Pages from my Fashion Illustration Sketchbook | Fashion Illustration Tribe- Laura Volpintesta

vine charcoal fashion illustration sketchbook sketch by Laura Volpintesta — Above fashion illustration study by Laura Volpintesta entirely executed in VINE CHARCOAL. I used **extra soft** vine charcoal on sketchbook paper, using the tip for lines and **turning it on its side** for the background texture/ tone.

Variety and possibility

The purpose of today’s post is to expose the amount of variety of expression that can come out of just two hours of drawing, set aside each week. I do this every single week at a dedicated time in my Fashion Sketch Group for pure pleasure, over the past few years, and it’s incredible how cumulative and satisfying this practice is! (Actually we’ve got now a 2/12 hour studio length session).

(Even though i’ve been teaching fashion model drawing courses at Parsons School of Design since 1997,… translating this into an online experience that I host on my own platform is EXTRA REWARDING and close to my heart).

INSPIRATION

My fashion illustration sketchbook was very inspired this week by a book I read about a the iconic illustrator, Tony Viramontes. More about that in another blog post because there is so much to say! But it really had me super focused and inspired when I logged in to teach Fashion Sketch Group as usual on ZOOM Tuesday afternoon.

I always curate specific garments and poses (and MUSIC) for Fashion Sketch Group Sessions.
Some I choose for the pose, the shadows, or the colors, fashion details, expressions, fabrics, or silhouettes. There is always a reason behind each image I choose, and I serve up different images every week.

My Model Drawing Magic students also have access to an extensive library of curated files for sketching from spontaneously as a practice.

WARMUPS

Short poses in close-to -the -body clothing/ leotards are how we start every session by getting comfortable on the page and re-visiting the mechanics and expressions of the human form before going into the textures, colors and silhouettes of clothing.

STORYTELLING

Fashion put into a setting, background, and mood is more than describing the clothing and design.

The attitude, space, facial and body language, as well as your choice of art supplies and natural approach to using them (and even what you choose to include and include in the page) are all powerful forms of storytelling.

What is the story? What is the message? What do you want to say? What comes from you naturally? How is your style and perspective evolving in this moment?

The fashion illustration in my sketchbook below is from Aza Designs website. I found them while doing research for my class and was totally blown away by their curation of designs, photography, gorgeous models and rich colorful prints and layers.

This piece was a gorgeous madras plaid caftan that created a pixellated woven ombre effect in warm, turmeric and spicy colors.

PROCESS

I switched intermittently from gouache fashion illustration to charcoal during this fashion sketch model drawing session….

it’s so delicious to have the freedom to go from color to no color, or from wet to dry.
It’s this range of sensibilities and experiences that can be so refreshing to the soul and invigorating to the scope of your senses and expressions!

MIXING MEDIA

I curate mostly standing poses for Fashion Sketch Group, but there is a great lesson in doing seated and crouching poses. Since we can’t see the balance and proportions the way we do in standing poses, that puts our true sense of placement and proportion to the test! I used charcoal for the shadow and overall sketching, but the tiny flowers in the print needed more articulation, so I pulled out my Uniball Deluxe pen.

I used vine charcoal on sketch paper again, and caught the spirit of the floral pattern using charcoal then filled in some finer details of the floral using Uniball waterproof roller ball pen.

This gold-barelled pen really is pure gold— and has been a go-to favorite for fashion illustration from my Parsons student days to 30 years teaching, writing, and designing FASHION . IT’S MY FASHION ILLUSTRATION SKETCHBOOK STAPLE! And I love that it doesn’t bleed when I paint on it, of course.

GOUACHE PALETTE

The Gouache set of the day was Kuretake’s set.

One of the special characteristics of this set is the colors in its palette– you can’t look at it without feeling happy already, which is a great way to start your day.

Also this set of gouache comes with a clear plastic lid/dustcover that has compartments in it so you’ve got the support of a built in palette for color mixing.

See what I mean about the cheerfulness of this kit??: (below) it also includes whites and metallics.

Kuretake goauche set for fashion illustration sketchbooks — Kuretake gouache set is available is in several different sizes and colors, has a **cheerful and extensive set of colors** and a sticky/moist/ gooey, not dry palette paint feel.

Still, I always try to remember to wet my paints before I start a session so they can melt a bit before I use them.

I love gouache palettes for the convenience and impulse of having all of my colors laid out and ready in front of me, **but if the palette is dry sometimes** it takes a minute for your paints to **soften up enough** to lift pigment off of them and onto your mixing palette or paper.

When this image (below) came up as photo inspiration, I loved how fluid and liquid the dress looked. That’s why used liquid art supplies. I felt like it was a drop of dew sitting on a flower, or a tear stretching down a cheek. The asymmetrical dress has large blocks of color vertically.

fashion illustratin sketchbook gouache model drawing by Laura Volpintesta — I usually highlight with white or **shade with black** or the base color +black *(join one of my courses, bundles or programs and learn all of the tricks! all of my courses are linked on my homepage header)* but here I was inspired by the Tony Viramontes book and remembered one of his black dresses **being highlighted with hot pink.**
So I took my leftover bits of blue paint sitting in my palette and used that to create the **shadows and facial features**, which lends a sort of iridescence to the fashion illustration, And again, this is the Kuretake gouache. *I used a lot of different art supplies in this session.*

WARMING UP TO DRAWING

At the beginning portion of Fashion sketch Group we always emphasize the spirit of WARMING UP. We come into the drawing space with music and get comfortable on the paper by exploring the figure and the space without pressure.

Art supplies that aren’t very precise are perfect for the spirit of warmup. I used a very chunky DERWENT graphite block from a set I bought last year. I had become irritated a while back that all of edges of the block had become rounded (which means I can’t get any crisp lines). Actually that is why I LIKE the graphite blocks – because they can’t draw perfectly — but when it’s time for facial features I really need those sharp corners. Fortunately, I had dropped and broken a block and it gave me some crisp new corners to work with!

And so the reminder of the day is that there

ARE NO RULES OR RESTRICTIONS

in your fashion illustration sketchbook

When you do a specific fashion illustration for a specific purpose, you may have restrictions.

Your free explorative sketching, model drawing group and fashion illustration sketchbook is where the whole point is to show up with your art supplies and ENJOY yourself, to experiment, play, discover and create.

Allow yourself that joy and playful approach to try anything !