Fashion Illustration
Fashion Illustration
The exam tests whether you can draw a fashion figure with convincing proportion and render fabric so the material is recognisable. Two outputs are assessed: the expressive illustration (mood, movement, fabric) and the flat (accurate, technical). Do not mix them.
Figure proportion
- The standard croquis is about 9 heads tall, with a small head and elongated legs; the crotch sits roughly 4.5–5 heads from the crown.
- Draw a balance line first: an imaginary vertical from the nape of the neck to the weight-bearing foot. An off-balance figure reads as an error, not as movement.
- Mark centre front, shoulder line, bust line, waist, hip and knee. Simplify hands and elongate them slightly; place feet in a pointed or arched position.
- Vary the pose with shoulder and hip opposition, but keep the torso readable - garments are judged on how they sit on the body.
Rendering fabric
Match medium to material: markers for smooth saturated blocks, watercolour for soft translucent layers, gouache for opaque matte, coloured pencil for texture and fine detail, collage with the real swatch for reference.
- Choose one light source and keep it consistent across skin, garment and background.
- Build from light to dark in three values; leave paper white for the strongest highlight; never shade with black - use a dark neutral or the complementary hue.
- Suggest weight: chiffon reveals the body and breaks into many small folds; denim holds large sparse folds and a stiff hem; leather reflects a broad hard highlight.
Worked example
Render a duchesse satin column dress: lay a pale base, leave a continuous white highlight down the thigh and bust, add a mid-tone in the fold valleys, then a dark shade only in the deepest folds; sharpen creases with pencil; add a cool grey shadow under the hem to seat the figure.
Traps
- Shading with black, which dulls every colour on the page.
- A light source that changes between face, garment and floor.
- Drawing the garment first and fitting a body inside it.
- Rendering every fabric with the same soft fluid folds.
- Overworking until the paper cockles and the highlights are lost.
- Presenting illustrations with no fabric swatches or colour references.