How to Draw Gorgeous Fashion Gowns

By Lisa Arnold and Marianne Egan from Fashion Drawing For Dummies

Most fashion illustrators love to draw fancy dresses and create a glamorous mood. With gowns for women, just about anything goes, and as a fashion artist, you get to go to new and exciting places with your pencil.

Enlarge 1 Dress up the basic shapes. Just about every basic shape comes into play when you’re drawing gowns and dynamic dresses. The variety of dress designs are endless, including strapless, backless, and every type of neckline and sleeve. A triangle is a sure-shot to map out the shape of a flared skirt. Cylinder and square shapes make for a great tube-shaped, tight-fitting dress or skirt. Use the heart shape when drawing a bustier or strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline. A V shape works perfectly for a backless dress.	Enlarge 2 Draw an LBD (little black dress). Draw a full front pose of a woman; add a wide neckline for a simple fitted dress. Follow the sides of her torso as you draw the side seams for this form-fitting dress. End the seams several inches below her crotch. For the hem of her dress, connect the side seams with a curved line across the model’s thighs. Color in the dress with a black marker.	Enlarge 3 Shake up your looks with a cocktail dress. Create a cocktail-dress look by starting with a simple cylinder. Modify and embellish different parts of the cylinder with various shapes to suit the mood, the event, or the latest trends. By altering the basic cylinder, you can emphasize different parts of the body or send a subtle message. Various types of cocktail dresses include a dress with cap sleeves and a straight neckline shows off the bust, an off-the-shoulder dress draws attention to the face and shoulders, a short-and-strappy number gives your model a fierce look, and a long and tight gown that ends at the ankles plays up a sexy and mysterious look.
Enlarge 4 Draw a sleek sheath dress. Draw a female fashion figure. Sketch a cylinder to map in the dress’s shape around the fashion figure, The sheath usually ends right above the knee. Call attention to the waistline by cinching in the cylinder on both sides of the waist to create folds. Draw armholes for a sleeveless look, add the neckline, and add a few more lines for folds in the waistline.	Enlarge 5 Draw the top half of a ball gown. Draw the front torso of a woman. Using the torso as a guide, draw the gown’s neckline and armhole(s). To create a strapless dress, draw a slightly curved line or a sweetheart neckline across the chest. For a dramatic ball-gown effect, draw in elbow-length gloves. For the rest of the gown’s bodice, follow the sides of the model’s torso to draw the side seams, and draw a waist seam across her middle. Create an asymmetrical waist seam in any interesting design by going from the top of one hip to the bottom of the other. Map out where her legs are going to be. You won’t see the legs, but you want to make sure this lovely lady looks like she’s standing and balanced — she’s probably wearing fancy high heels, and you don’t want her to look like she’s going to tip over!	Enlarge 6 Add the ball gown's skirt. Begin the skirt by drawing side seams that bell out from the bodice’s waist seam. End the lines at the model’s feet. At the bottom of the skirt, draw a hem line connecting the side seams, being sure to draw wave-like shapes for the folds of the fabric. Finish the skirt by adding a few lines going up from the hem, creating folds.