Fashion Illustration: Sketch and Design Clothes Into Your Own Body Shape with Procreate

1. Intro: Hello, I am Valeria and welcome to this class. Today we'll be sketching clothing into a human figure, croquis, made to our own body shape. As I sewist whether it's your job or your hobby as a fashion designer or simply for the pleasure of sketching fashion collections It is so important to try and sketch the garments as close as how they´ll look once they are sewn. It has happened to me that I sketch and plan and complete all my sewing only to end up with something that just doesn't look like my original sketch. And that's when I realized it was because I still drew these classical fashion illustration figures which are super elongated with completely different proportions to mine, that did not accurately represented how the design would look like in real life. And with me wearing it, so I thought since I am doing all this to create my own clothing I decided to also customize the sketching part of the process to fit me. Throughout this class, I'll show you how to draw a human body using a reference image How to read that image to adapt the key body parts to your figure template You'll then use these skills to create your own body figure using a different reference image and then customizing it to your liking. The same principles will apply to the clothing sketch part. With image references, we will draw the garments on the template, knowing how to place each key detail to adapt the proportions to our body shape. If you're afraid you're not good at drawing, do not fret. We will mostly work with references to refine your one template. So this is a very beginner friendly course. I'll be working with Procreate. But if you feel confident in any other digital drawing apps, by all means, use them. You can use the templates created in this class to hone your sketching skills and close the gap from idea to reality. Having a body template similar to your own proportions is key in really visualizing how the garment will look on you. Or you can also create templates for different clients or dear ones to ensure that what you are designing for them, is working on them without any surprises. Plus, having a template of your body or your clients will make the design process super friendly, easy, and effortless. Not to mention that you will have an authentic and unique template to kick-start your imagination withall that being said, my name is Valeria. I am a textile designer, very passionate about sewing my own clothing. And I also teach sewing classes here on Skillshare. So you too can create your own wardrobe. I am excited for this class, so let's get started. 2. Project and Tools: Thanks so much for joining me. For our class project, we will be creating a custom body template paired with two or as many as you'd like garments in proportion to the base figure. Once we learned how to create that template from reference images, it is even more fun to customize it to look like us. Then sketching Garments makes a fun start to planning our next sewing makes or mini fashion capsule. This way, we integrate the skills of learning proportion guided from image references and garment design into one fun project. At the end of the class, you'll have two body templates from different image references. One from an inspiration photo and another from your own body. A moodboard to help you draw your mini fashion collection of two garments and a fully dressed fashion figure with proportionate clothing. My suggestion for setting yourself up for success with your project is Don't be afraid to try new things, especially if you come from the elongated-slim-figure school like I do Try exercising with different body shapes from yours So you'll learn how to read different shapes and try using reference images in less dynamic poses. I have linkeda Pinterest board, down in the project section where I've pinned a bunch of useful poses for this class. Lastly, things to do before diving into the main lessons. Charge your tablet and smart pencil beforehand. So battery issues won't stop you from enjoying this class. Once you finish, your project share it below in the class project section, I would love to see what you create and what kind of fashion capsules you imaging. And if you're looking for feedback from other students or myself, that's the place to get it. All right, let's move on to the next lesson. 3. Lesson 1: The Traditional Proportion: Before we start sketching, I want to have a quick chat about the classic traditional fashion figure drawing, where most garments and fashion collections are designed and displayed First, what is a fashion croquis? Croquis means sketch in French. And this word is used in fashion and design when talking about a quick sketch of a fashion figure or a human body template, which works as a blank canvas for designing clothing. There are a few basic rules to follow to create this fashion figures But obviously they are adaptable as there are fashion illustrators and designers. Overall, the traditional fashion figure is measured in heads. This means that the length and width of the head is used as a guide for the proportions throughout the body. The traditional human figure is seven to eight headstall, but fashion illustration can go as far as nine headstall. Usually these additional head is lengthening the legs, creating a figure with super long legs and a shorter torso. This can also be understood with the rule of thirds, a standard of proportions for fashion illustration, where 1 third goes from the top of the head to the waist. The second third from the waist to the knees, and the last third from knees to soles of the feet. As you can see, two thirds of the body are the lower part and only 1 third is the upper torso and head. - For a female body, a heads width is used as a waist width. And two heads at their widest corresponds to both shoulder and hips width. Usually for the arms, the elbows match the waist, and the wrists match the hips and fingertips land in the middle of the tighs length. The female figure is also drawn with more curved, slimmer proportions and smaller hands and feet. Whereas the masculine figure is drawn with wider proportions, more angles and straight lines with larger hands and feet. As you can see, the shoulders and waist are measured with a head in a 90 degree angle to gain width. But the hips remain as straight heads width for a more pronounced triangle shape. Here are a few examples of these proportions to further understand how the human figure looks like with these standards. Of course, that these illustrations are conceptual art and are drawn to convey certain emotions or style choices. What I wanted to share with you in this class is the option to a more realistic approach of fashion templates of the human figure to sketch clothes in a more realistic way. You could sketch your garment with your body shape to ensure your idea Will translate correctly into real life and then have fun creating a conceptual and exaggerated fashion illustration. We gcan have both and they serve different purposes. I'll see you in our next lesson to talk about creating a new and customed proportion drawing. 