Fashion Design Sketching for Beginners!

***Welcome, welcome, welcome. This is one of the very first blog posts that every appeared on this website, in 2013!***

You lucked out landing on this blog post, because it includes FOUR DELICIOUS instruction videos about fashion design sketching for beginners.

In VIDEO 1 (FABULOUSSSSS):

I teach you exactly how to build straight and posed, customizable figures that relate to real bodies and design.

because sketching bodies is a great way to learn to draw, PERIOD (a priceless skill for fashion designers)
because STUDYING AND UNDERSTANDING THE BODY tunes you into the essential core of who we serve when we design fashion!
sketching figures is the PERFECT way to get WARMED UP into the fashion design sketching process before actually designing

In videos 2 and 3:

I WILL SHOW YOU HOW TO USE YOUR FASHION FIGURE SKETCH as a CROQUIS TEMPLATE to sketch your original design ideas onto! (FUN FUN FUN)!!!!

AND THESE ARE YOUR KEYS TO BEGINNER FASHION SKETCHING.

Put all of these skills together and you’ll be WELL ON YOUR WAY!

ABOVE: are some examples of fashion garment designs visualized as FLAT SKETCHES. This mini collection was sketched over a croquis template, which gave all of the garments for the group the same look and relative size.

It is always really important to sketch all of your garments to a single body scale to communicate clearly for a particular project. All bodies are welcome and celebrated, but focus your fashion design collection sketches for one body at a time!

BELOW: a sample UNPOSED fashion croquis body to use under your sketch paper to sketch onto.

(Of course you can adjust the croquis body for different collections, but for one collection of design ideas, use one body at a time).

SO LET’S BUILD A STRAIGHT AND A POSED FASHION BODY FOR BEGINNER FASHION SKETCHING!

GET YOUR PENCIL

IN THE NEXT VIDEOS:

See how you can use Sketch paper (lighter and thinner than “drawing” paper)for fashion design sketching to see the body through the paper while we dress it up into our new fashion design concept

….based on the fabric swatches/samples we decided to design with.

check out the video:

To see that I used a day lit window to trace clean and more refined design sketches onto the not so transparent Bristol paper... as I trace, I can add or subtract details and “fix” things that seem to need fixing in my designs or drawings.

Tracing will give me a new copy on the better paper for watercolor sketching my final illustrations after I color up my informal sketchbook page.

Stay tuned for the next step, I’m uploading the videos step by step.

Keep the LOVE in fashion! What drives YOU!!

Any questions or comments are welcome below.

I can really help you develop your vision and skill while creating a body of work in my INTENSIVE SOULFUL FASHION FOUNDATION IMMERSION COURSE – a semester-sized COURSE based on my Parsons classes that I have taught for over 25 years!! (whew!!)

I also offer an all-access pass to ALL of my courses as a single program with certification based on my decades of teaching and designing experience.

Click around the footer, header, and sidebars here on the site to see my other courses: from FALL/WINTER fashion design portfolio, to EVENINGWEAR illustration and design portfolio, to DIGITAL FASHION ILLUSTRATION using ipad apps for faces and design techniques, to Fashion Design Infusion (8 hours of Masterclass Replays Bundle plus projects and exercises), to Swatches to Gouache (illustrate, design, and present a collection with prints using gouache and pencils ).

OR solidify your foundation with Patternmaking and Draping Techniques!

My broadest overview for beginners in fashion sketching and designing is FASHION EXPRESSION EXPERIENCE – check it out here.

Check it out if you’re curious or share if you know who needs it!