Character Design Series: Folds and Clothing

1. Intro: Hey guys and welcome to the Character Design Crash Course. This is the fifth class of the series where we will talk about bolts and clothing. We discussed in previous classes about how to draw heads and portraits, how to draw expressions, how to create character stories, and how to draw full body poses. Now it's time to discuss how we will dress up our characters. I'm so excited to be continuing this series. I hope I will be able to share with you some information, some insight and some inspiration. If you wonder who I am and why I'm teaching this series. Hi, I'm Laura. I'm a freelance character designer and the children's book illustrator. I have been doing digital art professionally for the last four years. And there are many more years of traditional drawing and painting before that. Enough about me letting me tell you what this class will be about. This class we'll cover a few basics about folds, points of tension, breakdown some references, and then start drawing for ourselves. As always, the breakdown of the references will come first and then we will start with drawing. You can watch me while I draw, draw along with me or have me on the background, is you draw for your own portfolio. This class is part of a series that will revolve around character design. So if you want to create meaningful characters that will speak to your viewers, that will be different, special, and that will have a story. You should definitely follow the whole series. This is what the series will look like each month, we will cover all sorts of things such as character portraits, expressions, full body poses, costumes, illustration, cinematic posters, even props. And finally, I will show you how to create your very first art portfolio. I know that a lot of you publish your artwork on social media. Don't be a stranger. Let's connect them. Keep inspiring each other. Find me on Instagram, is MLR, underscore Arc escape and send me a direct message with a simple high. I would love to chat about our answer any art related questions and become artsy friends. Come join my small art community. My TikTok account is also growing and it will soon surpass my Instagram. So make sure to follow and let's get to know each other. I have the same handle is on Instagram if you'd like to follow me. And because I know it's really difficult to grow on Instagram, I wanted to help you grow faster than I did if my class has helped you even one bit. Daphne on your posts and I will share your art on my stories. Not only that, but if you submit your projects in the Skillshare classes from this series, I will feature your work on the next class. No one will do the work for you. So I wanted to compensate you for your work with a little bit of extra exposure. You will also create your portfolio bit by bit this way. So without any further ado, let's get started with the first lesson. 2. Points of Tension: Hello guys and welcome to the first lesson. This is the mood board that we will start our lesson with. And when it comes to drawing quotes, I find it that the thing that will help you the most with understanding clothing is learning what the point of tension is. Let me show you what the point of tension is by going to the first reference. First of all, we need to understand that clothing, art pieces of fabric that wrap around the body. And this wrapping creates places of tension where the fabric is being pulled in a certain direction. And then there are places of risk where there are loose folds at the end of the set tension. Let me just draw above the reference so you can better understand what I mean. So we have two points of tension at the armpit where a lot of fabric will be gathered in one place and create folds. And this of course happens when our model has their hands next to their body or in a similar position. If they raise their arms above their head, the point of tension would move around their shoulders. You can see how the folds aren't really random. And they actually follow the form of the shoulder, which is why this folds have a slight curve that is going upwards. Try to remember this when drawing those armpit folds. Now when you are following the flow of the poles, you will generally find a tension point is all false, leads to attention point. Some may be obvious such as an armpit and others will be less obvious, such as under the chest. Now the folds of the shirt down here are created due to the fact that the parents are preventing the fabric from free flowing. Basically, the line of the fans create some oven upwards tension and the folds are created along the line of the bands. You can see that most of these poles are gathered closer together on the right side. And that is due to the position of the model who is shifting more of her weight on the right side. Now let's move on to the next reference where we will have really large folds. And this is an indication of denser fabric, which cannot really create small pulses, the t-shirt from the previous reference. So we can see that the model is bringing her arm backwards and that creates a force that is pulling the fabric after her arm. This motion also creates folds, but this time very few of them. Let's also look at how the fabric is at rest on her arm. Below her elbow level, there are areas where there is an excess of fabric and so it tends to stay at rest and go inwards. Let's check the next two reference. I chose this reference because the false created by the shirt are really accentuated by the light. Also, I mentioned this before, but I like how well the false graded around the chest are shown in the reference. We can see how the chest creates a slight point of tension that creates folds towards the mid section. So let's create some triangles. Also. Let's take into consideration that these folds seem to go towards wear. This shirt is talked in the pants. We will also note that the armpit is really different in this reference compared to the first one. In the previous reference, the armpit was a point of tension. But in this reference, the shirt is loose and the armpit area is not actually at the armpit. It's below the chest area. So it's a loose shirt, it's a loose material. However, the shoulders are creating points of tension and they create what is called the Diaper fold towards the chest. I will exemplify