latex fabric tutorial

made to answer a question in my discord!

When I am just going for something simple, it really is just draw a highlight on the fabric and that gets the message across fine enough. Latex is highly reflective, and it gets more accurate the more work you put into it. I have a mini tutorial I put together on how I do it, or rather how far I like to do it. The more realistic you want to get, the more light source you should add.

Some things to keep in mind about latex is that there are different grades to how reflective it is. PVC Latex for example gives that "wet" look, and that's the look where its very minimal highlight but the highlight is also very bright, and very solid. Not so blended. The duller you get like with Rubber latex, the softer the highlight gets in color and in shape. I also highlight folds on the fabric or shifting of planes on the body underneath using the highlight.

When we look at black latex it's kind of like a black mirror so like light is gonna look brighter, almost white or the lightest grey when it's reflected off of the latex. But when it's a colored latex, that can still apply but I personally find it as a great opportunity to add in some more color. I like to think when it's a colored latex like red, the highlight will look a lot more saturated and brighter than the base color. Then you can add a white if you want.

1. Base
2. Base color (on the top row it is black, and black latex is REALLY dark. Keep that in mind. The bottom row is a less colorful maroon) but i add soft, subtle highlighting on the edge where it would reflect off of other parts of the fabric. Like gold, when you put two separate pieces of it together, it's gonna add more color and bounce light off each other.
3. Standard highlight. The more reflective the fabric is, the smaller/skinner/minimal the highlight will be. It's also depending on the fabric how bright the highlight could be as well as light source, and what vibe you're going for. Note that in the bottom row I am going brighter and more RED as I get lighter.
4. Slight blending and top highlight. You could go with white on the last highlighting touch or the brightest color like i did.

I also added a separate version with the highlight more blended out. Notice how it looks more like a rubber because I did so