4. Lesson 2: Creating a New Proportion: Once we understand the requirements of the traditional fashion figure, it becomes much more obvious why we need different approaches to drawing and why it is useful to also sketch designs with our custom body shape. If you look at a traditional fashion figure against my custom template, you can see that I am six and three-quarters heads tall. And we can also see that my waist, hips, and shoulders have different widths. For example, my shoulders and hips correspond to the two heads suggested by the traditional way of sketching. But my waist is not even close to being one head wide My elbows do match, my waist and my fingertips do land in the middle of my thighs. But everybody has unique proportions that we will actually explore doing these first exercise. Also in the rule of thirds If you remember, the waist should match my third and and my knees, the sixth head, which is not the case at all for my own body. So comparing the elongated design to the left, to my real proportions, the outfit looks completely different and is not something I would actually design or choose to wear for myself. So this is a great way to really see what silhouettes I would draw for my taste. Isn't it mind-blowing? How different designs are with different bodies and how important it is to have our own body template. Let's move to the next lesson to start our exercises. 5. Exercise 1: a) Drawing From Reference: Alright! We are ready to start the practical lessons of our course. The first exercise is drawing a human body from a reference photo. The purpose of this exercise is to draw a flat body sketch with the proportions of a real human body. We'll begin by searching for our reference images. You can create an image collection of bodies similar to yours or a collection of something completely different to yourself. From where to choose your final reference The main idea here is that you'll choose non dynamic poses. Try to avoid running, jumping, walking, or poses in three-quarters, and aim for more frontal, still photos. Try avoiding photos. With an angle too. If you are able to collect back Poses, that's great. If you can't find the back poses don't worry, I'll show you how to figure out the back proportion in a bit. So don't worry about that. You can search for poses on Pinterest magazines or search engines. I made a board which I linked below in the class project section with tons of useful poses. If you're struggling to find a Bpose or body shape to use I'll show you how to take yourself as a reference later on for the second exercise, choose one of your photos, the pose you like best And keep the rest within hands reach if you are using Procreate, let me show you first how I choose my Canvas settings by clicking the plus icon displayed in the upper right side corner. Procreate gives you a few default options, but I wanted to show you a custom setting, especially for the canvas resolution. In the dimensions tab, you can choose from pixels, inches or centimeters. I am creating a horizontal US letter canvas. So I want it to be 11 inches wide and 8.5 inches tall. I highly suggest to have your resolution at 300 DPI and not less in case you want to print your body template to sketch with a pencil without Procreate, like in real life. less resolution than 300 will be very pixelated Remember, you can always make your canvas smaller, but making it bigger without losing resolution is very hard. Also, pay attention to the maximum layers offered with your selected size and resolution. In my case, I tend to work with lots of layers, so I can edit easily. Most times I have one layer for the body, another for details, and another four drafts and so on. So my tip is to try and choose sizes and resolutions that give you at least 10 or 12 layers to work with. I selected I horizontal US letter canvas size So I can have a front template on my left and the back template to the right. We can start by importing our reference photo, clicking on this tool icon, selecting the add tab, and then clicking on the Insert Image option. From my image collection I chose this one, as I said a moment ago, placing it to the left and scaling it with my fingers to my liking. I diselect by clicking on the pointer icon right here. Now, another tip is to name all of your layers. I like doing so to have a better organization of my workflow. I named this, inserted image reference, I lowered its opacity to retrace the silhouette easily and blocked the layer so I don't move it around accidentally. I'll be working on a new layer named front draft because it is a front view of the body and not the final template. All right, We are ready to trace the silhouette. I am using the 6 B pencil brush to capture that rough draft style and differentiate it from the final template. With this, we are ready to trace. The main instruction here is tracing everything without changing anything, not taking any creative liberties just yet, we want to capture the shape just as it is. Hands are always a bit tricky. My tip is to really zoom in and to end the fingertips in a more squared shape. Rather than pointy. I feel this gives it a more natural look, but it's just a personal style point. For now, just trace what you see, do not complete or imagine any of the lines, we will complete and figure out how they+ silhouette is behind hair and clothing later on. This is also why I asked you to choose Frontal poses with little to no movement. So the compleating and creation of the silhouette is easier. A quick reminder that in procreate, a tap with three fingers is to redo the last step, and a tap with two fingers to undo it. For the feet, I don't want her to perpetually wear sneakers. So this is where we'll start to use our imagination. I always guide my feet by positioning the metatarsus first. That is the part that connects the ankle to the toes. And from a frontal perspective, it has the shape of a long trapeze. I then do little semicircle