How to Draw a Fashion Illustration

It's easy to draw a fashion illustration. You already have the fashion design in your mind, but how do you express it? By doing it the old school way, with tracing paper. It's quick and fun. If you're really interested in becoming a fashion designer you'll continue to develop this skill.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Fashion Magazines
• 2B pencil
• Eraser
• Tracing paper
• Masking tape
• Ball Point Pen
• Colored Pencils or Markers
• Drawing Paper or 8.5x11 (or 14) white paper.
• Masonite board or a large thin book.

1. FIND A POSE. Scan the fashion magazines for a photo of a model and pose that you like. Think about the mood of your fashion design. Look for poses that allow us to see the torso.

2. 
    
   Trace The Illustration

   TRACE THE FIGURE. Use the 2B pencil and trace the fashion figure onto the tracing paper. If you can't see it well, find a sunny window and tape the magazine page to it. Place the tracing paper over and tape it, too. Now you have an inexpensive light box to help you.

3. DRAW IN YOUR FASHION DESIGN. Remove the tracing from the magazine photo. Using your 2B pencil erase the style lines you don't need and add in your own. Be patient if you don't get the lines right at first. Keep that eraser handy. Now you have a line drawing.

4. COLOR THE FASHION ILLUSTRATION. You have a choice at this point. You can color in the picture on the tracing paper or continue on with Step 5 if you wish to transfer the illustration to a better piece of paper.

5. MAKE TRANSFER PAPER. Using your 2B pencil, scribble a small square (3x3 inches), covering it with pencil lead. This is your transfer paper.

6. 
    
   Transfer The Illustration

   TRANSFER THE SKETCH. Now tape a clean sheet of drawing paper to the Masonite board or book with masking tape. Place the tracing over the clean sheet of paper and masking tape in a couple of corners. Sandwich the transfer paper between the clean paper and the tracing, keeping the lead side facing down. Now trace over your fashion illustration using the ballpoint pen. The pen allows you to see what portions are traced and what aren't.

7. 
    
   Color The Fashion Illustration

   COLOR THE FASHION ILLUSTRATION. Remove the tracing and transfer paper. Clean up the sketch with the eraser. Color it in with colored pencil or markers.

Tips & Warnings

• You can Google "fashion croquis" or "fashion pose" if you want to save time and money by not buying magazines. Find the pose online and print it.
• If you have a hard time with tracing the figure, photocopy it and use the photocopy. This will eliminate the image from the other side.
• If you use markers for coloring, try to cover the pencil drawing with a marker first. Erase all pencil lines to prevent the pencil lead smearing into the color.
• Your fashion illustration won't look perfect at first. This is normal for beginners and even professional illustrators. Drawings evolve so be patient and keep playing with it.

Resources

• Katina's Fashion Illustrations
• Have a question? Ask Katina