How to Sketch Clothes
Most designers create basic garment sketches, referred to as croquis, to design different garment details, such as seaming and pattern placement. The sketched garments, referred to as black and white flats, are used as pattern-making and construction guides. Aspiring designers and sewing enthusiasts can borrow this sketching method to create a variety of silhouettes prior to cutting project material or garment assembly. Although sketching is generally associated with manual drawing, you can also use fashion-design software to sketch the garments in the program's image pad with a drawing-tablet pen.
Things You'll Need
- Sketch paper
- Graphite pencils
- F, H or B pencils
- Felt pen or marker
- 9H pencil
- Croquis copies
- 9B pencil
- Color pencil
- Thin- and wide-tipped color markers
- Watercolor pens
Instructions
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1
Draw the outline of the desired garment on sketch paper with graphite pencils. These letter-number coded pencils, ranging from 1 through 9, differ in the darkness of the stroke as well as the fineness and thickness of the lines. Use F or H pencils to sketch fine outlines or B pencils to sketch soft, shaded areas. For example, if you are making blouses, draw the outline of a short- or long-sleeved blouse. Do not draw in armhole, center front or neckline details in the sketch.
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2
Trace over the pencil outlines with a thin-tipped felt pen or marker. This outline creates the croquis. As another alternative, use the 9H pencil to create hard stroke lines on the sketch paper.
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3
Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for each garment type you want to design. For example, if you want to sketch different design versions of dresses, pants, shorts, rompers or T-shirts, draw separate croquis for each style.
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4
Make several copies of the croquis. Keep the original croquis for future design sketching projects.
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5
Draw different versions of the garment by sketching design details within the croquis copies. For example, if you are making long-sleeved blouses, draw in the sleeve details, such as set-in or raglan, which refers to a shaped armhole generally starting from the neckline and connecting to the underarm. You can also change the shape of the sleeve even if you sketch outside the croquis lines. For instance, if you want flared, bell sleeves with a soft, ruffle hem border, sketch outside the sleeve line with a 9B graphite pencil to shade the folds within the flared fabric. You can also create softness at the shoulder, such as dropped shoulder seams with gathered fabric.
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6
Trace over the pencil lines with colored markers or felt pen.
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7
Color the sketches to duplicate prints, patterns or fabric textures. For example, if you are sketching striped tops, color in the stripe direction. If you are mixing different stripe widths, use thin and wide tipped color markers. You can also color in pattern details like delicate flower fabric patterns with watercolor pens to duplicate the surface texture.
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References
- Photo Credit Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
