Sketching Fashion

This document includes

sample sketches of both men’s and women’s fashions followed by

croquis for you to use for your portfolio, and

suggested online information on sketching fashion.

Each suggested online lesson offers many more available from which to choose. Spend a little time and you will find one that fits your style and needs. Fashion designers design clothing and accessories. Some high-fashion designers are self-employed and design for individual clients. Other high-fashion designers cater to specialty stores or high-fashion department stores. These designers create original garments, as well as clothing that follow established fashion trends. Most fashion designers, however, work for apparel manufacturers, creating designs of men's, women's, and children's fashions for the mass market.

Sketching Fashion A croquis -- from French "croquer" meaning "to sketch, rough out" -- is a sketch of a figure or model. The croquis acts as a template onto which you place your tracing paper where you will draw your clothing designs. This basic drawing will serve as the base of your fashion sketch. If the idea of figure drawing is intimidating, many templates with croquis sketches are available online. These templates illustrate figures in many different poses. By having a collection of many different poses, you can choose the pose that best displays the clothing that you wish to sketch. If you are sketching period costumes, then make sure the model's pose in the template you choose is much more demure than if you were sketching modern clothing.

Layout paper is a fine, tracing paper that is semi-transparent. You will draw your clothing designs onto this paper. Your croquis sketch or template will sit beneath the layout paper. Although it is thin and slightly opaque, layout paper is of good quality. Once you have sketched your first fashion designs, you can attach the layout paper sketches to a firmer piece of paper or poster board so that you can present your sketches in your portfolio.

Gather materials and supplies such as pencils, erasers, felt-tip pens and glue sticks for your fashion sketches. For general sketching, use soft B and 2B pencils. Make sure you have a pencil sharpener on hand so you can keep these pencils extra sharp. For highlighting and shading, choose 4B pencils. If you plan on adding color to your sketch, colored pencils or use quality felt-tip pens. A cheap felt-tip pen will cause the colors to run and blur. Choose putty rubber for your eraser, as this will not damage or rub away the paper if you make a mistake. To mount your sketch, use a light glue stick that will not wet and wrinkle the layout paper.

Considerations As a beginner, sketch clothing that follows a theme. For example, your theme could be dresses of varying necklines or waist variations, or textures and patterns. Gather inspiration from fashion magazines and newspapers. Create an artist's file that contains pictures and clippings of fashion, textures and fabrics that inspire you. Do not copy these designs, but use them to influence and inspire you as you sit down to create your first sketches. Sites to Explore Free Fashion Sketches www.designersnexus.com/design/free-fashion-sketches/ Whether sketching freehand, or computerized, fashion sketches, illustrations, CADs and presentations are all important parts of any fashion designer portfolio. More results for fashion illustration sketches http://www.designersnexus.com/design/free-fashion-sketches/ Design & Draw Fashion Sketches : Fine Tuning a ... - YouTube www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yblbdstr9kw Details and fine tuning make any fashion sketch designer material; learn how to draw fashion sketches in this free video on fashion design and ... More results for how to sketch fashion designs

Fashion Drawing for Beginners - MonkeySee www.monkeysee.com › Beauty & Fashion › Women's Fashion Fashion Drawing for Beginners: Professional make-up artist Tu-Anh demonstratesfashion drawing for beginners. More results for how to sketch fashion drawings Fashion Sketches for Beginners | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_10027832_fashion-sketches- beginners.html#ixzz2Kp78RIy6 How to Draw Fashion Sketches http://www.ehow.com/video_4767269_draw-fashion-sketches.html Design & Draw Fashion Sketches http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_4180_design-draw-fashion-sketches.html Shading Texture on Fashion Sketches http://www.ehow.com/video_4408261_shading-texture-fashion-sketches.html

Drawing Techniques

Practice Technique (Shading) Assignment: http://www.dawnsbrain.com/lesson-

docs/art_2006_shading_techniques.pdf

Exploring Mark Making:

http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/drawinglessons/a/exploringmarks.htm

Pencil Shading: http://drawsketch.about.com/od/learntodraw/ss/pencilshading.htm

Hatching/Cross hatching: http://www.ehow.com/how_2097625_draw-crosshatching-

hatching.html

Hatching/crosshatching video: http://www.ehow.com/video_4979300_draw-crosshatching-

hatching.html

Creating a Croquis—Fashion Sketching

How-To Fashion Design: 9 Head

Croquis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2MdFe1ZRVM

Drawing a Croquis Lesson Playlist (very long, can just skip to the parts you need help

with) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHP5qZKaATM&feature=list_related&playnext=1

&list=SP8EB22B8CC109070B

Design and Draw Fashion Sketches (beginning

steps) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIh7fxOGoqg

Mention that along with using a magazine (or catalogue) picture, student could (for more

authenticity) take a full-body, posed shot with a digital camera and print it out. Also, can

use carbon copy paper (or transfer paper) if you prefer not to use tracing paper.

Design and Draw Fashion Sketches, Tracing

Croquis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgf6IaG1mb0

How to use Transfer Paper (aka Carbon Copy Paper): http://www.art-is-fun.com/transfer-

paper.html orhttp://www.ehow.com/how_8482400_transfer-carbon-paper.html

More image/graphic examples of

croquis:http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs40/f/2009/023/2/b/Super_Basic_Croquis_Tutorial_

by_Lovely_Whimsy.jpg

http://test.fidm.com/academics/majors/fashion-design/articles/how-to-

sketch/print_croquis.html

Simplicity Croquis (via ThreadBanger): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPHrAJ99PCE

More detailed Croquis “How To”: http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_7825_fashion-

design-croquis-drawing-tips.html

References Consulted

Drawing on figure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlYkyEtY3E

How to color fashion sketches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JhwPUKfhvo

Shading depth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qKx6_YnvuA

Shading texture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMJvvQC4SAU

Shortcuts (feel free to use AFTER you create your own Croquis or personal body template

from a photo):http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00216.asp

How to find Inspiration: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/26/finding-inspiration-

in-uncommon-sources-12-places-to-look/

How do artists use media to translate concepts into forms?

Designing and

Creativity: http://www.ted.com/talks/isaac_mizrahi_on_fashion_and_creativity.html

Copyright (or lack thereof) and the Fashion

Industry:http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_cultur

e.html

A few more sites that may be of interest A Career in the Fashion Industry http://careerplanning.about.com/od/occupations/p/fashion_designer.htm Should You Become a Fashion Designer? Quiz http://careerplanning.about.com/library/quiz/career_quizzes/blfashiondesign_quizresults.htm?cor=87 Which fashion designer are you most like? http://www.seventeen.com/fun/quizzes/fashion/which-fashion-designer-are-you?click=main_sr