How to Create Templates and Fashion Sketches
If you have ever wanted to become a fashion designer or try your hand at costuming, the first step to any garment is creating the figure or template it will be drawn on, over, or visually fitted to. While it is no easy task for even the most skilled of artist to draw a perfect silhouette freehand or reproduce the same image for other ideas and versions, creating body model templates and figures to help you put your ideas to paper is easier than you would think. Read on to learn how to create templates and fashion sketches. Does this Spark an idea?
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- Tracing paper
- Graphite paper
- Graphite lead pencil and sharpener (found at any art supply store)
- Cloth masking tape
- Fashion magazines
- A large piece of heavy paper or fiberboard to put master template onto
- Fine tipped ink pen
- Stylus or blunt tracing tool
Instructions
-
-
1
Understand that the average person is not going to be over 6 feet tall, thin, gorgeous or built with rippling biceps from an overactive testosterone gene, but in the world of fashion and costuming we get to pretend. Fashion magazines are the best place to find body models, and it is important to choose ones that are posing in interesting ways and are of good size, filling most of the magazine page. In some instances it is interesting to have a model sitting or leaning, but for the most part, a simple standing, posing silhouette with all parts from shoes to top is ideal.
-
2
If you are particularly fond of a pose you find, but it is too small to fit your template needs, you can always make a copy of it and enlarge it or scan it and reprint it to fit your needs. The model should be about 9 to 12 inches from shoe to top of the head depending on the size of the template you are working with, making sure to leave room at the bottom and top for the character name or fashion line, date and most importantly your name.
-
-
3
Once you have chosen a model, fasten it down securely with a piece of tracing paper over the top and concentrate on the main lines and curvature of the body, legs, arms, torso, and shoulders. Rough sketches are fine for this if you prefer to draw each part such as you would a wooden body model please feel free to do so. Make four or five of these model tracings with new pieces of tracing paper, making sure to label them as you go so you do not get confused. Office supply clamp clips are great for keeping yourself organized.
-
4
After you are pleased with the way one of your sketches looks, fasten a thicker piece of white particle board down with a piece of graphite paper (graphite down) on top of that and your sketch fastened on top of the two. Make sure that pages are snug as slipping can cause mistakes and more work for you in the long run. Using a dull stylus or compass end or tracing tool, carefully and evenly trace the outlines of your model over the lines you have sketched making sure to apply firm pressure but not enough to puncture the page. Go over your model two or three times to make sure all lines have been transferred and carefully remove the graphite paper and sketch and you should be left with a clean mirror image on the white paperboard underneath.
-
5
Using a fine tipped black pen, carefully trace your model in ink onto the white paperboard and use a drafting eraser to eliminate graphite fragments and smudges from the template. Avoid using your hand to wipe away eraser bits as you may end up smudging the ink or further spreading the lead. A good practice is to work from left to right and keep a clean piece of paper underneath your hand on the sections you are not currently working on. Make sure to label your character template with your name, the date, the character or outfit this figure will be "wearing" and if it is available spray a light coat of lacquer over the ink to prevent smudging and allow ink to dry completely before moving or transporting.
-
6
Be proud. You now have a fashion or costume model figure template to place tracing paper over and experiment with ideas, colors, shapes and accessories without having to re-draw the pose every single time. These templates are great to have around for quick ideas and be can used numerous times for numerous projects. The detail you put on your templates is up to you but generally I prefer not to put facial features or hair on the templates as that is part of the design process and will be implemented at a later date.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
Paper doll books can also be great figure study material, but due to the limited availability of poses your best bet are fashion magazines as they have the greatest variety of poses and stances.
If available try to use a drafting board to fasten your sketches and papers down as the sliding rule will make it easier to avoid slipping and smudging.
If you can not completely finish a project in the time you have allotted, a blueprint tube or traveling flat portfolio is a good way to keep in progress works neat and organized.
Do your best to make all models relative in size to each other unless the character or model is intentionally supposed to be smaller in size. Having one sketch markedly smaller than the others can be distracting during presentation and reflect on your skills of perception subconsciously in the design team's minds.
Avoid overly complex poses or ones with hands in pockets or overly simple stances. It can be very difficult to render a complicated pose but can be just as difficult to dress a figure with no personality. Choose wisely.
