You don't need Photoshop to build a mockup. You don't need smart objects, a template someone else made, or a paid PSD that every other brand is using. You need Procreate, an iPad, and a reference photo you can pull off Pinterest in about ten seconds.
A mockup is a blank garment template you drop your own designs onto. Building your own means the file is yours, the fabric is whatever you want it to be, and you're not stuck with whatever a free download decided a hoodie should look like.
Here's the full build, start to finish, including the seam trick at the end that's the difference between a mockup that looks drawn and one that looks photographed. The written version is below if you'd rather read it.
Everything I use in the video is in a free pack here if you want to follow along with the same files.
1. Canvas and reference
Start a new canvas. Screen size is fine for this — you're not printing it, and it keeps the layer count manageable, which matters more than you'd think by the end.
Now get your reference in. Any garment photo works as long as it's shot straight on and you can see the seams. I just went on Pinterest and grabbed one. To import it, tap the wrench icon in the top left, hit Add, then Insert a photo. Resize it to sit comfortably on the canvas.
Then drop the opacity. Tap the N next to that layer in your Layers panel and pull the slider down until the image sits faint in the background. You want to see it clearly enough to trace, but not so clearly that you can't tell your own lines apart from it.
2. Brush setup and symmetry
Add a new layer with the + button, then pick your brush. I use a mockup outline brush from my fabric pack, but any hard Procreate brush does the job.
Before you draw anything, tap the brush to open its settings and go into the second option on the left. Turn Streamline up. This smooths your strokes as you draw, and on an iPad with a garment full of long curved lines it's the difference between clean linework and something that looks hand-shaky.
Now the part that saves you half the job. Go back to the wrench > Canvas > Drawing Guide > Edit Drawing Guide, and at the bottom right choose Symmetry. Whatever you draw on one side gets copied to the other automatically.
Make sure the guide line sits dead centre on your reference. If it's off by even a bit, every line you draw will land in the wrong place on the mirrored side and the garment will come out lopsided. Check it before you commit.
3. Trace the base outline
With symmetry on and your outline brush selected, trace one side of the garment. Collar down to hem, following the reference underneath.
Take your time on this. It's the foundation everything else sits inside — the colour, the fabric, the shadows all clip to this shape. If the outline is sloppy the whole mockup looks off no matter what you do afterwards, and there's no fixing it at the end. Slow lines here save you a restart later.
4. Details and stitching
Stay on the same layer and add the structural details: pocket lines, panel splits, the hem, whatever your reference has. Same brush, same process. What you're adding depends entirely on the garment you picked, but the approach doesn't change.
Stitching goes on its own layer. Not the same one as your linework. Keep it separate and you can recolour every stitch on the garment by selecting one layer — do it on the base layer and you're stuck with black thread forever.
Pick a stitch brush and run it along any seam where a stitch line is visible on your reference.
One catch: a brand new layer doesn't inherit symmetry. If you draw and it only appears on one side, that's why. Undo, tap the layer, hit Drawing Assist, and it'll pull from the guide you already set up. Then carry on.
Once the stitching's done, turn the reference layer off. You don't need it anymore.
5. Colour
Select the base outline layer — the one with your main lines, not the stitches. Pick a colour, then drag it from the top right corner onto the garment. Watch the top of the screen while you drag: it'll say ColorDrop with a threshold. Drop it and the enclosed shape fills.
Because your linework is closed, you can tap away at individual sections and fill each one separately. Use that. Give a panel a slightly different tone to suggest a different fabric, and make the inside of the hood noticeably darker than the outside. Flat colour across the whole thing reads like a sticker. Two or three values and it starts reading like a garment.
6. Shadows and the clipping mask
This is what adds depth, and it's the step most people either skip or overdo.
- New layer, and turn Drawing Assist on for it so you don't lose symmetry.
