Manual vs. Digital Flat Sketching: Which is Better for Fashion Design?

What do you prefer: manual or digital drawing? Both have their benefits in fashion design.

Manually drawing can be a very quick way to get your ideas out of your head. I love this method for the ease of use and there is something about having a notepad and pencil to help the creative process along.

Digital drawing is a fantastic method, especially if you have a tablet and the app, Procreate®. Drawing in this pixel-based app is the closest way to feel like you are manually drawing, but it’s still in a digital format.

Digital drawing in Adobe® Illustrator® is the preferred method in the clothing industry for creating accurate garment sketches for tech packs during the product creation cycle. Since it’s a vector-based program, the accuracy is very good, and the results can appear very professional. The downsides: There is a bigger learning curve to use this program, and since it’s a subscription-based program, there is an ongoing fee for using the software.

So which is best among all these options? This is totally up to you as the designer to choose or it may be up to the company you work for which may have their own standards for using specific software. Each designer finds their own preferences for working and I highly recommend that you try all the options before you choose your favorite method. Often, when learning new software, you need patience and practice before it can become your favorite method.

When you are drawing clothes, I highly recommend that you do the drawing. There are some apps out there that are literally a drag/drop of design options. While this is a “nice to have” option, the biggest downside is that you aren’t doing the drawing. Getting into the practice of drawing from the very first sketches helps get that creative process flowing. You have so much more freedom to design when you are doing the sketching yourself and changing up all the options within The Fashion Design Book.

I think, at heart, I’ll always have a love for drawing manually. Though, I’ve learned to embrace technology for all the wonderful options it brings us in the fashion world.

So what’s your favorite way to draw?