Lisa Arnold

Fashion drawing is all about attitude, exaggeration, and style. As you develop your fashion illustration skills, infuse your work with personal flair — your signature — to create a look unlike any other. Start by observing the golden rules of fashion drawing, mastering the S curve and other figure drawing techniques, and putting a creative spin on the fashion drawings you create.

When drawing fashion illustrations, you first create a rough sketch of the body, also referred to as a croquis. Then you draw the clothes that go on top.Grab your pencil, a black pen, some tracing paper, sketch paper, and a fashion magazine if you have one handy. Here’s how to begin drawing a front view croquis:Lay tracing paper over a full-body picture of a model from a magazine.

Drawing a stick figure, or line figure, is a perfect way for beginners to get comfortable with basic figures for fashion drawing, and it serves as a refresher for people who’ve done figure drawing before.Draw an oval to represent the figure’s head and then draw a dashed line of symmetry.The line of symmetry, or balance line, runs down right through the center of the stick figure’s head and continues to the bottom of the stick feet.

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.Dress up the basic shapes.Just about every basic shape comes into play when you’re drawing gowns and dynamic dresses.

Once you've practiced drawing torsos and getting the general shape of your fashion figures, you can start concentrating on how to draw the various parts of the body. Let's start at the top and work our way down. How to draw heads Start with a basic oval when drawing a head for your fashion drawings. Take a look at your head in a mirror.

You can use markers for a variety of purposes in fashion drawing. Some artists love to add marker lines over a pencil sketch to get that sharp, clean look (ultra-fine black Sharpies are great for this). You can also use markers to add color to your fashion drawings.Begin your marker supplies with a few key colors in high-quality markers and the rest of the colors in cheaper versions (100-color sets).

You may be torn between buying a pad of paper or individual sheets for your fashion drawings. When you’re starting out, buy pads of drawing paper because you get more bang for your buck.When you have a full pad of paper at your disposal, you’re more likely to flip the page and keep experimenting with figures and colors, which helps you improve your skills.

Fashion illustrators use four views when drawing a model. Imagine yourself trying on an outfit and looking in the mirror. What views do you try to get to determine whether a look is for you? Here are the four views you see as you turn slowly from front to back: Front view Three-quarter view Side view Back view Facing forward: The front view Artists — and that’s you!

Once you have your fashion drawing foundation in place, it’s time to party with your pencil lines! Gesture drawings are the way to go when you want to create a bold and exaggerated style that really emphasizes movement.Show off long lines to create a fashion drawing.Do a quick drawing of a very exaggerated fashion figure with long, stretched-out legs (one bent and one straight) and the head straight up and down.