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Description
Back at it again with another guide! Hopefully I am coherent
This is generally for draped cloth, but should work for any hopefully!

Step 1: sketch your fabric! this might be one of the hardest ones to do, actually, since you have to try to make sure all the folds look natural and correct. Sometimes it’s not too hard to fake doing this one? Generally, though, just draw the shape of your fabric and create mountains/valleys wherever the fabric bends, such as at a joint. Fabric bunches up at the inside of a bend and stretches around the outside of it. I’d recommend looking at multiple references and guides for this one, just to make sure you get it down right!

Step 2: Fill in the colors. For solid fabrics, choose three colors: one main color, one lighter color, and one darker color. Draw over your sketch with the main/middle color. Here I used three shades of blue, using the middle color as a the base to color.

Step 3: Do basic coloring. Put the darker color over the bottom, or most basic, dark areas here. Then, do the same with the lighter color, putting it over the top of the fabric. Don’t try to shade the folds in the fabric yet, as it’s smarter to try to get down the basics of where light and dark goes before refining it and adding detail.

Step 4: Do the detailed coloring. Use the darker color you chose to illustrate where the bottom part of the folds are and indicate where it “waves”. Do the same with the lighter color, going over the top parts of the folds in your fabric. Generally, try to follow the pattern of your sketch to make sure you’re putting light and dark colors in the right place, so that the shading here looks correct. You also could turn down the opacity of this coloring layer temporarily so you can see the sketch, making it easier to place colors!

Step 5: Blend it! If you use procreate to draw, the flat brush works pretty well here. Alpha lock the layer so that the colors stay in the areas they already are. Make sure that each area you’ve placed color, it smoothly flows from one shade to the next! If it doesn’t, the fabric’s going to come out looking a bit jagged and weird. Also, add a bit of your middle/light color to the very bottom of the fabric to create one additional fold. If you don’t, it’s going to come out looking really dark, like you shaded too much of it. It might help to do this with the lighter color, too, adding your medium/darkest color to the top. Also, if you see anything else that looks a bit off in this step, it’s a perfect chance to correct it!

Step 6: Actual shading. Put a clipping mask layer over your coloring layer and set it to Multiply. Go over the darkest colors in your fabric on this layer using a new color. Purple-pink works well for warm colors and orange, and cyan seems to work pretty well for greens and blues. Shading on yellow really depends on what you’re going for! After you’ve colored over only the very darkest areas here, blend your multiply layer color around to smooth it out. (Note: don’t try to put this color everywhere that your darkest color is, as it’ll take away from the gradient of your colors, making it look too dark for the most part! Also, erase a bit at the bottom and blend it so that the fabrics don’t look too flat at the bottom, same as step five.)

Step 7: Lighting. Create a new clipping mask layer under your Multiply one, setting it to Add. Choose a new color. Yellow works well for most reds through green, and blue seems to work nicely for other shades of green through violet. Go over only the lightest parts of your fabric, blending this color in as you go! Same as steps 5 and 6, really.

Step 8: Shimmer (optional). I only really know how to do this one on procreate, but it *probably* is possible on other programs? Duplicate your base fabric layer and make this one a clipping mask of the original. Set this new layer to Lighten mode. Hit that little wand thing in the top left and choose Noise. The words “Layer” and “Pencil” should pop up. Choose layer if you want to make the whole piece of fabric sparkle, and pencil if you only want some areas of it to. Once you’ve done that, set the noise type to Billows (the middle one) and slide the noise up in intensity, making it more noticeable. When you’re done, just hit the done button. (NOTE: for whatever reason, Procreate makes the noise a bit more intense/bright after you’ve finished it, so its always going to come out a bit brighter than it looked in the menu you created the effect in.)

And then you’re done! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments, and I’ll do my best to get back to you < 3

Description
Back at it again with another guide! Hopefully I am coherent
This is generally for draped cloth, but should work for any hopefully!

Step 1: sketch your fabric! this might be one of the hardest ones to do, actually, since you have to try to make sure all the folds look natural and correct. Sometimes it’s not too hard to fake doing this one? Generally, though, just draw the shape of your fabric and create mountains/valleys wherever the fabric bends, such as at a joint. Fabric bunches up at the inside of a bend and stretches around the outside of it. I’d recommend looking at multiple references and guides for this one, just to make sure you get it down right!

Step 2: Fill in the colors. For solid fabrics, choose three colors: one main color, one lighter color, and one darker color. Draw over your sketch with the main/middle color. Here I used three shades of blue, using the middle color as a the base to color.

Step 3: Do basic coloring. Put the darker color over the bottom, or most basic, dark areas here. Then, do the same with the lighter color, putting it over the top of the fabric. Don’t try to shade the folds in the fabric yet, as it’s smarter to try to get down the basics of where light and dark goes before refining it and adding detail.

Step 4: Do the detailed coloring. Use the darker color you chose to illustrate where the bottom part of the folds are and indicate where it “waves”. Do the same with the lighter color, going over the top parts of the folds in your fabric. Generally, try to follow the pattern of your sketch to make sure you’re putting light and dark colors in the right place, so that the shading here looks correct. You also could turn down the opacity of this coloring layer temporarily so you can see the sketch, making it easier to place colors!

Step 5: Blend it! If you use procreate to draw, the flat brush works pretty well here. Alpha lock the layer so that the colors stay in the areas they already are. Make sure that each area you’ve placed color, it smoothly flows from one shade to the next! If it doesn’t, the fabric’s going to come out looking a bit jagged and weird. Also, add a bit of your middle/light color to the very bottom of the fabric to create one additional fold. If you don’t, it’s going to come out looking really dark, like you shaded too much of it. It might help to do this with the lighter color, too, adding your medium/darkest color to the top. Also, if you see anything else that looks a bit off in this step, it’s a perfect chance to correct it!

Step 6: Actual shading. Put a clipping mask layer over your coloring layer and set it to Multiply. Go over the darkest colors in your fabric on this layer using a new color. Purple-pink works well for warm colors and orange, and cyan seems to work pretty well for greens and blues. Shading on yellow really depends on what you’re going for! After you’ve colored over only the very darkest areas here, blend your multiply layer color around to smooth it out. (Note: don’t try to put this color everywhere that your darkest color is, as it’ll take away from the gradient of your colors, making it look too dark for the most part! Also, erase a bit at the bottom and blend it so that the fabrics don’t look too flat at the bottom, same as step five.)

Step 7: Lighting. Create a new clipping mask layer under your Multiply one, setting it to Add. Choose a new color. Yellow works well for most reds through green, and blue seems to work nicely for other shades of green through violet. Go over only the lightest parts of your fabric, blending this color in as you go! Same as steps 5 and 6, really.

Step 8: Shimmer (optional). I only really know how to do this one on procreate, but it *probably* is possible on other programs? Duplicate your base fabric layer and make this one a clipping mask of the original. Set this new layer to Lighten mode. Hit that little wand thing in the top left and choose Noise. The words “Layer” and “Pencil” should pop up. Choose layer if you want to make the whole piece of fabric sparkle, and pencil if you only want some areas of it to. Once you’ve done that, set the noise type to Billows (the middle one) and slide the noise up in intensity, making it more noticeable. When you’re done, just hit the done button. (NOTE: for whatever reason, Procreate makes the noise a bit more intense/bright after you’ve finished it, so its always going to come out a bit brighter than it looked in the menu you created the effect in.)

And then you’re done! If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments, and I’ll do my best to get back to you < 3