Dressing the Fashion Figure

Drawing Clothes for Fashion Illustration

To learn how to draw clothes on the model is a major part of fashion illustration. I've tried my best to create a method that will explain how I go about dressing the fashion figure.

Both drawings are of the same pose to make it easier to understand.

The pink lines are called action lines which I use to help me determine the hem of the skirt. Since it is a figure in motion, the garments will move with the body. So when drawing the top, the hem line should follow the shoulder or apex action line. When drawing the skirt, the hem line should follow the waist or hip action line.

The pink broken line is called the centre front which helps me when drawing the details of the dress. This shifts when the torso moves to an angle which helps with how I apply perspective to my drawing.

The blue diagonal line which I've turned into triangles are what I've create to explain how I apply the effect of gravity to the clothing. When the line is leaning to the left, this means that the left part of the garment (for example the sleeve) will be further from the body. This is shown in the second figure, where the body has been coloured in flesh and you can see how the fabric hangs on the body due to the white gaps between the line of the clothing and the edge of the body. To make it easier how to determine which is the left or right part of the fabric, since in some cases it can be difficult, I make the diagonal line a triangle, but always going down from the highest point. Gravity pulls down.