How to Color Fabric Wrinkles, Part 1 — Basic Concepts and Coloring a Ribbon

This time, we'll cover the basic concept behind fabric wrinkles, plus a hands-on coloring method using a ribbon as our subject.
So you can color along using the same line art, the official Nuri-Iro site offers both a "downloadable version" and a "pre-printed line art" — check out whichever suits you.

1. Observe and Understand Wrinkles

First, let's do a quick observation of how wrinkles work. If you scrunch up a tissue in your hand, wrinkles of all different sizes appear. Assuming light is coming from the left, things get darker toward the right, and the shapes repeat a pattern of "rising then falling." Both large and small wrinkles follow the same principle.

The "wrinkle lines" drawn in the line art indicate one of the following:

• The boundary between light and shadow

• The darkest point of a shadow (the shadow's core)

When coloring, the basic approach is not to just outline and darken the line itself, but to keep in mind that "this is one continuous piece of fabric," connecting the shadow outward from the line with a gentle gradient.

2. The Relationship Between Line Art and Shadow (Thinking in Simple Cross-Sections)

Imagine a cross-section of the fabric viewed from the side: following the rises and dips of peaks and valleys, the gradient gets darker lower down and lighter higher up. Wrinkle lines in the line art generally appear in one of these two patterns.

• Pattern A (boundary line)
  When the line represents a boundary between light and dark, make one side of the line dark and the other side light. Think of it as creating contrast across the line.

• Pattern B (shadow core line)
  When the line represents the darkest point of a shadow (a valley), build a gradient by placing the darkness centered on the line and gradually lightening outward.

With real fabric, you'll often find yourself switching between both A and B.

3. How to Color a Ribbon (Practice)

Since the fabric of a ribbon is pulled toward the central knot, wrinkles concentrate around the knot. It may look complex, but you'll be fine if you follow the basic concepts.

1. Identify the wrinkle lines
   The black lines in the line art are the "wrinkle lines." For curved wrinkles, placing the shadow on the valley (inner) side looks natural.

2. Make shadows "a little longer"
   Stopping the shadow right at the edge of the line looks unnatural. Extend the shadow a bit past the line and let it fade off softly and naturally.

3. Think of the knot as a 3D form (a sphere)
   The knot has roundness to it. Darken the top, bottom, left, and right edges slightly while leaving the center bright to create volume. The areas where the fabric is being pulled taut (right at the knot) should be darker still.

4. Bulges = highlights
   In this example, the bulge appears on the right side. Keep the bulging side bright, and add a faint shadow around its outer edge too, to emphasize the sense of volume.

5. The hanging part (the tails)
   The hanging ribbon tails have vertical wrinkles. Coloring with Pattern A — dark on one side of the wrinkle line, light on the other — gives a clean look.

6. Build depth with layering
   Layer colors like brown → red over the base shadow to add depth of color. For the darkest areas, layer black "very lightly", being careful not to make it too strong.
   *For the bright areas, rather than leaving them completely blank, add a very faint touch of color so they blend in naturally.

4. Checking Your Finished Piece — Key Points

• The main wrinkles on this ribbon are handled with Pattern A. Check that there's always a paired dark side and light side next to each line.

• To bring out the softness of fabric, the key is not changing color too abruptly and using a smooth gradient without overly sharp edges.

• Decide which side of a line (above/below or left/right) should be dark based on the rises and dips (peaks and valleys), and extend the shadow a bit past the line for a natural look.

5. Coming Up Next

Next time, in "How to Color Fabric Wrinkles, Part 2," we'll use a skirt and curtains as our subjects and cover Pattern B as well as combining A and B. Let's take on even more varied fabric expressions together.

Thank you for reading! We'd love to hear your thoughts on the video, and requests are always welcome.