Sketching Fashion

This document includes

sample sketches of both mens and womens fashions
followed by
croquis for you to use for your portfolio, and
suggested online information on sketching fashion.

Each suggested online lesson offers many more available from
which to choose. Spend a little time and you will find one that fits
your style and needs.


Fashion designers design clothing and accessories. Some high-fashion designers are self-employed and
design for individual clients. Other high-fashion designers cater to specialty stores or high-fashion department
stores. These designers create original garments, as well as clothing that follow established fashion trends.
Most fashion designers, however, work for apparel manufacturers, creating designs of men's, women's, and
children's fashions for the mass market.

Sketching Fashion
A croquis -- from French "croquer" meaning "to sketch, rough out" -- is a sketch of a figure or
model. The croquis acts as a template onto which you place your tracing paper where you will draw
your clothing designs. This basic drawing will serve as the base of your fashion sketch. If the idea of
figure drawing is intimidating, many templates with croquis sketches are available online. These
templates illustrate figures in many different poses. By having a collection of many different poses,
you can choose the pose that best displays the clothing that you wish to sketch. If you are sketching
period costumes, then make sure the model's pose in the template you choose is much more demure
than if you were sketching modern clothing.
Layout paper is a fine, tracing paper that is semi-transparent. You will draw your clothing designs
onto this paper. Your croquis sketch or template will sit beneath the layout paper. Although it is thin
and slightly opaque, layout paper is of good quality. Once you have sketched your first fashion
designs, you can attach the layout paper sketches to a firmer piece of paper or poster board so that
you can present your sketches in your portfolio.
Gather materials and supplies such as pencils, erasers, felt-tip pens and glue sticks for your
fashion sketches. For general sketching, use soft B and 2B pencils. Make sure you have a pencil
sharpener on hand so you can keep these pencils extra sharp. For highlighting and shading, choose
4B pencils. If you plan on adding color to your sketch, colored pencils or use quality felt-tip pens. A
cheap felt-tip pen will cause the colors to run and blur. Choose putty rubber for your eraser, as this
will not damage or rub away the paper if you make a mistake. To mount your sketch, use a light glue
stick that will not wet and wrinkle the layout paper.
Considerations
As a beginner, sketch clothing that follows a theme. For example, your theme could be dresses of
varying necklines or waist variations, or textures and patterns. Gather inspiration from fashion
magazines and newspapers. Create an artist's file that contains pictures and clippings of fashion,
textures and fabrics that inspire you. Do not copy these designs, but use them to influence and
inspire you as you sit down to create your first sketches.

Sites to Explore
Free Fashion Sketches
www.designersnexus.com/design/free-fashion-sketches/
Whether sketching freehand, or computerized, fashion sketches, illustrations, CADs and
presentations are all important parts of any fashion designer portfolio.
More results for fashion illustration sketches

http://www.designersnexus.com/design/free-fashion-sketches/

Design & Draw Fashion Sketches : Fine Tuning a ... - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yblbdstr9kw
Details and fine tuning make any fashion sketch designer material; learn how to draw fashion
sketches in this free video on fashion design and ...
More results for how to sketch fashion designs
Fashion Drawing for Beginners - MonkeySee
www.monkeysee.com Beauty & Fashion Women's Fashion
Fashion Drawing for Beginners: Professional make-up artist Tu-Anh demonstratesfashion drawing
for beginners.

More results for how to sketch fashion drawings

Fashion Sketches for Beginners | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_10027832_fashion-
sketches- beginners.html#ixzz2Kp78RIy6

How to Draw Fashion Sketches
http://www.ehow.com/video_4767269_draw-fashion-sketches.html

Design & Draw Fashion Sketches
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_4180_design-draw-fashion-sketches.html

Shading Texture on Fashion Sketches
http://www.ehow.com/video_4408261_shading-texture-fashion-sketches.html

Drawing Techniques
Practice Technique (Shading) Assignment: http://www.dawnsbrain.com/lesson-
docs/art_2006_shading_techniques.pdf
Exploring Mark Making:
http://drawsketch.about.com/cs/drawinglessons/a/exploringmarks.htm
Pencil Shading: http://drawsketch.about.com/od/learntodraw/ss/pencilshading.htm
Hatching/Cross hatching: http://www.ehow.com/how_2097625_draw-crosshatching-
hatching.html
Hatching/crosshatching video: http://www.ehow.com/video_4979300_draw-crosshatching-
hatching.html

Creating a CroquisFashion Sketching
How-To Fashion Design: 9 Head
Croquis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2MdFe1ZRVM
Drawing a Croquis Lesson Playlist (very long, can just skip to the parts you need help
with) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHP5qZKaATM&feature=list_related&playnext=1
&list=SP8EB22B8CC109070B
Design and Draw Fashion Sketches (beginning
steps) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIh7fxOGoqg
Mention that along with using a magazine (or catalogue) picture, student could (for more
authenticity) take a full-body, posed shot with a digital camera and print it out. Also, can
use carbon copy paper (or transfer paper) if you prefer not to use tracing paper.
Design and Draw Fashion Sketches, Tracing
Croquis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgf6IaG1mb0
How to use Transfer Paper (aka Carbon Copy Paper): http://www.art-is-fun.com/transfer-
paper.html orhttp://www.ehow.com/how_8482400_transfer-carbon-paper.html
More image/graphic examples of
croquis:http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs40/f/2009/023/2/b/Super_Basic_Croquis_Tutorial_
by_Lovely_Whimsy.jpg
http://test.fidm.com/academics/majors/fashion-design/articles/how-to-
sketch/print_croquis.html
Simplicity Croquis (via ThreadBanger): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPHrAJ99PCE
More detailed Croquis How To: http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_7825_fashion-
design-croquis-drawing-tips.html

References Consulted
Drawing on figure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlYkyEtY3E
How to color fashion sketches: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JhwPUKfhvo
Shading depth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qKx6_YnvuA
Shading texture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMJvvQC4SAU
Shortcuts (feel free to use AFTER you create your own Croquis or personal body template
from a photo):http://www.taunton.com/threads/pages/t00216.asp
How to find Inspiration: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/26/finding-inspiration-
in-uncommon-sources-12-places-to-look/
How do artists use media to translate concepts into forms?
Designing and
Creativity: http://www.ted.com/talks/isaac_mizrahi_on_fashion_and_creativity.html
Copyright (or lack thereof) and the Fashion
Industry:http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_lessons_from_fashion_s_free_cultur
e.html


A few more sites that may be of interest
A Career in the Fashion Industry
http://careerplanning.about.com/od/occupations/p/fashion_designer.htm

Should You Become a Fashion Designer? Quiz
http://careerplanning.about.com/library/quiz/career_quizzes/blfashiondesign_quizresults.htm?cor
=87

Which fashion designer are you most like?
http://www.seventeen.com/fun/quizzes/fashion/which-fashion-designer-are-you?click=main_sr