waves from one end to the other, finishing with a big big toe. At the end, the toes are much wider than the ankle. For the other foot, I just follow the silhouette and make up a big toe. The pinky toe, for example, can't even be seen because of the perspective. So I just left it out and make the foot a tad smaller than the sneaker because shoes obviously add volume to the actual shape of foot. And lastly the head and face. The face doesn't need to be perfect. We will add more detail at a later stage. With that, by removing the reference image, we have a rough draft of the body silhouette to continue working with. Now, before moving forward to adding details and customizing the template, Let's review the proportions of what we're trying to do against the traditional fashion proportion rules. Here hips are a tad wider than her shoulders. But, they are pretty much of the same width. Let's see how tall she's in heads proportion. Remember we learned earlier that the traditional fashion illustration can go up to nine heads in length? Let's see what a real body would measure Starting from the chin because that would be the first head. She has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and about a quarter heads versus the traditional nine heads from a fashion figure template. I also want to check the Thirds rule. I'm just eyeballing here where the first third would end. And then copying and pasting the same orange arrow to complete the other two-thirds. Her first third, is indeed close to the waist, just like the traditional fashion body proportion, but not the landing exactly at the third head. And the same for her legs length her second third lands at her knees So, pretty accurate proportions suggested by the traditional fashion sketch, at least in this body. Because with me, for example, I am not that tall. Same exercise can be done for the proportions with the heads width as a shoulder and waist width. In this case, it would look something like this. We'll review the same proportions in other different examples. But so far, can you notice why it is so important to sketch to our own proportions? Nothing like doing everything custom to our body. Now, let's move on to adding details in the next lesson. 6. Exercise 1: b) Adding Details: Once we complete our rough sketch of the body template, we're going to add color and details. We want to keep our drawing as two-dimensional, and simple as we can. We're adding details particular to the model and important to the body shape, such as bellybutton, her tummy, her chest, and any other details specific to this unique body you are drawing For this, let's start by adding a new layer and name it front template I'll select a skin tone and change my brush to the studio pen for a less fuzzy line. Start retracing the body shape in your new layer. Try to do continuous strokes. Here for example, I changed a bit of the armpit curve to have an easier transition into the breast tissue. Try to stay true to your draft and not eliminate any of the curves. That's what makes your template even more unique and yours. Now, one of the most significant things I add to my templates are visual aids and details for important body points, especially to fit garments into our desired proportions. From head the toes, the first point are our shoulders, which are pretty self-explanatory and obvious to find. Another important body point would be the apex point, which is the most prominent point of the breast tissue, most commonly represented by the nipples followed by the waist, which in some cases is the narrowest circumference of the torso. and it usually matches the elbow crease. Then the hips and the crotch. I like marking both independently because hips are usually the widest part of the bottoms circumference, but the crotch is useful to fit trousers depending on the style. Hips and crotch could land at the same spot, but they could also be independent, just like in this case. I also like to point out the wrists which in this case match the hips. But that's not always the case. Then the knees. And lastly, the ankles. To indicate these body points, you have two options. Either create lines like these on a separate layer and use them as guides or do something a little more subtle and much more interesting, like accentuating those body points within the body with another color. For example, shoulders can be indicated with the clavicles too, the bust circumference with the nipples, the waist, with these tiny elbow crease lines. And the knees with subtle lines indicating them. For the ankles, I like drawing the bones on either side. So in a less obvious way, we now have the same body points to guide our garments proportions. We will continue by adding details such as face, hair or other customization, each on a new layer. I am starting with the face in a new layer named front template, face. For me, noses are always just one line on one side and a tiny wavy line below to make the nostrils. My eyebrows are usually wider at the inner edge and slimmer as they get closer to the ears. But you could choose to draw a face completely different to mine. I like to do the eyes in a more natural way when I cover this circle with a horizontal line resembling the eyelids. So that's a cool ti You can do your faces. And for me a colored lip is almost mandatory. I just love how it looks, but you could also skip it. I also changed the mouth to make it a bit smaller because the original reference, she was showing her teeth. And for my template I want her with a more relaxed mouth. To finalize we will add the skin color. Make sure all your lines are closed so you don't spill paint all over when filling the shape with color. By selecting a shade lighter than the first one you used for the outline to keep all your details visible Drag the color to your silhouette and fill it in. This template is just missing hair and we'll be all set. To trace her hair I am adding a new layer and following the hairline of the original image reference and close the outline following her shoulders. Fill it with color and her hair is done! At the end, I have different layers for all details One for the face and other for the hair, and then the main one with the skin tone. I wanted to make her even more costume by adding a tattoo on her arm with tiny curves. And what I'm trying to draw as a rose, I create her tattoo Thank goodness I am not a tattoo artist but you get the idea. This is where you get to play around and make the template look like you or your customers or your dear ones. By adding different