Part 1 – Using fashion templates & creating a fashion illustration outline

In this tutorial, we take a look at pre-made fashion templates from companies such as Prêt-à-Template. We demonstrate how to resize, adapt and use them to suit our specific project or design needs. Finally, we create the outline layer and discuss why layers are so important for Fashion Illustration in Adobe Illustrator. Visit the Prêt-à-Template site to view their entire range of fashion templates.

Part 2 – Adding design details technique 1 – Using the pathfinder tool

In this tutorial, we start to add our design details. These are the panels that are drawn within the outline of the leggings illustration. They make up the various panels or seams of the legging’s design. Later, these panels can be filled with colour, texture or print. There are numerous techniques to create the panels that form the design details layer, however, this tutorial focuses primarily on one technique – using the pathfinder tool.

Part 3 – Adding design details technique 2 – Creating fillable panels

This tutorial also focuses on adding design details, however, this time we use a more simplistic approach. We simply draw our design detail panels side-by-side, without the need for the pathfinder tool. This is the most common way to create design details and fillable panels.

Part 4 – Adding colour, texture & print to the design details or panels

In this tutorial, we look at how to apply colour to the panels within the design details layer. We also explain how to create a texture using the repeating elements and the swatches palette. Finally, we explain how to group panels, within the design details layer, to change colour quickly and consistently. It’s a fantastic process that allows you to create hundreds of designs quickly and easily.

Part 5 – Creating a line-up of styles, then batch adjusting colour & textures

In the final tutorial of this series, we explain how to combine our individual fashion illustrations on one art board to create a gorgeous line-up of designs. We also explain how to batch-change colours across all of the fashion illustrations, making it incredibly fast and easy to experiment with colour, texture and print. This allows you to create hundreds of line-up variations in no time at all. This tutorial really demonstrates the power of digital fashion illustration vs hand-drawn or painted fashion illustrations.

Full length tutorial – Legging fashion illustration in Adobe Illustrator

This video is the full-length version. It features the exact same content but this time without all of the breaks and pauses. Enjoy!

More FREE Fashion Illustration Courses & Tutorials

Why not check out our other FREE fashion illustration tutorials. We’ve got a whole series of courses that will help improve your skills and knowledge about digital fashion illustration in Adobe Illustrator. Take your pick from the course outlined below!

The Basics – Fashion Illustration

This course was one of the first we ever created and has since been updated by the master class but it still contains some great content and learning!