Fashion Sketching
Whether you’re an aspiring fashion designer, an avid sewer or just a fashionista, fashion sketching is a skill you can use to help design original garments, take notes on fashions spotted while you are out and about and help train your design eye--as well as strengthen your drawing skills. It takes practice to create professional-looking fashion sketches, but you can sketch clothes with style.
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Things You'll Need
- Sketchbook or sketch paper
- Drawing pencils
- Colored pencils
- Gum eraser
- Printer (optional, for printing out model forms)
- Fashion magazines
- Cloth, for sketching drape
- Clothing patterns for reference
Instructions
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1
Practice sketching fabric in still-life creations. Good fashion sketches capture the movement and drape of the fabric on the body, and even though it may seem tedious, taking a hint from the old masters of drawing is invaluable. Try arranging cloth in different ways on a tabletop and become practiced at drawing the folds and contours.
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2
Study the way clothes are constructed. Sewing patterns contain two types of illustrations--a depiction of the way the completed garment will look and a flat, two-dimensional schematic of each piece with details on its construction. If you understand the different components that go into construction of a button-up shirt, for example, you’ll be able to better visualize how to sketch it.
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3
Look at fashion magazines to see the multitude of ways clothes can be designed and worn. Trace body and garment shapes from magazine photos as a common way to build sketching confidence if you are a beginner.
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4
Find a photo of a garment similar to the one you would like to draw, and trace the outline of the body and garment onto a piece of sketch paper.
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5
Remove the photo and draw your own design, using your tracing as a foundation. Add color and textures, as well as notes regarding the placement of details, such as buttons or zippers.
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6
Start the schematic version of your sketch. Use a croqui, an illustration of the human body that uses standard proportions upon which fashion illustrators sketch the construction of clothes, to try redrawing your design (see Resources).
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7
Collect photos of people in different poses from magazines or the Internet. Slide one of these photos or illustrations under blank sheets of sketch paper and sketch your fashion ideas on top of the figure so you're familiar with drawing for different body types and seeing how your fashion ideas would look from different angles.
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8
Repeat steps 4 through 6 until you feel confident.
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Tips & Warnings
Use light, quick pencil strokes to sketch when you first begin. Over time, you will develop your own style.
The point is not whether you can accurately draw a figure from life, but how well you can convey your ideas about a design.
Study other designers' sketches for technique ideas.
Resources
- Photo Credit notebook image by Victor M. from Fotolia.com