hairstyles, lipsticks, earrings, piercings, prosthetics, scars or anything that makes the template similar to the person that inspired it. I want to show you some other examples with different image references and body shapes. I think this image is great because the pose is very easy to trace. And the fact that she's wearing sportswear leaves little room for interpretation of the body underneath the clothing. So copying is almost effortless. Also. I loved that her chest is smaller than the, than the lower portion of her torso. Usually larger sizes are represented or drawn as having bigger breasts when that's not always the case. So she's a great example of the variety of bodies out there. I just trace this image with pencil as we learned before, adding details like belly button and knees outlined with color on a different layer and fill in with another shade. Then adding details of her face and hair. Resulting in something like this. Same skills applied to a totally different body and still useful to sketch clothing with her particular proportions due to the frontal static pose. Here's another example with very different proportions to the two previous ones. But here the interesting thing is the proportions within itself. Here, shoulders are much more broad than her hips. And she's eight headstall within her own proportion. So she's super, super tall. Her head's width is indeed her hips but not her waist width. Actually, she would have to be super tiny and she's already pretty slim. So again, lots more reasons to why sketching into realistic proportions is key to fashion design. I'll meet you at the next lesson to create the back view of this finished body template. 7. Exercise 2: a) Creating a Back View: In order to create the back view, we need to duplicate the front template, tap the front template layer, and by swiping left, select the Copy option. Untick all details. Drag they copy to the right side of the canvas. Now, to truly make it a back view, I am mirroring the copy template. So the arm resting at the hips is the right arm on both views. To keep my workflow organized, let's change the name of this layer to back draft. Again with black color and B6 pencil . Let's retrace the shape to create the back view Since we don't have a chin in our backside, the nape comes a bit higher. The rest of the silhouette is the same. Just taking into account that what is visible from the front side won't be visible from the back side. Like the hands for example So here the legs cover the hands because if they are visible from the right side, then you wouldn't see them from this view. And the Elbow takes a rounder shape right below the front elbow crease marking. Even though not all of us have visible shoulder blades I am adding them here just to show you their position, which is at the same height as the nipples, but a bit closer to the center of the back. Copy everything exactly as it is from the original silhouette. Just make up how it would look like from the back. For example, this hand, it would only have the thumb visible from the back. The arm crease feels a little off. Maybe from the back view, it wouldn't be visible. Yeah, much better. Makes more sense without it. Lastly, for the legs, I am tracing everything as it is going as far as the ankles because we need to create the back view of the heel, which traditionally is just a rounded trapeze. But I'm adding these tiny curve coming from the heel to the ankle bone creating an angled view of the foot. Same goes to the other side. Copy the ankle bones at the same height, and add the heel plus an angled foot. You could just leave the heel, but that looks a bit odd for me, so I don't like it. So I rather have the angled foot. It's a bit of a struggle to get it to look right. But I always try to imagine the components of feet, which are like a rounded heel, right at the back then the trapeze, and then the toes. This way I can ensure that I am creating a correct angle for the foot. It's a bit of a struggle to get it to look right, but zooming in and out always helps to see the bigger picture and to ensure the food corresponds to the rest of the body. The buttocks come right at the start of the crotch, careful not to reach the outer side of the legs And we just extend the leg line a bit higher near the hips line at the center to create the buttocks. All right, To sum up the back view, it's just the same as a front view with the key differences of adding shoulder blades at the apex point sitting closer together, adding buttocks from the crotch area, drawing heels instead of feet. And carefully hiding from these view anything that overlaps in the front, like the hands in this case, I'm going to erase the copy of the front template and add another layer named back template to refine my lines and add color to get another final template. Just like the one for the front view. A cool tip to paint the back view in the exact same colors as the front view, is to click, hold and drag towards the color you are trying to copy. In this case, the darker shade for all outlines, and select the same brush to start tracing. In my case, that is this studio pen. This will make all your templates look cohesive. Trace a silhouette, following the pencil lines and check the outline is closed so you don't spill paint all over just like I did. Fill in the template with the same shade as a front view. The final touch is adding the hair and matching her tattoo to the back So in another layer I drew them both and we end up with a US letter canvas with a front and back view of the same body shape. When I zoom in, it doesn't pixelate thanks to the 300 DPI resolution, we set at first, and we are finished with this first exercise. Follow me for the next lesson to learn how to translate the body shape when clothing is on the way. Contrary to this exercise, we just finished where her body shape was very easy to follow because of her clothing. Sometimes the body model will have baggy clothing or hair something that stops us from seeing the body underneath. So we'll learn how to complete the body shape this time with a male body template. See you there. 