Hey I need advice on drawing a curtain type of skirt any ideas?"
Hello! Here’s a little graphic I made for you! I’ll explain everything too since my notes are messy!
So before anything, I recommend sketching the body and treating it as a mannequin. Some clothes are simple enough that you don’t need the mannequin but I recommend it for this skirt.
1. General Shapes and Lines: So this skirt is characterized by the ruche lines on the front. All the folds, pleats and draping comes from the ruche lines. Choose where you’d like those lines to be (I used the provided image as reference) and then map out the general outer shape and length of the skirt. These skirts have a lot of volume but still tend to hang close to the body. They’re also usually calf to ankle length.
2. Fold Lines: This is where you start creating the texture of the skirt. I find it easiest to start with the middle folds connecting the 2 ruche lines. The reference pic also shows a large sort of ruffled section all the way around the end of the skirt so I drew in that general shape as well. Gravity is going to affect all the folds so their highest points should be on the ruche lines and create a wide U-shape in the middle and cascading further and further downwards on the sides. Take note of where the inner folds meet the ruche lines because that is where your outer folds should begin from as well.
3. Details: This is the step where you can really give the skirt fluff and character! Using the outer fold lines you can draw the folds that rest on the hips coming out from them. Gravity has the weight of these folds sitting towards the bottom. This step is also where I added the bottom ruffles. Ruffles are just haphazard side to side squiggles. I provided a little rule of thumb for right, left and middle ruffles. To create their pleats, you just need to draw lines from the top hem of this skirt section down to each curve peak. Definitely include a pleat or pleats coming from where the ruche line ends as well.
4. Refine: By now you should have a sketch for this skirt! It may look real messy with all the folds and pleats and ruching, etc. but sketches are supposed to be messy so you just need to refine it. I will say, like I said in the graphic, that this skirt looks better typically if the details aren’t super symmetrical and even. I feel like they look almost too even in my refined sketch so that’s why I noted that. The unevenness gives a pirate/renaissance faire type vibe and coincidentally if it is super even, it gives a more princess vibe so if that’s the direction you’re actually headed then keep that in mind too lol You can also add your cute lil details like I added lil bows!!
And don’t be afraid to use references! I wouldn’t say trace for anything you’re trying post or whatever (there’s a lot of nuance to this argument, because honestly if some thing just isn’t clicking, it can be super helpful to trace as practice to figure out how to go about it) but using references helps IMMENSELY.
I hope this helps!!! I know it was very wordy but I suck at explaining concisely lmfao also I love talking about fashion
Lemme know if you have any other questions or need clarification ☺️💗
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