Drawing Fashion from Gesture to Line (VIDEO BELOW)
I can’t emphasize enough the power of drawing fashion from Gesture to Line.
Am I speaking another language ?
I’ll explain.
The most common approach- and most frustrating- to drawing fashion is flat, dark, clean, “perfect lines” that aren’t so dynamic or descriptive.
THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM AT ALLLLLLLLLLLL!
Let me be clear!
It’s only a problem if it FRUSTRATES YOU!
(Who are we drawing fashion for anyway? :0) These techniques will improve your drawing for school or work, but the deepest reasons why you want to draw fashion are beyond that….
The FRUSTRATION comes it when you know you want more, and you feel STUCK in a one dimensional world that feels lifeless, flat, colorless, …
…when what you feel and imagine inside is so much more vibrant and vital.
today’s DRAWING FASHION video
has a purpose.
I drew while looking at a black and white Seydou Keita photo.
I purposely used a large, soft pastel (in Tayasui Sketches app) in brown and in white,
to LOOSELY
VAGUELY
and SOFTLY plot out the figures in the photo.
(SEE THE VIDEO, then read on)
The soft vague shapes I'm drawing fashion with
serve various purposes.
- for one, they are PURELY SHAPE, not line.
When we draw with pure shape, what we are drawing feels “full ” and “whole”.
This gives a vital presence on the page, where as empty lines feel..well,….
“empty”.
2.secondly they make more obvious the sense of POSiTIVE AND NEGATIVE SHAPE ON THE PAGE. If those words are new, think of it like this when drawing fashion or anything else: the figures are the positive shape, the “background” is the negative shape. Each interacts and interplays with the other in the composition of your page.
SECRET TIP: that’s why I used white and dark brown- colors that would stand out against the background
Whether you are aware of it or not, working with this awareness adds a whole new level to how you see and feel while you draw. It has impact.
3. finally, working very very softly, smudgily and vaguely helps me feel confident, non -commital, non- perfectionist and “SAFE” to make marks that are tentative. It’s like making a MAP of the page and the layout, so that I can “approve it” gently before i DEFINE and get controlled, detailed or specific!
I always call this “undersketching”
Adding line when drawing fashion
The Drawing Fashion sketch in today’s video is more of a mood sketch (for Eveningwear), but that’s what you want!
If you’ve been frustrated by drawing fashion with stiff, dry, tight lines and want to add emotion, motion and style to your toolkit
(and the experience the adventure and joy that comes with that)
then working this way will loosen you up…don’t worry, you can always “tighten up ” again. It’s loosening up and feeling free and safe to explore that we are focusing on.
we want not only to draw something, but to FEEL SOMETHING.
We want to tell a story!
So In my Tayasui Sketches app here, I took a brush pen and started to play with key lines to create figures and clothes over that vague base. The soft background takes the edge off of any perfectionist tendencies that may be taking you down when you come to drawing fashion.
I hope this inspires you to try something new.
I’m happy to help you in private coaching sessions or courses, online programs or courses combined with coaching packages!
Visit the COURSES TAB or email info@fashionillustrationtribe.com
Plus, there are tons of free content right here on the blog about drawing fashion, creative fashion sketching, fashion illustration, digital fashion illustration, ipad art apps, patternmaking, draping, fashion design sketching, and more!
Love
Laura