8. Exercise 3: a) Male Templates: For this new exercise, we start off the same way with a horizontal canvas US letter size and 300 dots per inch resolution. Inserting our front view reference image to the left, lowering the opacity and blocking the layer. And remember to work with a new layer each time, one for the draft and other for the final template and another for the details. We start tracing the model only this time with more angled, less curvy, sharper edges. Look here, I do completely straight lines, contrary to the neck and shoulder version we did for the female body. This is traditional for the male figure But there's nothing stopping us from also drawing it curvier. It's just a matter of style and preference. Since he's wearing a sweatshirt, it's up to us to imagine his body shape. So I am drawing his arm, for example, following his wrist, and not so much the garment. You can see from the fabric creases that his arm is not filling that part of the garment. So most probably his arm ends about here. I'll add the elbow crease, right in the middle of the arm's length. Same goes for the other arm. The wrist is making this sharp curve, but I know that's just this sweatshirt fabric. So that is what indicates to me how to draw his arm underneath this sweatshirt in a more straight line from hand to wirst to forearm. Legs are pretty straightforward due to the leggings, but I still draw the shapes in more angled sharp edges. Again, drawing as far as the ankles. Remember how we previously drew feet The big toe is on the inside of the foot and the pinky toe on the outer edge. We fill in with the rest of the toes. Then connect ankles to the toes with a trapeze with straight lines. Same for the other foot. Finishing with his head and face, including details like his hairline and beard. You can notice that I draw him with strokes, much more straight and rough. But again, that's just style points. And you can draw all human shapes in curvier lines or straight, whichever feels more like your own style. With our draft ready, we can review proportions like we did before. Remember the traditional fashion figures can be even nine headstall. First. Just as a traditional fashion figures suggests, two heads lengthwise create his shoulders width. But the supposed length wise heads for the waist circumference falls a bit short for his real proportions. So yeah, surely fashion illustration is an art and much more conceptual than it is life-like. But I find so much solace in drawing with real life for proportions. I truly think that seeing visual representation of bodies like mine, helps me in creating better clothing. Not always that elongated figure to flatter the garments. So this body shape is about 6.5 heads tall, and this only makes it even more obvious why creating customed body templates is so useful to sketch clothing. Moving on to finishing this other body template, Let's add a new layer and name it front template to refine the outline with the studio pen and a skin tone. Following what we've learned earlier, I wanted to point out certain key points of this body. So for the wrists, for example, I'll draw a little dip right here and continue tracing all the outlines. Same, marking the key points at knees, ankles, feet, and inner crease of the elbow. Finishing the template silhouette by tracing the head with the face and its details. Now, to create the remaining details, we'll start with the crotch. For that, I like using the forearms as guide. So right in the middle between wrist and elbow, I'll draw a line across the body. And from that height, starting from the edge of the body, draw a curved line towards the crotch. It comes out straight from the reference line. And then with a slight curve comes right down, straight towards the crotch. The same for the other side to make it as symmetrical as possible. Then for the chest, you can create two horizontal lines coming out from the edge of the upper torso close to where the chest and arm starts to separate. Right here. I sometimes like doing an additional vertical line right in the middle to finish the chest. And of course adding the nipples. I draw the belly button close to the line between the elbow and the wrist. Now quickly rewinding to the chest, these lines makes for a more muscular type of body. We could remove those lines and just leave in the nipples And these subtle change in lines, also changes the body type. So it depends on which direction you are going. I'll just draw the vertical line because it feels it goes well with the rest of his body details. Add the finishing touches, such as face, facial hair and hair style on a different layer named front template details and see your body template to come to life. Now, we are ready to fill with color Our second body template. This male body template has the same body points as the previous one. The shoulders, the apex point at the chest, waist matching elbows. The hips. The crotch. wrists, knees and ankles, softly indicated. For the back view template, same skills apply. Duplicate the body template draft to the right side of the canvas. In this particular case, because we totally get the drill on tracing and the pose is super symmetrical and static. I believe we can manage to create the back view directly into this copy template. We just need to paint over the details with the same skin tone to make them disappear. And instead, draw the back view details such as the back of the elbows, the shoulder blades, the nape, at the back of the neck. And create the buttocks. All these with the help of the color picker to go back and forth between the two shades for the skin outline and filling. As per last time, the heels are just the trapeze shape. Another inverted curve, kind of like a trapeze to create the illusion of a foot in perspective. And now you are done. This is your front and back view of a different kind of body template. A more angular and sharp outline that could work for a more masculine template or as an overall style for all bodies. You choose. Let's move to the next exercise where we will learn how to take ourselves as the image reference to create our body templates. The previous exercises are ideal to learn how to translate reference images into fashion templates. Sometimes you'll work or create clothing for a client or a dear one. So knowing how to sketch for different bodies, how to read body proportions, and how to make up bodies underneath clothing Or hair, is super useful because we are not always creating, designing, and sketching clothing for ourselves. 