The Best Art Supplies for Live Fashion Sketching Sessions

Your Fashion Sketching art supplies TOOLKIT

You know I’m passionate about every aspect of the fashion arts, from fashion sketching (observational and/ or creative ideation) and model drawing, to draping, patternmaking, construction and sewing.

That’s why I teach ALL of it and have been very lucky to have taught all of these subjects over 3 decades at Parsons School of Design in my career, watching students take these skills and go off running with them.

ART SUPPLIES FOR FASHION SKETCHING

For the topic of Fashion Sketching, today I’d like to share some of the variety of art supplies that I commonly use during my live zoom sessions in Fashion Sketch Group (you can join us!) and all of my courses in general on campus at Parsons over the years.

I keep this art supplies link updated year to year and offer it as a resource to my students. This lists the ESSENTIAL art supplies that are used in ALL of my online and on-campus programs for fashion sketching and illustration, from exercises and quick croquis to final fashion illustrations.

Gouache fashion sketching floral dress from fashion sketching zoom group Fashion Illustration and Art Supplies Laura Volpintesta — *The above fashion sketch from model drawing sessions uses the following art supplies:*

(I’ll use spontaneous sketches from my online fashion sketching model drawing sessions as examples throughout this post.)

TIMED POSES

All poses in my live classes and sessions are 5-15 minutes, specifically to give just enough time to capture the essence and the energy what’s in front of us)

PRIORITIZING THE TIME

MODEL DRAWING SESSIONS: “Order of operations”:

Within any time frame, whether 2 minutes or 10 minutes, it’s useful to prioritize from among the following which i’ve listed in ORDER (as we also do in Model Drawing Magic course):

- capture the sweeping movement of a gesture drawing base
- anchor the balance of the pose’s flow so figure is not “tipping over” or stiff
- map out the proportions of the figure
- state the shape of the garment’s silhouette (as well as that of hair, accessories)
- observe and articulate design details
- use lines and edges to communicate drape of the fashion fabric
- create 3D form, layers, and dimension through shading/shadows/ highlight and line quality
- summarize color/ pattern/fabric texture story
- tell an emotional story or feeling of fashion and style

Rib knit sweater and pleated skirt in gouache and pencil on Bristol Vellum. Demonstrating Fashion Illustration and Art Supplies Laura Volpintesta

Design markers and ink pens for fashion sketching on marker paper with fine line pen details. Demonstrating Fashion Illustration and Art Supplies Laura Volpintesta — *This fashion sketch ABOVE uses alcohol markers instead of gouache. On marker paper, which **eliminates bleed-through** and extends the life of your design markers* *by absorbing* less of the ink into the page.
That gives you much more ink mileage for your fashion illustrations!

This marker had a chisel-tip that you can tell by the broad, square strokes in the pink dress.
**It also was a bit dry which gave a strong textural effect which I loved here.**
I used a ball-tip ink pen (probably Precise Vision size 5 or 7) which you can see if you zoom in.

*I usually use waterproof ink pens to avoid bleeding line, but I see bleeding* line throughout the torso.. and I LIKE IT :)!
SO MUCH ABOUT FASHION DRAWING SKILL AND STYLE COMES FROM **EXPERIMENTING AND PLAYING IN REAL TIME DISCOVERY SESSIONS AND MODEL DRAWING CLASSES.**

The fine tip of PRECISE VISION ball point pen also helps me **articulate tiny facial features quickly** and easily on my model drawings where an unsharpened pencil could be just too overwhelming.

BRISTOL BOARD

When I want a crisper, richer, more committed effect, I use Bristol vellum for fashion sketches and illustrations.

This also allows me the freedom to **mix media easily**, (as in the Farm Rio dress below) without wrinkling my paper, but it’s obviously more expensive.

I love vellum surface but many of my students opt for SMOOTH Bristol. You’ll have to experiment and see what you like!

gouache, marker and fine ink pen on bristol board by Laura Volpintesta

gouache, marker and pencil on bristol board — *This fashion sketch ABOVE uses alcohol markers instead of gouache. On marker paper, which **eliminates bleed-through** and extends the life of your design markers* *by absorbing* less of the ink into the page.
That gives you much more ink mileage for your fashion illustrations!

This marker had a chisel-tip that you can tell by the broad, square strokes in the pink dress.
**It also was a bit dry which gave a strong textural effect which I loved here.**
I used a ball-tip ink pen (probably Precise Vision size 5 or 7) which you can see if you zoom in.

