🟤 How to Create a Suede Effect in Pocket Styler Studio
Suede is a soft, matte, slightly textured material that looks cozy and natural.
In digital drawing, suede is recreated through soft shading, subtle grain, and alternating light and dark patches to mimic the natural worn texture of this fabric.
Suede is often used in:
- jackets and coats,
- skirts and dresses,
- boots and high boots,
- handbags and accessories,
- western or vintage-style outfits.
Now let’s create this effect step by step.
🔹 Step 1. Prepare the Base Color
1. Open your project where you want to add the suede effect.
2. Choose the base color of the item.
Classic suede shades are usually brown, camel, beige, or rust, so I’ll use brown in this example.
🔹 Step 2. Start Building the Texture (Soft Brush)
1. Choose a soft round brush in the Brush properties.
2. Set the brush settings to slightly below the middle (size, opacity, and softness).
This creates the soft, faded look typical for suede.
3. Set Spacing to 30–50 — this is important because the small spacing creates the fuzzy suede texture.
Now begin shading:
Take a lighter shade of your base color.
Paint over the lighter areas, such as worn spots, folds, and raised parts of the fabric.
This creates the first layer of softness.
Then take a darker brush color and add deeper shadows:
along seams,
near edges,
in folds,
and areas that would naturally look more pressed or darker.
Alternate light and dark shades — this contrast is what gives suede its realistic look.
🔹 Step 3. Add Fine Grain (Scattered Round Brush)
Now switch to another brush type:
Choose a round but scattered brush (a soft circle with spread particles).
Set its Size to 1.
Set Scatter and Spacing to maximum — this is what creates the signature fine, grainy texture of suede.
Use this brush to gently tap:
lighter dots in highlighted areas,
darker dots in shadowed areas.
You are not drawing strong details — just lightly “dusting” the fabric with texture.
As shown in the example flow:
first comes light soft shading,
then dark shading,
then alternating scattered highlights and shadows.
This layering creates the realistic worn, matte, grainy structure of suede.
✨ Final Result
By switching between soft shading and scattered texture, you’ll achieve a natural suede effect with visible light and dark worn areas.
The material will look soft, slightly fuzzy, and beautifully textured — exactly how suede should appear.
