Hanfu Drawing Technique Guide

This is a very personal hanfu drawing tutorial — for the detailed pattern sheet and preview images, check my other post on my profile page. You don't need much drawing experience; as long as you make good use of the tools, you can draw it well. And since it's a pixel canvas, you don't need to aim for perfection — as long as it looks decent, that's fine. First, sketch out the rough shape of the hanfu. Just fill in the base colors for now — no need to draw the bixi or decorations yet (roughly like in p2). Next, get familiar with the following tools: Selection box (p3) After selecting the area you want, you can copy, resize, rotate, mirror, move, and more. Copied shapes will appear to the upper-left of the original. Make sure to move it down 3 grids to align it with the original before flipping or making adjustments. The sleeves can be drawn once and then copied — the same goes for the sash and the blue lower skirt. Paint bucket (p4) The paint bucket can do more than just fill solid colors — it can also fill with colored patterns. The size and position of a paint bucket fill are fixed, but you can select the filled area afterward to resize or move it. That said, this hanfu tutorial doesn't need anything that complex — we'll just be using small polka dots. Stamp tool (p5) If you don't want to hand-draw patterns, definitely use the stamp tool! It's incredibly convenient, and the built-in patterns are more than enough. The most basic approach is to shrink a built-in pattern and change its color — that works just fine. The more advanced approach is to create a new canvas, design your own pattern, and save it as a stamp. Brush (p6) The brush mainly covers the straight line tool and the curve tool. Checking the darken option makes drawing shadows very easy. Once you're comfortable with these tools, you can start drawing. The whole process is just combining, copying, and decorating basic shapes — nothing particularly difficult!