*I usually use waterproof ink pens to avoid bleeding line, but I see bleeding* line throughout the torso.. and I LIKE IT :)!
SO MUCH ABOUT FASHION DRAWING SKILL AND STYLE COMES FROM **EXPERIMENTING AND PLAYING IN REAL TIME DISCOVERY SESSIONS AND MODEL DRAWING CLASSES.**

The fine tip of PRECISE VISION ball point pen also helps me **articulate tiny facial features quickly** and easily on my model drawings where an unsharpened pencil could be just too overwhelming.

BRISTOL BOARD

When I want a crisper, richer, more committed effect, I use Bristol vellum for fashion sketches and illustrations.

This also allows me the freedom to **mix media easily**, (as in the Farm Rio dress below) without wrinkling my paper, but it’s obviously more expensive.

I love vellum surface but many of my students opt for SMOOTH Bristol. You’ll have to experiment and see what you like!

gouache, marker and fine ink pen on bristol board by Laura Volpintesta

DIGITAL DEVICES

Another Farm Rio dress, below.
Here I started my digital fashion sketch on ipad with a watercolor effect. Then I used shadow tone to show the construction of puffed sleeves and a gathered tiered skirt punctuated by skin tone.
I also used my shadow tone for depth and dimension.

Tayasui Sketches app has my favorite digital colored pencils that made it super quick and easy to capture the spirit and flow of the exuberant print.

(Of course I could do pretty much the same with my analog art supplies but would need more drying time).

ZOOM IN TO SEE THE ART SUPPLIES LAYERED INTO THIS FASHION SKETCH:

Gesture drawing with gouache and pencil. Fashion Illustration and Art Supplies Laura Volpintesta — I’m sharing the loose, free expression of this piece to remind you and encourage you to **dive into the feelings and the experience** of expressing details, with a sense of playfulness, curiosity, and bold adventure.

Every single element on this page, like notes in a jazz chord, vibrates off of the other in a multilayered expression of feelings and effects to be experienced through contrasts.

HIGHLIGHTING FOR DIMENSION AND SHINE

I used a delicously sloppy oil pastel for white highlights.

NOTICE that pencil lines and paint edges don’t have to match up like a coloring book! Let them have a more complex and varied relationship!

EXPERIMENTATION WITH TECHNIQUES AND ART SUPPLIES:

Pure silhouette gouache fashion sketchihng. Fashion Illustration and Art Supplies Laura Volpintesta — *I included the fashion model drawing sketch study ABOVE to show a gouache fashion illustration that focuses HEAVILY on silhouette.*

FASHION SKETCHING AND DISCOVERY THROUGH MODEL DRAWING

I hope that this page showed you some of the ways you can bring art supplies to a live sketch session for model drawing and fashion sketching studies, to integrate and enjoy the skills of capturing fashion design silhouettes to tell stories that have emotional meaning and expression.

FOR YOU, BY YOU!!!!

You can also do this practice by sketching from photos you collect, and setting a kitchen timer or cellphone timer.

I usually begin with 1, 3, or 5 minute model drawing poses as a warmup before settling into anything slower/ longer. It keeps me focused, energetic, inspired, energized, active, impulsive and improvisational without over-thinking my fashion sketching process.

Oil Pastels

Taking a 1/2 piece of a chunky oil pastel and using it on its side is a way to get away from micro-detailing and find lines and build a figure quickly and inuitively on the page as I did BELOW.

Charcoal :

The BOLD sensitivity of super black compressed charcoal or the dustier, softer, vine charcoal is not to be missed as an experience in your journey of art supplies in fashion sketching.

Unapologetic and unmistakeably visible, CHARCOAL changes the way you relate to your own marks on the page by amplifying every stroke and mark with rich tone.

Use charcoal, compressed or vine charcoal, or even an extra soft graphite block, on a toothy paper. Newsprint or sketch love to hold the rich black pigment.

Play with smudging charcoal or soft pencil with your finger, too, and see what it’s capable of.

What are your favorite art supplies for model drawing and fashion sketching? What have you tried and what have you not? What did you learn today?

I ‘d love to hear from you in the comments below.

Thanks for coming,
Love , Laura

Fashion Sketch Group

We meet every single week in Fashion Sketch Group expressly for the goal of the joy of fashion sketching with timed, curated poses– along with luscious music and community.

While MODEL DRAWING MAGIC is the method and program where we focus ENTIRELY on the fashion figure itself along with experimentation with art supplies to master model drawing through specific exercises.

Join us weekly, for community sketching, then and back it up with a course where you can go step by step deeper into model drawing and fashion sketching!