What to do first when learning how to draw FASHION sketches?

Question

My little sister is 12, and is DESPERATE to become a fashion designer. She's very talented in creating and thinking, and has very good ideas, though, she's not an excellent drawer. She asked me once about HOW TO DRAW FASHION SKETCHES and WHAT TO PREPARE BEFORE DRAWING and WHAT TO DO FIRST WHEN LEARNING HOW TO DRAW and IS THERE ANY ONLINE TUTOR THAT'S FREE, AND TEACHES HOW TO DRAW FASHION SKETCHES.

do you think maybe any of you can answer SOME or best ALL of these question? Person that answer all of the questions, ad very nicely answered get chosen for best answers! thankyou!

Answer 1

First and foremost, to draw fashion sketches you need to know two things: anatomy and the draped figure.  I am most familiar with the great American Illustrators of the eighties like George Stavrinos, Michaele Vollbracht, and Antonio Lopez who worked from models.  In the nineties, I believe, there was a wonderful episode of Isaac Mizrahi's cable show where he and his friends got together to draw from a model.  All the great fashion art I've ever seen uses the techniques and knowledge of academic drawing.  There are books about it or she can get lessons at any price range -- and should.  Also web sites like

http://drawinglab.evansville.edu

but she should definitely look at books.   Now there are two things to focus on: proportion  (and proportion in most fashion sketches vary from reality in specific ways it is too complicated to explain in this space, but which you can't do without first understanding real proportion so -- if necessary she should at least make some supervised visits to that web site and unsupervised is definitely better.  The other thing to focus on is tension points -- where the folds in fabric intersect with the features of our bodies.  So she can best understand this by drawing folded cloth.  She should, in other words, draw clothes whether they are being worn or not if she wants to understand how to draw fabric.

One of the first media you learn to draw with in drawing class is charcoal.  Both crayons and pencils.  Of all kinds of commercial art, charcoal is most often used in the fashion illustrations I just mentioned -- look at Antonio Lopez and Michaele Vollbracht.  It's extremely useful for depicting the texture of fabric.  That is another argument for drawing classes.  At twelve she is certainly not too young for a Drawing I class which focuses on the still life -- in college if your parents can afford it, auditing classes can be cheaper.

If you are serious about helping her out, be prepared to sit still -- and more important, say nothing about the pictures.  The model/style guru Quentin Crisp once said, "If you care what people think of your looks then you shouldn't model".  She's going to need to look at some real peoples' proportions and how fabric reacts to their shapes.  She needs to know how it reacts to the shapes on real people, which means trying to get the shapes of the body underneath, then drawing the fabric on top -- which is what needs to be detailed.  With drawing classes she will learn how to do it faster, but still figure on a minimum of twenty minutes for a pose, if you can (which is why I said sit).  Many of the best of these pictures have no face whatsoever -- just an oval for the head.  Again, it's not likeness she should be going for, the technical terms are gesture (the gesture of the fabric) and contour.  And proportion.

I guess that's all there is to say.

Answer 2

Good practice is to trace right over models in fashion magazines.  This will give her a feel of fluid lines & style. Also, clothes paterns (you can get in material stores) are great to trace or copy of fashion drawings.

The link below is a decent site for starters, but as she progresses & gets the feel of designing she should concentrate on exageration of the lines & proportions more, like the second link shows. & one last thing, get her to sketch anywhere & anytime, newspapers are great for quick sketches (right over the print, its a neat effect too), doodling is even helpful. Have fun!!!!!