My first book is “the Language of Fashion Design, 26 Principles every Fashion Designer should know”.
I gave a series of livestream talks about some of the chapters, which you can view the repleys here for free!
However, I’m proud to offer the Language of Fashion Design online course where we have a new video every other week for a year, plus community and optional creative and research projects.
(don’t worry, you can j”ust watch” the videos… it’s up to you!)
I’m so excited to offer this, it’s going to be a blast!
Scroll down to enjoy the first of the series and deeply develop your eye for fashion, art, design, and…FASHION DESIGN!
YOu’ll grow your visual and verbal vocabulary in a deep, rich way.
Love
Laura
Fashion Design Elements: TEXTURE in fashion Design and Fashion Illustration
NOW GRAB YOUR SKETCHBOOK/ CROQUIS BOOK!
- let’s focus on texture in art supplies for a minute. does your paper have grit? Do you like that? are your colored pencils thick and rich, soft? Is your paint creamy, sheer, clean or heavy feeling? How do you like it to feel? if you draw digitally, do you like a smooth or uneven feeling?
- what about lines? brush pens, finelinepens, soft or firm pencils, felt tip markers… all of them have different textures
- now let’s talk fabric. what kind of textures do you love most? fuzzy, fluid, firm, flowy? quilted, thin, thick, felted, woven, knit, crisp?
- what do different fabric fibers or filaments feel like, what do you prefer: synthetic, natural…..
- how do different kinds of drawn lines represent different textures on paper? (maybe look at other peoples’ fashion illustrations to observe and analyze a bit, or get inspired/ do detective work)
- how do you like clothes to feel on the inside? the outside?
- How do you like clothing to LOOK on the inside, on the outside?
- what are you favorite textures in your own closet? in a trip to shop for clothing?
- create a group of sketches or a fabric board with TEXTURE as the primary focus. Also direct this focus toward a certain season, climate, time of day, or purpose/ function…
- create textures out of a single fabric by “treating” it certain ways…. gather, pleating, embroidering, waterproofing, washing, beading, painting, knotting or knitting, etc…. crochet, the sky is the limit!
Fashion Design Elements: ASYMMETRY in fashion design and fashion illustration
GRAB YOUR CROQUIS BOOK!
- notice if you own any asymmetrical pieces at all? pay attention…. is it uncommon?
- how do you feel when you wear the asymmetrical pieces?
- do you have a preference of symmetrical or asymmetrical clothing?
- look in your surroundings and fine-tune your eye to noticing the items in your environment… notice the symmetry and/or asymmetry in the things around you
- make a mood board in your croquis book or in pinterest or a collage app… collect examples of asymmetry in fashion design that you like
- notice fashion poses that are symmterical or asymmetrical
- notice your emotional reaction to symmetry or asymmetry
- play with the ideas of how you can take a symmetrical garment and MAKE IT SYMMETRICAL somehow …. with the goal of improving on it aesthetically.
- try design sketching with ONLY FULY asymmetrical pieces. HOW DOES IT LOOK/ FEEL/ DO YOU LIKE IT?
- notice how your eye moves while observing asymmetrical images, outfits, poses, art, etc…
GRAB YOUR CROQUIS BOOK!
- a really nice place to start playing with negative shapes is with necklines, armholes, hemlines and silhouettes: the places where the garment begins and ends, interacting with the body and with the background. Sketch some ideas and also notice how these different components of a dress, or a top, interact with each other and play off of each other!
- cutouts: play with cutout shapes or color blocking (see the video on COLOR too!) panels of different colors or patterns in some basic pieces.
- check out this mini-course of negative shape model drawing exercises for fashion drawing/ fashion illustration, it’s only $25 and definitely will change the way you see and draw… I STILL use this exercise oall the time.
- explore negative shapes in asymmetrical forms….
- collect images on an inspiration board or in your croquis book of truly inspiring cutout/ negative shape effects.
- do some sketches where you only draw the body, not the clothes!!!
- play with the idea of negative shape created by layering and peek-a-boo effects (there are lots of inspiration images in the video / book)
- as you sketch several figures or garments on a page, make your “composition” intentional by noticing the spaces between figures or sketches and make them harmoniou, too!
Fashion Design Elements: COLOR in fashion design, art, and fashion illustration
GRAB YOUR CROQUIS BOOK
- what associations do you have with certain colors?
- what memories do you associate with certain colors or combinations of colors?
- are the colors you love to see different than the colors you love to wear?
- when you design in your imagination, do you use colors that you don’t actually WEAR?
- how do you like to feel? make a list of colors and their corresponding feelings, either with single colors or with combinations
- what feelings do you want to have when you dress or when you dress someone, how do you want them to feel?
- use paint or fabric swatches to pull together colors that represent “your design world”– maybe you will create different color stories for different seasons or times of day or functionality. For work, for play, for sleep….etc…
- sometimes it’s a wonderful exercise to create color stories (bring together combinations of colors) and NAME the story, as well as creatively name the individual colors…… it helps us connect to the storytelling embedded in the colors
- are you drawn to certain cultures because of their “different” orientation towards color?
- prints usually bring together combos of colors. find some prints that appeal to you.
- monochromatic, primary,
