How to Design Umbrellas
Umbrellas are often overlooked as a fashion accessory. However, these tools are very much a part our day-to-day existence. Umbrellas keep us out of the rain as well as the sun. Designing your own umbrella could be part of a fashion illustration portfolio or as a way to increase your illustration skills. You can let your imagination run wild with your designs. If you run into a problem, you can always grab a new sheet of paper and start over. There is very little risk when you are dabbling with designs. Creating a design of an umbrella requires you to create a basic frame of shapes, and then build layers and add details later.
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Instructions
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1
Create the basic frame of the umbrella first. Draw a diagonal line for the handle of the umbrella. Attach a curved line to the top of this line. Add an oblong, football-shaped line to the bottom of the curved line. This will later show the inside of the umbrella.
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2
Create the individual ribs of the umbrella with curved lines that come out and down from the top of the umbrella. Add a short curved line in between each of these ribs to show the umbrella fabric.
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3
Add details around the bottom of the ribs to create an interesting look. Add fringe with small thin rectangular shapes. You can create flowers with curved oval shapes around the base of the ribs. Add smaller curved lines inside each oval to create the shape of rosebuds. Thicken the handle of the umbrella with a two parallel lines on the left and right side of the handle. Add a curved "J" shape at the end of the handle for a traditional look. Alternately you can add a ball, square or even a pyramid shape to the end of the handle.
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4
Ink the lines of your design that you wish to keep. Let the ink dry and use a kneaded eraser to remove the pencil lines.
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5
Color your design using art markers. Lay down lighter colors first and add darker colors for shadows. Let the ink dry and use colored pencil to create highlights on the areas exposed to the most light.
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Tips & Warnings
Photocopy your image in Step 4 so that you can try out different color schemes.
Let the ink dry before you erase the pencil or your design will smudge.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Illustrations by Andrew DeWitt