this in the next lesson where I will show you a demo of this kind of form. As usual, I recommend you study references and identify all the big shapes and try to make sense of them instead of copying what you see and hope for the best. Let's move on to the next reference and see some more loose false that come from dense fabric. We can see right away that the points of tension are at the armpit and add the hand on the right that rest on her midsection. And then there's another one at the elbow. Now let's mark some of these faults that are created. Also, here's another small point of tension at her sleeve. But this is strictly due to the type of slave, not due to the actual tension, but it will still create some folds. Now moving on to the final reference, this is a great backfill where we can see the points of tension are created by the shoulders and we have an even more obvious Diaper fold. I will mark all the false here before we will jump onto the next lesson, where I will demonstrate how you draw this kind of fault. That's it for now. See you on the next lesson. 3. Folds and Creases: Welcome back to the folds and creatures. Listen guys. It's time for me to show you what a diaper folders and how you can draw it. Essentially, it's the fold that forms when you have two points of tension that keep the material hanging in the middle and creating this large triangular folds. I tried to take into account both the large bowls and the small ones. It's also good to have a grasp of the general shape of what you are drawing and watch them first 20 worst kitchen. Afterwards you can add the skeleton, which means the larger shapes. And only then should you add the details, the small creases end. So let's get the drawings. I will first mark the tension points and then start sketching the outline from top to bottom. While I keep checking the reference, I noticed that this piece of cloth seems to be folded into and then hand from those two points. So after I have my large outline, I start adding this detail. Now that I have a general idea of what they need to drop, it's time to add the details. I will sketch away and check back in. Thanks. Okay, So while I wait for my camera to charge, I switched to screen recording the rest of the process. Now we have a general partially refined sketch of our reference. Now, in order to give our full some dimension, some basic shading will go along way. So I grab a darker color and start shading, taking into consideration that our light source is somewhere on the left. With false, it's important because your values right? Since some quizzes will be smaller and you will be darker shading in those areas compared to the larger, more loose holes where you will rather have a light shape on them. Now just for a lethal X-RAY effect, Let's fill in with a darker background color around the fold and call it a day. Actually, no, we won't call it a day. We still have things to do. So stick around. Okay, So next up we will see a small step-by-step on how to draw a long sleeve around the bend elbow. I already did the outline of free elbows because we will have a different step of the drawings on each elbows. Looking at the first one, we will see that the point of tension that we will focus on Ruby on the inside of the elbow. And from there the fabric we'll have to wrap around the arm. Remember, the arm is a cylindrical object. It has volume, and in order to show that the creases will have to be slightly curved. The forearms fabric will have places that will point towards the elbow. So let me grab a different color and just start sketching the outline. One thing you should remember is that similar to hair, clothes are not glued to the skin. There should be a small or large. It depends distance between your clothes in the body. And that is why I left both the line of the arm and the shirts line visible, each one with its distinctive color. Now on to the next step where we will put some values on. Let me first copy paste the line art on the second model. So now on a separate layer, I will fill in this league with some random color. I also add some extra creases for more detail. Now it's time to select the areas that will be shaded with my lasso tool. I won't fully rendered this. It will be simple. Cell shading and lighting. Since it's a cylindrical shape, it's quite common to shape the outer parts of the arm without going to the end of the sleeves shape. And of course, we will have more shading around the tension point. Now finally, for the lighting, the lighting will be placed in the middle of the shape, since it's a cylinder, it's the closest to the light. Has the theorem highlight. It's a high place so the light hits it first. You can refine this a lot and add color and actual films to the shading and lighting. But I simply wanted to demonstrate what goes where. And speaking of leaves, what if they are in different positions. No worry. I got you. So let's move on to the final part of this lesson and get an overview of what points of tension will form on a monk sleep depending on the angle of the arm. Let's start with the top-right reference. We can see there's a tension point at the shoulder and another one down to wear, the shirt is stopped and the fence. Let's also look at the end of the sleep. Although the arm is almost fully rise and the fabric doesn't look to be heavy or flowy. It actually seems. This is a good thing to look after because it can change your perspective. Abandoned clothes that your character is wearing, a stiff fabric to bleed your thoughts towards a peasant wearing rough quotes, maybe old ones that have been watched over and over again. Keep in mind that clothes are telling the story about your character. That's about it for this lesson. Next, we will illustrate two different costumes for the same character and see how that changes our perception upon the character. There'll be two lessons for each outfit. One lesson for sketching and the other one for coloring. Take a break because the next lessons will be longer. Charge your iPads and I will see you on the next lesson. 