, you can adjust the position of the assets using the Liquify tool.

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Erase the unnecessary parts either directly on the layer or by using a masking layer (just in case you need to make further modifications!)

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Here I decide to add another frill decoration made by diannedejarjayes! I made a new layer for each brush/asset that I use. You can download the brush below

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Keep exploring and try out different Clip Studio Paint brushes to see what works best for you!

You can apply what we learned earlier and draw the ruffles manually like this hehe :D

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5. Remove the white part of the brush

Some brushes are not transparent, this is how you remove it:

 

Select the asset layer -> go to Edit -> Convert brightness to opacity and watch those white areas vanish like magic

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6. More cleaning!

Erase the part that are being covered by other objects.

 

Quick Tip: select your asset layer, go to layer property and select “layer color” to change the color of the layer and easily see the asset. You can turn it off by clicking it again.

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7. Your instant frills are ready to color!

You can add your personal touch by redrawing certain parts of the brush to seamlessly blend it with the clothes! :D

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Afterword

Drawing frills and drapery can feel daunting, but don’t be discouraged! Utilize as many references as you need. Grab a piece of cloth, study it closely, and experiment with it. Rather than simply copying what you see, engage in thoughtful observation. Ask yourself questions like, 'Why does it take this particular shape? What factors contribute to its appearance? How does it function?'. Drawing frills can be fun once you understand them!

 

Aaand I guess that’s all from me! I hope my tips could help you, good luck and have fun drawing frills!