How to: Fashion figures and Portraits

We have finally made it to the most anticipated activity! Yes, drawing fashion figures it is. Everyone in the class, including me, have been super eager to learn to draw fashion figures. As much as it sounds interesting, like any other activity, it requires practice because at the end of the day we are studying the anatomy of the human body and in accordance with that these fashion figures are drawn.

Generally the figures are drawn using the 9 head or even 10 head method. We are also taught to make figures on this basis because it is believed that slender and elongated figures carry the garments well. Even though this thought has been changing, traditionally the figures are made that way. Apart from figures we will also understand a little about human faces and how we can draw the face proportionately using a few hacks. For the finale, we will be combining all of this and drawing a figure, so follow along!

The post is divided into 3 sections:

1. Basics of fashion figures

2. Understanding the human face

3. Complete fashion figure sketch

Without wasting any more time, let us begin....

1.Basics of fashion figures

Like mentioned above, to curate fashion figures usually 9 head or the 10 head technique is used. Sometimes it can go up to even 11 heads but in the industry the widely used method is the 9 or 10 heads. Before starting, another thing to note is, one can get started off by practicing first on newsprint or butter paper instead of directly sketching on paper. This will help us gain confidence. There is also no harm in starting on paper, if you are comfortable with sketching on paper then go ahead and do so! Now let's look into how exactly the figures are drawn by following certain steps shall we?

Steps to making a fashion figure:

Step 1: To begin, consider 1 head to be 1 inch and go ahead and draw 9 heads one below the other. Also the first head will be numbered 0 and not 1. Draw a vertical line beside the 9 heads.

step 2: Start of by drawing an inverted egg shaped head and make sure the chin touches the line "0". Half of the head is where the ears start. One thing to note is that the neck in fact begins from the tip of the ear, so draw one side of the neck starting from tip of the ear. and extend it till half of line "1".

Step 3: Line "1" is the bust line so bust begins from there. To draw the bust make a U-shaped curve which extends till one fourth of line "1". Draw a diagonal line. from the best till line"2" which is the waist line and curve the line.

Step 4: now that we are done till the waist, the legs start from where we left. Make another curve and extend it till line "5" which is where the knees begin. Now again from the knee point the curve goes outward framing the calf muscle. The ankle begins at line "8" and the feet end at line "9"

To finish one leg, mirror the same curve and this time from the knee it goes outward again.

Step 5: to finish one side of the figure, we have to draw the arms. The arms have to be continued from the point we finished the shoulders. The arms itself are divided into two parts and the first half ends at line "2" which is where the elbow lies. The palm starts from half of line "3" and can end a little below line"4"

Step 6: We are all done. Now to finish the other side, simply fold the paper along the centre line and flip it to the other side and simply trace the other half! Make sure to fold it exactly in the middle otherwise the proportions will get messed up. Open the sheet and there you go, you have a symmetrical and proportionate fashion figure!

Final fashion figures:

#1

#2

#3

By the end of my third exploration, I got a hang of how it was supposed to be sketched. I also saw a progress in terms of proportion and decided to sketch out my final figure on paper. Once you grow confident about your sketch, go ahead and start practicing on paper. With paper you will not be able to trace the other side so more practice will help us achieve symmetry.

Final figure

2.Understanding the human face

Everyone around us have different faces, even identical twins will have the slightest feature which can be used to distinguish them and that is the beauty of the human face. We all have different features that make our face different than the ones around us. Face is very much a part of the anatomy too and understanding it's features is actually very interesting. There are a few simple tips which will help you draw a symmetrical and proportionate face. The one I am giving you as an example is just one way to do it, you can go around and play with the features and add your favourite features as well.

The process of creating the face:

1. The first step is to draw a vertical line and mark the top the middle and the end of the line using horizontal lines.

2.Proceed by drawing an inverted egg shape face.

3.Since there is already a line going through the centre, use that to draw the ears wherein, the top of the ear is a little over the centre line.

4.The nose begins from where the ears end and extend till the centre line

5.Now the gap between the nose and chin is again divided into half and the top lip begin from a little over that line.

6.Moving on with the eyes, which is drawn in the same line as the top of the ear. The width of the nose will be the width of the eyes. The corner of the eye touches the side of the nose. The pupils reach till half of the eye and do not make a full circle which touches the bottom half of the eye.

7.The eyebrows start from where the nose almost ends. There is a small gap between the eye and the eyebrow. When you see your face, the quarter of one eye is where the eyebrow is arched so even while sketching that should be maintained.

8.We are almost done! leave some space for the forehead and erase the lines that frame the top of the head because we don't want an egg shaped head popping out and draw the hair roughly.

To add a little more depth, choose a light source and add shadows and highlights.

Finished sketch:

This is the most basic way to draw the human face. Now that you have a rough understanding of the proportions, you can go ahead and change few features and see how that will look, for example, I can add fuller lips or make a wider nose. The more we experiment with different features the more we can gain an even better understanding of the human face. It is also very interesting how different cultures pave way to different facial features! An in depth study of culture and history will enlighten us more on how faces are different and why it is different.

Portrait

To understand and work on facial features well, I moved on from the basic face and experimented with different facial features. I have also added more shadows and highlights to show the depth which took it from the basic shape to something a little more refined.

As you can see, compared to the simple face study, this one has a little more depth because of the shading. This sketch can be further elevated but that will come with more practice and clearer understanding of light and shadows.

Final portrait

3. Final composition

It is finally time to combine everything we have learnt so far into one sketch. In this section we will see a little about how we add the face, the postures and movements onto one fashion figure so the figure looks complete. Before we start putting together all the features we have a quick exercise to help us get started.

In this exercise, we start out by drawing different head positions, from looking to the side to looking down or looking up, we try to draw all these positions so while we combine everything together, this will come handy. Now we are all set to get started with the final composition.

1.Firstly we get started by making 9 heads so we don't go wrong with the proportion. Keeping in mind the posture we are going to create block figures representing that pose in 9 heads. We will be drawing not one but two figures in a page to establish a relationship between the two. As I have mentioned in my previous posts, It is very important to establish relationships between the sketches to add depth and emotions.

2.Going forward create another block figure striking another pose on the same page.

Now refine the block figures by taking a darker pencil or sketch pen and create smooth lines and complete the sketch. Since we have not learnt about garment sketching yet, just put the figures in bikini which will complete the body.

3. Now that the body is done, we come to the face. Since the face is smaller that the one we practiced earlier on, just go ahead and and add all the facial features which should be quite easy to do.

4. The hair does not need to be crazy, just roughy draw the hair in any hairstyle you would like it in.

Voila! we are all done. Capturing different poses with the figures while keeping it proportionate could be taxing and a task at first but as always practicing more will always help. There are also chances you cannot get a single body part right, well then work more on that part so when you combine all the features, everything sits right.

An example of how the block figures are supposed to be drawn

Final compositions:

#1

This was my first composition and as you can see it was not that proportionate, the legs especially looked too slender which I figured I needed to work on. Apart from that I loved the facial features and how it turned out.

#2

This composition is way more balanced and the lines also were smoother than the previous composition. Overall there was an improvement from the previous composition.

What an exhausting yet exciting day right? We indeed had a lot of things to discuss about in this post but it was fun to explore together. Right from drawing basic figures to understanding faces to wrapping it up by composing a figure including all this, Wow! a crazy ride indeed. Nevertheless sharing my 2 cents about the various activities from my fashion classes was fascinating and kept me engrossed.

Diksha

(a.k.a the fashion student you live vicariously through:))