FASHION DRAWING IN REAL TIME

Since my first experience in a live fashion drawing model session with timed poses, I was HOOKED!

Today, as in every week for over 20 years, (online only for 6) I hosted one of my beloved figure drawing sessions for fashion.

EXPLORE YOUR ART SUPPLIES

Fashion Drawing sessions are powerful as they set a time for exploration, discovery, practice and experimentation.

We learn so much when we are cut loose to freely flow into our own curiosity and motivation.

I never quite know what I will use any certain day:

Markers,
gouache,
felt pens,
brush pens,
digital apps on my ipad (and which one?),
collage,
inks,
pastel,
colored pencils
china marker
charcoal, etc??

And which papers?

Sketch,
colored ,black, toned or tinted,
digital,
smooth,
textured,
drawing,
marker,
vellum,
Bristol, etc?

ONLINE JAM SESSIONS

I LOVE THE SENSE of FREEDOM that comes from spontaneous, improvised, curious and playful exploration of garments and figures through the art of real-time fashion drawing.

WARMING UP TO THE PAGE ON THE PAGE

I (almost) ALWAYS begin a fashion drawing session with leotards/ swimwear/ yoga wear so that we can practice WARMING UP to the drawing space and reacquainting ourselves with the figure and the principles of fashion drawing

PROPORTION, gesture, balance, anatomy, etc.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

It is through these 5-20 minute drawings in 2-3 hour fashion drawing sessions that we build our vocabulary of textures, shadows, line quality, silhouettes, poses, and detailing in fashion illustrations!

IN TODAY’S SESSION

I decided to explore my markers, which is funny as I have been avoiding my markers for quite some time.

I was inspired because I recently purchased Fabriano’s SUPER heavyweight “tracing” vellum pad.

It reminded me of a pad of paper I had about 30 years ago –VELLUM that was super heavy but sheer and had a delicious quality to it.

Fashion Illustration with Markers

has its own unique look and feel.

ESPECIALLY on this heavyweight trace vellum . I don’t use it for tracing, but because it’s 100 percent bleed-proof so MARKERS just LOVE to glide across the surface in the most statisfying way.

IT FEELS GOOD!

FASHION ILLUSTRATION: PAIRS

Aside from using alcohol markers and an ULTRA FINE TIP Sharpie pen, I also decided to use the theme of DRAWING PAIRS for today’s model drawing session.

DRAWING FASHION FACES with markers

It’s hard to tell I used the trace vellum paper because I put a sheet of white sketch paper behind for photographing.

However for the fashion illustration studies above,

I started my drawing by sketching one figure at a time using a soft, sheer Copic marker first to map out the face adn features

Drawing PAIRS can be challenging! But so satisfying because of the relationships that are created on the page.
Also, believe it or not, having to relate the two figures to one another proportionally can actually help you draw better!

BELOW, I love how my drawing went over the seam of the pad’s binding… to create the composition balanced just the way I wanted. (really this happened because I wanted to draw her hand and fingers ) .

I added a flat block of yellow where she was wearing this yellow Dior dress.

FASHION ILLUSTRATON: PAIRS AND COLOR BLOCKING, MOVEMENT and INTERACTION

In this fashion illustration I was really in the flow- as usually happens as we reach then end of our fashion drawing session!

These two ensembles from the same design collection were color blocked with colors and a single plaid. I loved how the markers were overlapping, dancing, interaction and twisting.
HOW DYNAMIC!

I continued to use alcohol markers with an Ultra Fine Tip Sharpie felt tip marker pen for all the black lines.

HEAVYWEIGHT MARKER PAPER

ABOVE- I finished the last sketch of the day using smaller, heavier-weight marker paper.
Strathmore had sent me a sample of their 400 series marker paper and I decided to give it a try.

Again, I started this fashion illustration using whisper-soft colored markers to map out the drawing.

As I become more certain of the size and placement of things, I came in with a crisp. soft colored pencil for definition and drop shadows.

I added the fine polka dots, captured the hemline’s pleats and textures wtih that sensitive pencil.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

I couldn’t have been more surprised and excited by the unexpected effect of overlapping pages of fashion drawings peeking through one another in the tracing paper sketchbook!

This is the perfect example of what Matisse spoke of in his book JAZZ called “the Bouquet” which i discuss in this video.

Page after page revealed unexpected realtionships and interactions throught the entire live fashion illustration session.

It’s moments like this that take my breath away.