Fashion Sketches: How to Sketch Fashion Clothes

Fashion sketching does require drawing skills and some drawing techniques, to show texture, pleats, stitches, etc. However, if you have lots of ideas regarding fashion clothes or certain costume designs, but don't know how to sketch for fashion, then do not worry. With some easy tricks you can learn some basic techniques on how to sketch fashion clothes, and also put your sketches of fashion dresses on the paper. To sketch for fashion, you will need some basic sketching stuff like few pencils, normal plain papers, tracing paper, croquis template and an eraser. So, gather all this stuff and use these tips and tricks on how to sketch for fashion.


How to Sketch for Fashion Clothes?

The first and most important step in fashion sketches for beginners, is to get to learn how to draw croquis. Don't know what a croquis model is? Croquis is a simple sketch of a fashion figure, which you need to use as a base. On this you can draw any kind of fashion clothing that you have in mind.
You can draw a simple basic croquis sketch on a paper, which has grids. Grids will give provide you better reference points, to draw the basic model sketch. So, draw a simple male or female sketch, with simple lines and forms, without adding any details like facial features or finger/toes details.
If you have limited drawing skills, then you can find various free croquis model sketches online. Select a few simple poses like front, profile and back poses. You can use these as a base of your fashion drawings, and you can easily try fashion sketching tips and tricks on this base sketch.
Designers use these croquis as a template to trace when they are drawing fashion sketches. You can also keep these croquis as a base to your fashion sketches. So, keep a base print out or sketch of croquis. On top of this place a tracing paper. Tracing paper is an opaque smooth paper, which allows you see to the sketch placed under it. If you don't have a tracing paper, then you can also use a light box, which will allow you to see the base layer of croquis.
Now, is the interesting step in how to sketch fashion clothes. Draw the fashion clothes you have in your mind. Make sure you keep the sketch simple. Use simple flowing lines, and simple pencil techniques to detail the texture, zips, stitches, buttons, embroidery, etc.
Don't know how to represent these clothing styles in your sketch? Here are some tips, that will help you for fashion sketching. For seams draw lines with a solid line, while the top stitching should be shown using dotted lines. For zippers also use dotted lines, but for drawing invisible zippers, you need to use the presence of a zipper pull.

To add texture and movement to your drawing use these sketching techniques. Add pleats, folds, patterns in your design. For pleats and folds you need to draw slightly darker and shorter than the rest of the seam. You can also add uneven lines to show fullness and gathers. You will also need to take care while drawing patterns, as they need to follow the shape of the garment.
You can also show the inside of the garment. To do this you need to do a little bit of pencil shading, to show that the underside is dark. You can also add a back view thumbnail, near the main sketch you have created.

These were the steps on how to sketch fashion clothes. So, use the above steps and tips on drawing fashion drawing techniques, and get a good croquis model as a base for fashion sketches, and enjoy putting your fashion clothes ideas on paper!
By Pragya T

Posted in: Fashion Designers