4. Feminine Outfit Sketch: Welcome back guys. You might be familiar with this character if you are watching my character design series, we drew on the previous class on poses. So let's be smart and use previous drawings is basis for our new ones. In this case, she will become our modal. Okay, So as I mentioned before, the rest of this class, we'll be focused on outfits and how two different outfits can give a different impression of our character. For this outfit, I wanted to go for something feminine. And lately I've seen a lot of crop tops combined with high wasted skirts. I also have a soft spot for long skirt. They look silly, elegant, and feminine. So I will go for a long skirt. Now that I have an idea of what I want to draw, I will start sketching it on our character. Now remember that close will not be glued to the skin. There will be parts where the clothes will be really close to the skin and others where the fabric will sit more loosely. We remember from the previous lesson that around the shoulders we will have some tension points. And the same will happen for the armpit. We will draw a proper folds and creases around these areas. This shirt will be stopped in her skirt. So there'll be some braces in the abdominal area as well. Now for the long skirt, you might think that drawing glues clothes that cover the anatomy or an advantage. And maybe if on a shortcut. But if done properly, you will look at the artwork and feel how the legs are positioned underneath the fabric. The fabric doesn't hide them. The fabric should be highlighting everything that is beneath. So our character is stepping forward, which means that the skirt will flow backwards. In our case, that means to the left side, this will add movement to our close. Not only that, but since this current will be flowing backwards, it means it will be closer to the legs on the right side of our artwork. This gives us the opportunity to highlight the shape frayed by her legs. Thanks. Thanks for the loose holes on the left. If you don't know how to draw false like this, let me show you a beginner's kind of folds. You can essentially apply this to any thing that has lose votes. Okay, let's delete the line of the body because we are confident that our school speak for themselves. So we know that her leg is stepping forward. That means the fabric will gather between her knees, but also her right leg drags a big chunk of fabric in order to show that we will create some folds that follow along her leg. Now I'm a bit unhappy with the choice of shirt, so I will change it up a bit. I want something with a VNet, fine, and I want the t-shirt that will be short. Let's draw that. Thanks. Okay, Now this better, we can erase the body lines for good and start refining our liners. I will let you watch until the end. And I will see you on the next lesson where we will start coloring. Thanks. 5. Feminine Outfit Coloring: Okay guys, so we have the sketch for our feminine outfit. Now it's time to choose the colors. But before we do that, let me just fill in the colors for the skin and hair. I will let you watch the process because I believe that a refresher on how to do something is never bad. But if you are not interested and you want to skip, go ahead and watch from minute 12. I want to do this fast, so I will not spend time on doing the usual grayscale method. If you want to see that you can watch any of my older classes. I will get started on this and check back in soon. Okay, Now I'm back in. We have our model colored hope this short skin shading them or help you out too. Now let's see what colors to choose for our outfit. We want her to be elegant. So I instantly think around the idea of red and white. These colors would also go well with her hair color. And she would overall have a warm pallet. So let's start selecting and filling in the colors. Now that we are done with filling in the colors, the next thing I want to do is add the soft shading in some key areas, like towards the end of the skirt, on the right side of the legs, under the elastic belt, below her chest, and around the armpits. Now something that I see as a common mistake among beginner artist is using too much airbrush on their art. A good artwork has a combination between soft shadows and hard shadows. We already have our soft shadows, so it's time to create our hard ones. We can do that easily by selecting lung areas with our lasso tool and have the color fill option active. Choose the color to be slightly darker than the base shadow. In order to diversify your shadows, try to have a few of the heart shadow spilled in manually. So the activate your color fill option, select your shadow shape, close the selection, and then fill it in only partially. We'll give it a gradient, make it more transparent or even combined colors. And then look how good it looks. Now for the shirt, we want to intensify the shadows around the points of tension. But when it comes to white clothes, make sure you don't overshoot or over highlight. Also use a constant temperature for your shadows. If we use the warm color for the shade of the skirt and the skin, the same will happen to the shirt. You will not use black when shading white coats. Use a new color. In this case. The lighting, we will also go for some hard edges, create a new layer and set it to either Overlay Color dodge, or add and fill in with your desired color of light. Remember to be consistent with the temperature. If you use warm light on the skirt, do the same for the shirt. Also, if you want to mix it up, only mix it up with shading and lighting. That means you are allowed to use cold shading and warm lighting or worm shading and cold lighting. It's even recommended actually as it creates a big interests, but it also needs to make sense. In my case, I want the worm overall ballot in order to enhance the feminity. One last thing, the highlights. Lately I've been a fan of doing this really bright transition between light shapes and dark shapes. I will do this on an adult ear and then adjusted transparency as necessary. It's not the rim light to be extra bright. So that's why I want to tone it down a bit. Thanks. This is it. This is our first costume and I absolutely love it. It's feminine, It's flowy. It has movement in it. So let's mix things up and go for a less feminine outfit in our next lesson. See you there. 