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The purpose of the croquis is to showcase the clothing and accessory design. There is something to be said for developing an eye catching style that helps evoke the emotion of the designs you want to highlight. It's through our emotions, after all, that something makes us WANT it; makes us fall in love with it.
One way to add emotion to your figure drawings is by using a technique involving line variety, which for these purposes can be called attenuation.
Attenuation is described in Physics as, “… a general term that refers to any reduction in the strength of a signal.” So, applied to line drawing techniques, you can imagine that this would refer to the intensity of the quality of any given line. The bolder the line (in darkness and/or thickness), the more it comes forwards; the finer or softer the line, the farther it falls backwards in comparison.
Below I’ve shown the progress of a watercolor I did recently of Dita von Teese from a 2007 Harper’s Bazaar Magazine. I did the watercolor traditionally and then scanned it in to photoshop to complete the line work with my graphics tablet. You can certainly do this entirely by hand, or entirely digitally if you choose.
The second image shows where I decided to place the line art. Notice the depth that is created by the contrast between the darker bold lines, and the softer fine lines. Also take note that the line on the center bodice has a bit of a squiggly quality. Not all lines have to be crisp and appear calculated.
This can be employed in all kinds of drawing styles, whether detailed, neat and tidy, or a bit messy and energized. Play around with it to find what style fits you best. Of course there are other techniques you can play with, including color intensity, shadow and highlight, and negative space (haha, yes, nothingness), to name a few. I’ll take you through a few more of these in upcoming articles.
In the meantime, have a look around at fashion illustrators and see if you can notice ways in which they evoke emotion in their work, and maybe try applying some of these ways to your own work. Some of my fav’s are Paper Fashion, David Downtown, Julia Durgee (great use of line), and the fabulous Ruben Toledo.
If you liked this article, you might like these fashion illustration books:
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Monday, 12 April 2010
The purpose of the croquis is to showcase the clothing and accessory design. There is something to be said for developing an eye catching style that helps evoke the emotion of the designs you want to highlight. It's through our emotions, after all, that something makes us WANT it; makes us fall in...
© 2010 - Fashion Students Online