9. Exercise 4: Reference Yourself: All right, for this exercise, we will use ourselves as the image reference. The first step is taking some pictures. You can do it with your cell phone's camera timer or ask somebody for help. The main thing here is to pose simply. with the camera straight in front of you and no angles, pose with a two-dimensional kind of pose. Notice my legs are open at hips width and my arms are straight down. A cool tip here is to breathe in and out to create a natural pose for our bodies. Sometimes we stand still, suck our tummy in for example, which will create an altered version of our body. And we want it just as it is to truly sketch out clothing in a realistic way. This is also a great opportunity to have a back reference and a side reference of the same body. So take those pictures too, along with the frontal one. Back in Procreate, my canvas is as always a horizontal US letter size with 300 DPIs for good resolution. I insert my reference image, front view to the left side. Dim the opacity and with my black 6B pencil i'll retrace into a new layer. Just like we've been doing all along. I tried wearing fitted clothes such as leggings to make my tracing easier and having to imagine less of what's beneath the clothing. I suggest you do the same. So try avoiding baggy clothes. This clothed option for our reference image is also ideal to ask for to clients or family. Even if they are fully clothed, even with baggy garments you'll know how to work it out thanks to the previous exercises. To draw my leg, for instance, I'll just do straight. I'll just do it straight because these extra fabric here is from the garment, not my ankle. We simply work as we've done with the previous exercises and examples. Tracing every step into a new layer. First, the pencil sketch Remembering to trace every curve, every crease and every detail of this unique body. Then the color outline, while we have the other details such as the knee bones, the apex point, or inner crease of the elbow for example. For my own template, I added into another layer an underwear set, Still marking my important body points such as apex point, right were all bra seems join. And my tummy with a different color in the underwear. This is also a cute and still useful option to further customize your templates. I'll finish the remaining details with color and have my finished front view. The very cool part about taking yourself as your own image reference is that you can have, in the same canvas, all your different angles. Additionally, there is no need to duplicate the front view and figure out the back. You can simply trace it quicker with your own back image reference. I am repeating the whole process with my back view on the right side of the Canvas. Look at how easy it is to trace the foot. So just self-referencing is just the best. Particularly for my back, I want to add my back creases instead of the shoulder blades. Stuff like this is of the utmost importance when drafting and designing. For instance, if I wanted to sew a dress for myself I know that I won't like a lower cut back. So I know I have to draft it with a different or higher back to fit my preferences. Or even adopt the design for me to be comfortable wearing it. Such as adding a bow or maybe a mesh panel to cover that area a little bit more. I will continue to finish the back. Adding the underwear and filling with color. The last bit of this lesson and certainly the best is the third and final template for this Canvas. Side views are not the easiest to come around when looking for reference photos, but when referencing yourself It's almost a must-have to take one. An interesting thing about side profiles is to draw them in angles. The neck and back are never in a straight line, the body kind of swings in a diagonal back and forth. This is a key thing to keep in mind when tracing, while having clothing or hair on the way. Try to create these diagonals and your template will have a more natural look. An important thing to consider when tracing side views is the position of the arm and shoulder. I like leaving blank spaces between them to avoid the arm from looking like an overlaid limb. Another counter-intuitive tip is to start the back of the arm separate from the back. Regularly, arms don't start like right into the back. So this will give you a more natural look. Trace your references as always, to complete your template trio. Side views are also great to design clothing, Taking the glutes into consideration. This allows you to perfectly see where do you wish for a skirt to land. For example. I am just drawing one leg to keep a more two-dimensional template. So let's forget about the left leg at the back. Another important thing here is the apex point and breast tissue. Because I am wearing a fitted t-shirt, the outline is continuous, but usually the chest separates a bit from the torso, something like this. So I wanted to create that separation by slightly dipping in the torso without changing any of the volume from the chest or the tummy. This way, the body looks more natural and it is useful to notice the important points from where to draft and sketch clothing into it. Finish by coloring, as you already know. Adding details and my personal tip for you, create a hairstyle that is easy to work with, like a high bun, keeping the side shoulder visible Will make the sketching of clothing much easier. Here I just copied the hairline from the reference because imagining side profiles for me is even more challenging than front or backs. With these three, you have a complete body template with real proportions to sketch fashion designs into, and a bunch of skills to use for different image reference to create diverse templates. Let's move to the next lesson and start designing and translating clothing into our freshly made templates. 10. Exercise 5: Sketching Clothes: Alrighty! for our last practical exercise We will design, translate, sketch, draw, whatever you call it, the clothes into our templates, particularly focusing on matching proportions between the two. The first step is creating a mood board of clothing. Here you could have two options. One is gathering inspiration to design new clothes from your beautiful imagination. The second option is collecting images from home sewing patterns already in existence for us to translate them into your body template. I added a moodboard template down and the class resources if you wish to create a full inspo Moodboard with silhouettes and fabrics. Or you can do a Pinterest board or a file in your computer with downloaded photos. Whichever you choose, just make sure you can share with us a photo in your class project so we can see how you translated the inspiration into your template. Once you have the moodboard template I provided ready in your procreate canvas, Let's insert all the photos needed for our inspiration moodboard. The text is only to give you a few ideas of what you could add or look for, but you can choose different things to include in your moodboard. Just remember to draw and