6. Comfy Outfit Sketch: Okay guys, we've finished our first outfit in the previous lesson. Now, I don't really have a clear idea for the second load with except the fact that I want it to be comfy and include pants. So I put up together a small mood board. I know I want the plans to be a bit too lose. Not only do I like how they look with the, with the idea of showing folds increases. If you guys liked this class, I can make a follow up class of barbecue basically with more different outfits. I would love it if you could let me know in the discussion or in the review section. I'm not sure if I will be using the first image. The colors look awesome together and I absolutely love this shirt. But I don t think the shirt could go with the parents from the bottom-right corner. But I will keep the reference even if for the colors of the outfit. I do like the black shirt though, and I feel like it's so well with those parents. I also liked the whole outfit on the left. But what I might take from it is the scarf idea. Okay, So now that we have, Let's start sketching. Now I have a rough sketch of what they want the audience to look like. You can see that I'm using this tarp just as I used to work in the first outfit, that one. And to make it look like she's moving forward, stays back. Now what I will do is minimize the opacity of the sketch and refine it. I will get the newest and we'll check back in with you guys. Thanks. Okay, so now we have our line art finished for this outfit. I want to use grayscale method and I hope you guys will tell me which coloring method helped you more. The Outfit. One method where I would just jump in with a coloring or outfit to wear, I create a grayscale and set the values before I choose the colors. For now, I will just select them. We can fill it in with a light gray and I will set some ambient occlusion. That means the basic shading that is not necessary. I would like first. Thanks. Shaping will almost always exist in those places. I do that on a separate layer and blend the shading again because I want it to be so we will do the hard edges shading In the next lesson, I will see you there. 7. Comfy Outfit Coloring: Welcome back guys to the final lesson. At the end of the previous lesson, we put down the grayscale base for this lesson and leave and turned it to a pink month. Turning it pink removes the possibility of getting muddy colors when you start adding them on Multiply or overlay layers. So let's create a new layer, set it to multiply and start selecting each clothing piece and see what colors would look best. I will use this reference for my main color inspiration. I will check back in with you guys after I finish choosing the colors. Okay, So we've finished putting in our base colors. You can see that using the gray scale method means that we already have some basic soft shading on the clothes. And now we need to pick a light source and enhance the shading accordingly. I want the light source to be on the left side of the character coming from above. So let's start putting down the shading on a separate multiply layer. Now we want to blend in the shading that we put down before we start creating the highlights. Also after blending the shadows, you will see that I will spend some time to change the color of my lungs. I always do that after I have the shading, figure it out because it makes the drawing look more cohesive, but more on that later. Now it's time to change the color of our lines. You can do this by selecting your line art layers, setting it to Alpha Lock and coloring above it. I will do just that and check back in snow. Now we are going to add the word highlights on a color dodge or overlay layer. Check out your reference and puts down some rough brushstrokes and then blend them in. Don't worry, if you don't like the color, you can always change it from the curves menu or the hue and saturation one. Thanks. Now that we have our relighting mapped out, it's time we reinforce the shading. Remember, contrast is essential in our course. When you feel like something is missing from your drawing, works on the contrast. Make your darks darker and your lights light there. This is a perfect opportunity to get them some hard shadows. So I will be using the selection tool and reinforce certain areas that should be darker due to the position or due to the quizzes. Thanks. Now this looks so much better. Reinforcing the shadows is always a good idea. Now for the final touches, I will try using some gradient maps to see if I can even has the look or not. This is pretty much it with the south tip guys. I really hope you like the class and I will see you on the next lesson to give you your project and some final words. 8. Outro: Congratulations for finalizing this fifth glass from the Character Design Crash Course. I'm so excited to be doing this series of classes and I hope you are loving it as well so far, I'm hoping to see many entries from you guys because no matter how many classes are tutorials you watch, whether they are free, you're not working on what you learn will get nowhere. If you watch this class until the end, I know that you are one of the people determined to learn and to get better results. Demonstrate that by publishing your project, you will get detailed feedback and you will also get featured on the next class. Your project is to draw two different outfits for the same character. Try to make them different and see how they impact the personality of your character. You can use some of the references attached in the resources section or find your own. Make sure you share your project in the project section. And I will offer you feedback. If you found this class useful in any way, I would love it if you followed me on Skillshare so you could get constant updates on my new classes. In-between the class of the series, I'm sometimes creating the short-term glass in a draw with me style. Also, please follow me on Instagram as well. It's where I share all of my R-squares three to five times a week. I'm trying to go for daily wheels depending on how much time I have for drawing and filming. On TikTok. I pulled two to three times every single day and I absolutely loved the community over there. I might start including shorter tutorials if it's something that you are interested in, the next class within the series will be about drawing a full illustration. We will put everything that we have learned so far in one seamless process and get the fully rendered illustration until next time. Feel free to watch my older classes for a refresh on previous learning points. Have a great day of great week and the grid drawing session. Bye guys.