Hi 👋. I wanted to ask you something, but, first, I have to say your drawings are gorgeous. I love so many of them I can't decide which one to talk about, but I think the ones inspired by the oldest civilizations like the Persian and the Chinese are my favorites because I love history.
My question might sound a bit silly, but I recently changed my major from a STEM course to fashion design and I'm a bit really lost about, well, everything as you can imagine 😅. I'm really happy about the change, but I want to prepare myself for when it begins next semester and the most I've drawn in my life is a carbon chain and even that is a bit wonky and I wanted to ask you: how does someone learn to draw clothes? I know I'll have to study historical fashion in order to get the inspiration for the design itself, but I wanted to learn how to do, basically, what you do and I don't know where to begin. If you have any tips I'll be really grateful, I've tried reading a bit online but everything seems so advanced for someone whose last time drawing was, literally, as a child and I don't know where to begin.
Thanks for reading all this and I'm sorry for the super long ask. Again, I hope you know your art is gorgeous (your HoTD designs made me wish you worked for HBO and I want to sew an Alicent cosplay based on one of your designs someday, if it's okay). Have an awesome day and bye 🪻.
🥰 thank you, that’s all very sweet! (And yes, I love it when people make cosplays based on my illustrations, go right ahead!)
Learning to draw or how to get back into drawing is all about observation and practice. It doesn’t sound glamorous but art is a study as much as any other major and there are “best practices”, tips & tricks, and time dedicated to learning that can level up a drawing skill. Not all of it will immediately sound relevant but I always recommend a wholistic approach to drawing because everyone forges their own style the way they create their handwriting, by doing it and figuring out what they like best. If you never try things or observe things you can’t add it to your toolbox.
The first thing to train is your eyes. How does shadow work? How do reflections in a glass work? How does the shape of an object explain its mass? There is a reason most art classes start with drawing fruit, or a statue bust. A stationary object that you observe and attempt to replicate. I generally sketch a very light base shapes first for the composition and size-relativity of objects but art is an adventure and everyone has their own approach.
The second thing to train is your hand (and arm, don’t hurt your wrist when possible). Straight lines, curves, swooshes, pointillism, shading, cross-hatching. Learning how to move your body to physically create on the page. What happens when you press hard? How softly can you make a mark? This will come in tandem with other skills as you practice, but you should dedicate some time to study different types of shading and hand motions on purpose by themselves.
Draw and observe what interests you after doing a few intensive studies. Take a sketchbook with you and draw things you see in the world. The internet makes it easy to choose anything to draw, but objects seen in person will be different from a lens and a screen projection. Do studies from art you admire, it doesn’t have to be formal, but looking at a painting or ink drawings that capture your attention and replicating them will help your brain study their techniques, lines, form, etc in a way that builds your skill at the same time.
(Ellen, you say, I just want to draw pretty dresses, why are you tormenting me? -> why do kids make volcanoes or do multiplication tables? If you skip steps in the fundamentals you’ll just have to stop and learn them later after you’ve run into a problem.)
Your practice doesn’t have to be strict or take hours upon hours, these can be quick & messy & something you never show people, but you should try them at least once.
If you want to draw people and clothes, and you’ve attempted a handful of stationary objects for practice, figure drawing is the next step! Go to a live experience if you can (it’s very chill, many are budget friendly, everyone is there to learn & study so take it seriously & drink your respect the model juice. Draw what you see it doesn’t matter if it ‘looks bad’. Most will have warm ups, 5 minutes or less to practice mass & flow, 10 minute poses for a little more specific study & then one 30 minute poses for as much detail as desired.) there are also a lot of resources online & websites that will recreate the experience of a life-drawing session, you don’t have to go in person, but it’s a great learning environment.
Anatomy books are great, drawing skeletons, muscles, there are lots of how to videos or artists teaching simplification & form. If you get the chance get a Loomis book or study his anatomy drawings online, they were literally text-book required at my art school & are wickedly impressive.
Drawing fabric is going to come from observing fabric. You can even use it as your still-life subjects. It might be used as a prop in a life-drawing class as well. Study how it folds, how it drapes, how it changes around a body. Draw the curtains, draw your friend’s shirt, draw your bed, whatever creates interesting shadows you should try, or at least observe as closely as you can. In doing so you’ll learn how your brain knows things about a fabric without touching it: thick, thin, wool, silk, scratchy, soft, your brain has already observed those things, the trick is to learn is how to translate that onto a page.
The best way to improve is to try. Whatever subjects work best for you, however much time you have each day, even if you don’t think your art is “good” for years, doesn’t matter. No one learns a skill in a day, no one masters that skill in a year. It’s not going to be linear and it’s not going to be quick. The best way to keep going is to enjoy it. Enjoy the study of it. Enjoy the practice. Heck, sign up for an art class if you can, they will create lessons for beginners around these ideas and have a dedicated time & place to learn in.
There are so many roads to ‘doing what I do’, and it’s entirely possible your teachers or professors will have a totally different view on what is important to a costume designer. I haven’t had that experience I can’t guess what they’ll expect from their students. I have a more traditional art & illustration background, I went to university for Visual Communication (illustration + graphic design) and our whole first year we went through art fundamentals. Busts, shapes, portraits, figure drawing, landscapes, photographing our friends to draw them later… we didn’t start digital mediums at all until 2nd year. It’s possible your school will skip some of those steps in favour of sewing or making miniatures.
Anyway, all that to say fundamentals are important to drawing! If your goal is to learn to draw then you must try & fail & try again at drawing!
For proof of concept I found some of my old, old sketchbooks and practice work, figure drawing, landscapes, master-studies… those are all things I’ve done myself and used to improve my art skill.
Laugh at them all you like, they are embarrassing and not finished work at all. However, I wanted to include them because I worry new artists don’t believe working artists when we say we’ve been there and that the “boring” art honestly increases skill level. (Keep in mind sketches like these are maybe 10% of my sketchbook, I was absolutely sketching anime characters and OCs the other 90. Draw the fun stuff too!)
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