add everything on an additional layer separate from the moodboard template. My moodboard is for a two-piece outfit consisting of a pair of Olive Sailor pants. With a contrasting light brown wooden button with its matching black turtleneck. By hiding the template, you get a much more neat moodboard to use as a reference for your clothing sketch. I gathered the inspiration photos with particular details like the length I am interested in for the pants and the shirt sleeves, the type of fabric I want, and the color. So when gathering your own inspiration, search for these kind of details that you wish to have in your finished garment and moodboard. As a personal tip and preference, I like adding my own handwriting by writing the style of the garments presented, also, creating a tiny technical drawing to specify certain aspects and some notes for me to remember what I want and why I added certain images. Like the fact I don't want pockets or that I will have a button closure instead of a classic zipper. Same for the turtleneck T-Shirt. If you can find the technical drawing from the home sewing pattern you'll be doing, That's great to add here too. As soon as you have your moodboard ready, we can sketch the clothing into the body templates. To do that, we need to analyze and understand the garment we are about to sketch. My sailor pants are high wasted, the crotch depth is long and the pants fall straight down from the hips. We don't have pockets. We can see the top button and the belt carriers and the pants end right at the ankle. So, right here I need to ask myself, what features will I add to my sketch. Which features do I want to keep when actually sewing and wearing the garment I made for myself? For instance, the I want buttons are a zipper? In my case, I absolutely want the buttons to practice my buttonhole skills when sewing at my machine. Another question could be, is that length good for me or am I happier wearing something longer? In my case, that ankle length is great. Shorter would actually bother me. With all that analyses, we are ready to start sketching the garment into our custom template. All right, so the high waisted sailor pants start right at the narrowest part of my torso, which is also where the inner crease of the elbow is drawn. Next, dp the waist band and the button at the center, matching the belly button. Pants will end right at my ankles. So I draw these first so the straight lines are easier for me to follow. With the outline ready. We can add details like the button fly seam and then filling with the inspiration color, in my case, the olive green and the brown button. Notice how different the design looks if I were to design the pants shorter, like the reference image to your right, different to the ones I selected from my mood board. I like the longer version much more for my own proportions and preferences. You see how important it is to sketch into your own body. These details wouldn't be as obvious if I were designing with another template other than mine, or even less obvious with a traditional elongated fashion template. Same skills apply for the turtleneck. A regular t-shirt would have the neck opening about here. And I want it a bit higher and narrower with that tiny and short turtle neck. For the sleeves, I selected this reference image. I really like this longer sleeves that still lands before the elbow. I am not a huge fan of shorter leaves like the like the white one to the right. I am designing mine to be between.. a tad longer without reaching the elbow. So when looking for inspiration and translating that to the sketch, it is important to ask yourself, How do I like wearing my clothes? Would I be comfortable with X length or Y detail? Customize your design as much as you are customizing your template. And a quick tip is having a lighter outline for black garments. This is key, to be able to define the clothes instead of creating just a massive black blob. I move the turtleneck layer under the pants So it looks like it's tucked in which is exactly how I would wear it. This first clothing design was fairly simple. So to put the back view in good Use, let me show you another example of a dress with a detailed back. In this case designing for myself, I know that having an open back, even if it looks gorgeous here, won't be comfortable for me. So I need to alter the design a bit to fit my needs. On a side view, the back would fall almost to the waist. This is where I can take all the creative liberties to create something I would love to wear I'm thinking of simply drawing a higher back and still keep the delicate and narrow shoulder straps with a ruffle. Still cute, without the low cut back. I am a huge fan of the side view to further understand what am I designing, for instance, Because I don't feel too comfortable with fitted garments, particularly in the tummy area I use side views to design and keep in mind that I rather have a more flowy bottom and that I love a good'ol cinched waist in my designs. In all template views, adapting and translating silhouettes to our preferences and needs It's super simple If you've guide your sketch with the key body points, like the knees or elbow crease. And by reading the garments, translating the proportions of the inspiration into your own. Let's move to the next lesson to learn all about adding proportionate prints to our garments. See you there. 11. Exercise 6: Adding Prints : For this exercise, I want to show you how I design a dress by doing a mashup of different details. I want to draw inspiration from different images to define a silhouette, a print, a color palette, and added details. This is also a great opportunity to show you how to translate a print into a dress with the right proportions what I would take into account to achieve this, and how to draw said print into the dress almost seamlessly. I chose this dress because the sleeve comes out in a very innovative way, It's not the classical arm hole. It's some sort of ranglan sleeve gathered into the bodice which will be fun to draw. The wrap dress comes down under the apex point, which is a good reference to analyze from the beginning. And I wanted to modify the skirt to add an extra ruffle tier to give more volume to the dress As shown in this detail from the orange dress. In this new mooodboard I was able to find the technical drawing from the sewing pattern, instead of me drawing it from scratch. At the lower left corner, I added the inspo for my pattern and color palette. So let's start sketching! an awesome hack I can show you to follow the inspiration