- Grab a soft brush — I use the shadow and highlight brush that comes with all my packs, but any Procreate soft brush works. Draw a thick rough outline around the whole garment. It'll look terrible at this stage. That's expected.
- Tap the wand icon, choose Gaussian Blur, and push it until it softens into something that reads as shadow rather than a black band.
- Drop the opacity so it's not overpowering.
- It'll be bleeding outside the garment. Drag the shadow layer directly above your base colour layer, tap it, and hit Clipping Mask. Everything outside the garment disappears instantly.
That single outer shadow alone adds more depth than anything else you'll do. Then repeat it wherever the fabric folds or a panel sits behind another — under the hood, along the top of a pocket, down the sides.
Don't use the eraser to clean shadows up. Tap the layer and choose Mask instead. Painting black on the mask hides the shadow, painting white brings it straight back. Erasing is permanent and you will overshoot at some point. A mask means the mistake costs you two seconds instead of a redo.
7. Fabric
This is where it stops looking like a drawing.
The simple way: import a fabric texture image the same way you imported your reference. Tap the N on that layer, change the blend mode to Soft Light, and pull the opacity down. Screen works too and gives a lighter result, but Soft Light holds your colours better. There's a cotton texture in the free pack if you want to test this now.
The faster way is a fabric brush. New layer, blend mode set to Soft Light, then just draw over the garment with the fabric you want. Cotton, French terry, suede, twill, weave, knit, leather — it's one stroke and it's done, and you can swap the whole look of a garment in seconds.
For two fabrics on one piece, mask out the area you want to change on your first fabric layer, then add a new layer, set it to Soft Light, and paint the second fabric in. Mask off any excess at the edges. Handy on hoodies where the inner hood is a different material to the shell.
Watch your layer order here. Every fabric layer has to sit inside the same clipping mask as your shadows — drag them below the shadow layer. Miss this and the moment you turn off the background you'll see fabric spilling out past the edges of the garment. It's the most common thing that goes wrong in this build.
8. Highlights and making the seams pop
Highlights are the shadow process in reverse. New layer, soft brush, white, and paint where light would naturally catch — the top of a sleeve, the raised edge of a pocket, the shoulders. Then Gaussian blur it. It doesn't need to be heavy.
Now the part that actually sells it. New layer, soft brush, and run a thin soft line around the outer edge of the garment. Set the blend mode to Overlay — Soft Light works but Overlay has more punch — then drop the opacity right down, drag the layer inside the clipping mask so it doesn't bleed, and add a Gaussian blur.
The edges now catch light. Do the same along your seam lines and they stop reading as flat drawn lines and start reading as actual stitched seams with a raised edge.
Turn the layer off and on. Same mockup either way — it just stops looking like a diagram.
Last thing: turn the drawing guide off under Canvas > Drawing Guide, and you're done. Drop your artwork on top and it's ready to post.
A few things worth knowing before you start
Name your layers. I'm lazy about it in the video and I shouldn't be. By the end of a build like this you've got a dozen layers of shadows, fabrics and highlights that all look identical in the panel, and finding the one you need becomes its own job.
Your first one will take a while. Most of that time goes into the base outline and the shadows. That's normal. The second is much quicker because you understand the structure, and by the fourth or fifth you're moving properly.
The process doesn't change per garment. Hoodie, tee, jacket, pants, cargo — outline, details, stitching, colour, shadow, fabric, highlight. Learn it once on something simple and everything else is the same build with different lines.
If you'd rather skip ahead
Building one from scratch is worth doing at least once. Understanding how the layers stack is what lets you actually use these files properly instead of fighting them.
But if you're mid-collection and need designs on a page this week, that's a different problem. The Procreate packs cover the parts that take the longest — a full set of fabric brushes so any garment gets a realistic surface in one stroke, and stitch brushes for every seam type, single through to double. Same brushes I used in this build.
And the free pack is there if you just want to follow along with the exact files from the video first.
Any questions on the process, drop them under the video and I'll get back to you.
