Do You Want to Learn Fashion Figure Drawing???

Lran How to draw fashion Line, shadow, shape, construction detail, silhouette, mood, texture, attitude. Fashion Drawing skills give you the language to share your ideas. — Line, shadow, shape, construction detail, silhouette, mood, texture, attitude. Fashion Drawing skills give you the language to share your ideas.

Today’s Fashion Figure Drawing practice video provides a POWERFUL entry point into the world of fashion design and illustration. It focuses you into really understanding and listening to the body that is going to wear your clothes.

How does that sound to you? Whether that body is yours, a client’s a muse’s,… we can ALWAYS pay attention more deeply, and this is one way to begin that journey.

Are you feeling inspired?

Do you have even a half hour or an hour to whip out your pencils and do some fashion figure drawing for fashion design/ fashion sketching/ fashion illustration?

Practicing drawing fashion figures (standing, posed figures) from *all angles* is a constant reminder that while most garments have a front and a back, fashion in motion is viewed from EVERY ANGLE and that sketching is a 2D representation of a 3D experience!

Being able to draw and sketch figures and fashion garments will always be an asset to your creativity, career, as well as a tremendous source of pleasure and enjoyment, in your life.

A refresher or beginner video “How to Draw Fashion” is included at the bottom of the post to get you started on Fashion Figure Drawing.

YOUR JOURNEY HAS ALREADY BEGUN

Model Drawing sessions open up the flow for exprimentation and exploration. Spontaneity, playfulness and improv are as important as practice and study. Composition of the page is something that we always keep in mind in fashion drawing.

I usually teach undergraduate and graduate students at Parsons in NYC and online, and here inside my private platform, since 1997 I have had the joy of unlocking the mysteries of this amazingly satisfying skill with creatives like you who share a deep LOVE for fashion design and its expressions.

It is a truly amazing feeling to work with new creators who are shaping their future using their skills, values, perspectives, talents and messages. ..

IMPORTANCE OF FASHION FIGURE DRAWING

AS a foundation, we always begin with Fashion Figure Drawing as the focus. It gets our drawing skills foundation strong before we start building the silhouettes and details of garments onto the figure.

Wash and line fashion illustration of a tent dress, background showing people of various sizes in a crowd on the horizon — Fashion Figure drawing takes the complexity of the human form and gives you a method for capturing it quickly, and easily, even when it is hidden behind voluminous garments.

FIGURE FILES TO SKETCH FROM:

So that you can practice their figure drawings this week with a” model”, I am sharing the curated resources pages that I use for my classes on campus and off.

Scroll through any page and you will find a range of fashion model size, angle, and pose types.

MAKE SURE TO WORK FROM SOMETHING THAT INSPIRES YOU or that you can UNDERSTAND.

Click to view file 1 models

Click to view file 2 plus

Click to view file 3 more poses

We usually come to fashion because we love clothes, beauty, history, culture, fabrics, colors, movement.

But, FASHION BY DESIGN IS BASED ON HUMANS!

…. we just have to start by drawing and understanding the BODY!

And basic art skills. And I really believe in that.

That’s why I include modules devoted to model drawing techniques in all of my courses, and even an entire course: MODEL DRAWING MAGIC, plus hosting my weekly online group fashion sketching date FASHION SKETCH GROUP.

SO THAT’S WHAT I’M GIVING YOU!

” If you understand what the body is doing inside the clothes, you can draw the clothes better”- you can quote me on that!

Below you’ll find foundational you tube video on how to draw fashion figures- learn to build the figure on the page.

AS you view the figures in the files above, you may find some fashion figures are more your style than others.

That’s natural!

You’ll learn best from the images that INSPIRE YOU or “call to you”…

And you will learn to draw them so well that you can customize the method for any body type you want to.

A huge part of this whole fashion studies journey is that recognition of your individual style of design, your personal taste, the choices YOU make that make you YOU. Whether fabrics, textures, colors, figures, inspirations, silhouettes, THIS SENSE OF YOUR PERSONAL STYLE IS WHAT EMERGES EVERY STEP OF THE WAY.

If you don’t have time, just run through it fast.

That said, I want to make 3 very important points about time when you learn to draw fashion figures:

There is a LOT to be said for “warming up”. Allow yourself to throw out your first 10 to 15 minutes or 1/2 hour of drawings and KNOW AND TRUST that your fashion model drawing surely improves over time as you get warmed up and relaxed, focused and freed.
A short session will usually cut you off just when you are getting into the “zone”…. so if you can set aside two hours, and put on the headphones with your favorite music…….. the magic will REALLY start to flow. When I teach three hour studios at the university, its right at that 3rd hour that I can really see the students get into that sweet zone– and I hate to end the class.
Limiting the amount of time you spend on your fashion drawings is an AMAZING tool that you can manipulate to your advantage when you are conscious of it.

HERE’S HOW TO MAKE TIME WORK FOR YOU:

Get a kitchen timer and set it for one minute (or use your smartphone timer).
Do a dozen one- minute model drawings.
Throw them in the garbage (optional).
Then set your alarm for two minutes. Do a dozen poses at 2 mins each.
Toss.
Then set your timer for 3 minutes. Do a dozen drawings at 3 mins each.
Toss, REPEAT at 5 minutes.
Notice that you have successes along the way!

I CANNOT OVEREMPHASIZE THE POWER OF LIMITING YOUR TIME. It allows you to let go of what you’re doing and move on if it isn’t working. It also allows you to LOOK AT THE ESSENCE OF WHAT YOU SEE AND CAPTURE THE MOST IMPORTANT DETAILS FIRST without getting hung up on little details

If you hold your pencil like a stick instead of a writing instrument
and stand up rather than sit and hunch over,
Then you can create your model drawings with sweeping movements of the arm instead of restrained movements of the fingers only and the wrist. This way WHOLE DRAWINGS and figures will come to life QUICKLY and hold a lively energy.

TRY IT!

You’ll see all of this in the video below.

So there you go!

I love to see you shine, so please comment below and let me know how I can help or email me your sketch so we can chat.