Job:02-30034 Title:RP-Fashion Design Ref and Spec Book
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Book
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14
Digital Art
Designers can create digital fashion sketches using computer art software. Adobe Photoshop
and Adobe Illustrator are two mainstream programs that serve as excellent digital interpreters
of the drawing skills a designer develops in the real world. All of the techniques described for
fashion sketches created by hand can be recreated using the on-screen tools, layers, brushes,
and filters. Many types of software designed specifically for the needs of a fashion designer
are now available. Of course, none of these programs is a substitute for learning how to draw.
In the end, a computer and software are just tools like a brush and a pencil. Either discipline
must be mastered to produce great images. The advantage of digital art is that it’s cleaner
and paperless, and it allows the designer to update, correct, and reproduce visual information
more easily and quickly.
Designing textiles with software that can communicate with looms and knitting machines is
another practical use of technology. This type of program allows the designer to create woven
and knit fabrics by coloring each warp and weft thread as well as every knit and purl stitch.
Other programs allow the designer to scan in a swatch of a fabric that they may have discov-
ered but that is no longer available. Designers can clean up the scan, then reduce a print to a
motif that they can recreate, redesign, or recolor according to how it will best serve their idea.
Draping software makes it possible for designers to create textured surface grids for sketches
or photographs of sample garments. They can then assign their digital fabric designs to these
surfaces. A picture is worth a thousand words when attempting to describe how a garment will
read when fabricated in different textiles. The whole process allows designers to reduce risk
by extending a menu of possibilities to a buyer before committing to the production of fabrics
and garments.
Draped muslin and
draped muslin with
computer-generated
fabric
Photographs by Tracy Aiguier.
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Job:02-30034 Title:RP-Fashion Design Ref and Spec Book
#175 Dtp:225 Page:161
Book
e:160
146-161_30034.indd 161 2/27/13 3:01 PM