Fashion Sketches: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Having good fashion sketching skills will, at a minimum, help the candidate get a good score in design entrance exams like NIFT. On the other hand, good fashion sketching skills can help one go far in the fashion design career.  

For an aspiring designer, being able to draw top-notch fashion illustrations is very important to succeed in their craft. For one, the ability to make fashion illustrations will give the designer a distinct voice that can be used to communicate with the viewer or potential customer. Also, the illustration is the first step in a series of steps before the concept becomes a reality.

But before the student can perfect his art at fashion illustrations, he has to master another art - fashion sketches.

A fashion sketch can be considered the skeleton of the main item. For instance, it will not have any accompanying figure, but instead will deal with subjects like the length and size of the garment, the orientation, the fitting, and other such technical elements. 

So, a fashion sketch is pretty flat and bereft of any accompaniments.

On the other hand, a fashion illustration adds meat and muscle to the skeleton. This means adding color, texture, shading, and movement so that the sketch comes to life and communicates a message.

Note that we know the difference between a fashion illustration and a fashion design. Let's move to the topic at hand: how to draw fashion sketches from scratch.

Did you know?

Most of the design entrance exams, including NIFT, NID DAT, and UCEED, require students to showcase their drawing and creative abilities as part of the admission process.

For instance, candidates seeking admission to the B.Des program offered by the NIFTs need to appear in the CAT paper of NIFT entrance exam. It is an offline-based paper that, among other things, evaluates the drawing abilities of the candidate. 

If you don’t know the basics of drawing or fashion sketch drawing, you could be at a disadvantage.

So, learning how to draw fashion sketches is key. 

How to draw fashion sketches from scratch?

If you are still wondering why fashion drawing is important, let us tell you that it will help you plan, preview, and explain your ideas and concepts.

And when it comes to fashion sketches, you need to have the tools to start with:

So, here we go.

1. Start with the shape of the garment - A fancier term for the shape is “silhouette”. When drawing the shape, you need to be aware of the height, size (how broad or thin), the alignment, etc. 
2. Adding details to the garment - In the next step, you can proceed to add details to the garment. When we speak of details, it refers to both the decorative and essential elements. Decorative parts may include pleats, fastenings (buttons and zips), necklines, pockets, and collars. The details give context to the sketch and help the viewer understand the underlying theme.
3. Finetune the sketch - The sketch may have unnecessary elements, for instance, there may be lines that you can remove, or illustrations in the wrong places. You need to clean the sketch so that only the mandatory elements remain. 
4. Don’t use pen to draw the fashion sketches - As a beginner, it is recommended not to use a pen for the preliminary sketch or even for the detailing. It is because the sketch in that case can’t be edited easily. Instead, use a hard, good-quality H pencil. 
5. Using colors in the sketch - Unless you become an expert, it is better to restrict yourself to watercolors, which are easy to handle and learn. In contrast, oil colors are need more specialized handling.   

Using croquis for drawing fashion sketches

The student can also use croquis for drawing fashion sketches. A croquis is particularly helpful for a beginner who may not know where to start and how.

Note that a croquis is used to outline the technical aspects of a garment, for instance, the fit and shape, length of the sleeve, height, and placement of the seams and darts.

On the other hand, it puts less emphasis on the figure drawing.

Here is how to draw a croquis:

• Use a hard pencil and thick paper to create the croquis.
• It is important that you have a particular idea in mind before you start creating the croquis. Some authors recommend that you use separate boards for texture, fabrics, and colors. You can use magazines, photographs, etc., for the purpose.
• An interesting facet of a croquis is that it has disproportionate body drawing compared to a human body. The student needs to bear this in mind when creating the croquis. The other thing is related to its standard length, which happens to be nine times the length of the head that is being drawn.
• You can use the croquis to better illustrate the garment or event movement by laying it out in different ways. For instance, you can change the posture of the head, legs, or hands. 

Step-wise process to draw a fashion croquis

Here we bring the steps you need to follow to create the croquis of your requirement:

• Draw a straight line - The length of the line will represent the extent of the model from head to toe.
• Divide the line into ten parts; one part will be equivalent to the length of the head
• Draw the head, neck, shoulders, torso, legs and feet. The torso will be around 2-3 times the length of the head. The pelvis, meanwhile, will be around the same length as the head. Likewise, the length of the feet and legs should be proportionate.
• Drawing the shoulder and hips - To sketch the shoulders, chest, waist and hips, you need to add horizontal lines through the straight line. You can try various combinations to create different poses.
• Complete the figure - Finally, fill in to create a full figure. You can add curves to body parts that need them, for instance, the hips and waist.
• Adding layers to the sketch - Next, you can draw another layer upon it. 
• Add facial features - This exercise will bring the photo to life
• Coloring and shading - Once you are happy with the sketch you have created, it is now time to add colors and shading. You can use different brush textures to give context and show contrasts.