Exercise 4

Everyday fashion

Draw a range of people in different clothes, describe their outfits and focus on specific elements, focus on describing the clothes and the people. Try to capture their physical shape, character and posture, work some of the drawings into illustrations, stylise or exaggerate, add colour or simplify lines.

To start this exercise I am not very good at drawing people, it is something I have been trying to practise and work on for a few years now, so I had bought myself a book to help me to achieve a shape, the book I chose was The human figure an easy to follow step by step guide to drawing by Mark Bergin.

So I started in my sketchbook working on the step by step guide I managed to draw three people, a surfer, a ballet dancer and a runner, all with the different steps, I used a different coloured pencil for each step, so I could see the progress. Once completed the drawings were quite hard to decipher so I decided to draw over the last outline with black fine liner with tracing paper so I could see how my illustration turned out.

I am pleased how well the drawings worked, some of the proportions are not quite right, but overall for a first attempt at this way of learning is was very happy, and will continue to practise.

Due to being in isolation for having some Covid symptoms, I was unable to get out and about to do a reportage style drawings for this exercise, buy I did my best in looking at people in photographs.

I then went on to find some reference material for people wearing hats, I found these on Pinterest :-

I started to draw these in my sketchbook using a black fine liner to get an instant result, compared to the last drawings above.

I was surprised at how well these had turned out, I think the more I’m practising the more I’m picking up on things subconsciously, and loved how the lady in the hat with the roses turned out.

I then went on to do the same with people in jumpers, I thought this would be a good idea as you could achieve a good idea of fabric and how it drapes, and moves on the body. I consciously chose baggy jumpers for this reason.

Here are my reference photos from Pinterest:-

This is how they turned out, again I use a black fine liner as this had worked so well with the people in hats.

Again I’m really pleased with how these turned out, some are better than others, but again everything takes practise. My hands need some work, but I’ll practise those too.

I then went on to draw my mum in a large cardigan, to get the folds of the fabric and how it bunches when she’s sitting down, I used pencil for this so that I could go over bits if I needed to.

I then went on to do a sketch of my dad, although my dad wasn’t here in person like my mum, as my dad had passed away 18 months ago, but I felt I couldn’t leave hime out. So I used a photo I had of him sitting in a chair in contemplation on holiday once.

I did get a bit carried away and then went on to draw him in charcoals, this was mainly to get the fabric movement again, that I was working on with the people in jumpers. I think this works especially well with his jeans. Again the hands are not very good, but I’ve been able to hide these slightly here! I think this really helped me with how different fabrics work on the body and how different poses affect the material.

Now I went on to using my iPad as this is something I decided to work on for this unit: digital drawing, using Procreate.

I decided to carry on with the people in jumpers using new photos as reference, and trying to incorporate the whole body, and give a stylised effect, like a fashion drawing. I thought using the iPad would be good for this as you could electronically move bits around if they are not quite right.

Again these went better than I expected, I think working on this for the whole day has helped practise and get to grips with these illustrations.

Now I want to pick one of the illustrations out to make into a colour illustration, I think I’ll choose the lady with the trousers, roll neck and hand bag, as I liked the way I had drawn her in the jumper challenge, I’m going to use Procreate again to add some textures etc.

I used the textures brushes and used Melaleuca brush to create the knit feel to the jumper, with the trousers I needed a satin feel, but this was hard to find in the brushes so I went for the Buzz brush in the vintage brushes. For the hand bag I needed a leather brush, but found a old skin brush so used this, it had the same effects.

I then used an air brush at the bottom of the illustration so add that mystery aspect, a lot of fashion illustrations have, they never seem to finish the drawings completely.

I really enjoyed this exercise and following on from the fashion research from the last research point this worked really well. I feel more confident in drawing people now, and have defiantly found different ways that I can work to achieve different effects, with materials, textures, mediums and to draw different ways depending on the subjects.

I will continue to practise drawing people and start to get to work on the hands and feet now too.

Hopefully I will be able to get out and about again soon, and also have a go at drawing people out and about again, and use my new skills to achieve a better form.