for this sketch is swipe up to make the latest apps in use pop-up, tap on the app where you saved your image reference and drag it towards the right side, dropping it to have two apps on screen. This is a great time saver, so you don't have to be coming back and forth in different apps to reference your sketching. I am starting my sketch with a pale blue color, similar to the reference photo. I will show you how I change the color of the dress to the selected palette from the moodboard later on. Landing the neckline took me a couple of tries. I wanted to achieve a wider cleavage, like in the reference image. As you can see, it lands lower than the bust apex and starts a bit further from the neck towards the shoulders. I add the waist of the dress, matching the waist of the body template. Then continue with the sleeve starting from the sleeve opening, because I see it is much wider and kind of asymmetrical, like longer from the inside edge and shorter on the exterior edge. It looks funky this way, I'll start again and tried to give it more flow and texture to it by adding creases. So it looks like it's, it has even more fabric, like a really, really wide sleeve and more like the reference photo too. Both sleeves fall straight from the shoulder and become more open as the lines approach to the wrists. I think this is a pretty accurate and proportionate translation of the reference image to the sketch. I can see the dress from the reference photo ends right below the knee. But, for my proportions and preferences, I want this dress to be longer, so I'll trace the hemline a bit lower from the knee, leaving space for the additional ruffled tier. I am making an obvious leg slit at the right and add creases to give the effect of a super flowy light fabric dress. Then adding the remaining details to the silhouette, like the bow and the gathered creases at the sleeve seam. Regarding proportions, in the skirt length, For instance, I know from experience that I like my dresses above the knee or almost to my ankles, knee height rarely works for my preference. So right there, I knew how to sketch and translate the reference photo to fit me. I'll fill it in with a darker shade so the, so the outline stays lighter and color the inside of the sleeves with a much darker shade to showcase This is the inside of the dress, which gets no direct light and adds more depth. Repeat for the backside. Keeping in mind to match the details from the front view, such as corresponding view of the sleeve, In this particular address the sleeve opening from the inside isn't visible from the back view. Also matching the modified skirt length to the front view sketch. And adding details like the diagonal seams, which I am guessing are part of the wrap front piece of the body. And filling with color. For the side view, a bit more imagination is always needed because side profiles are not as usual to find. I draw the sleeve like the front view tp showcase the light and flowy quality of the fabric. And I am thinking of tracing the sleeve close to the arm for the same reasons, But it doesn't look right. So I'll stick with this straight fall from the shoulder. This is the kind of compromises or changes of heart You can have while drafting. The neckline proved to be a lot more complicated from this perspective, mostly because of this line here to create the shoulder. But at the end of the day, the open cleavage wouldn't even be visible from this profile. So, this looks correct. At the skirt, because of the fall, I'm trying to give the fabric I think the fabric would fall closer to the body, just like this. I'll finish this side view by coloring the same darker shade of blue as the first two views. Because the hair of the back view was in the way and I don't want to cover any of the clothing sketch, I decided to change her hairstyle into another high bun, like with the side profile. This hairstyle has really proven to be the ideal choice for the back too, huh? I almost always leave them bald for my sketches, but for the class, these looks much more detailed and cohesive with the rest. Looking at the whole canvas, all templates have the wrapping belt landing at the waist. The sleeve openings starting at the same point and the hemline finishing at the same length. Having cohesive and matching templates makes for a successful garment. And more realistic because in real life the garment lands in the same spots around the body. Lastly, let's add the print to the fabric and change the color to the previously selected color palette. To get the final dress looking like the moodboard. Again. Dragging the app where the reference is to the right side of the screen, And in a new layer with a different color than the dress, we'll start drawing a motif of the overall print. Now you may ask, how to know how big or small should I draw the motif? In this case, I noticed one thing to help me keep the proportions right. And that is the model's hand. If you look closely, her hand is covering almost one entire flower, excluding its stem. So, my Drawn Flower should be roughly the same size as the body's template hand. Always try finding details to use as a reference for the print proportion. It could be a pocket, the model's head, or hand, the overall length of trousers. So you know how to translate and fit the print into your sketch. You can also draw inspiration to filling the print from the reference itself. Look how this seam right here interrupts one flower, leaving only the stem. You could replicate that throughout the sketch to create an illusion of a real print that hides under the seams. See the difference it makes when doing prints these way. Drawing on top of seams looks less real and much more overlaid. Whereas interrupting the print as the seams appear creates a realistic look. Another amazing tip to make patterns look great in sketch is not been afraid of edges and using the layers in your favor. Here's how. Arrange the print that layer to be directly on top of the dress silhouette layer. Then tap on the dress layer to make this list of options pop-up and tap on Select, you know, you're on the right track If you see this selection, button highlighted and a subtle texture of lines covering everything except the layer you selected, which in this case is the blue dress layer. Now, tap on the floral print layer and draw something. See how the print is only being drawn inside of the selected layer. This is my favorite tool to create more dynamic prints that really look like they are going around the body, not just static at the front, like blatantly avoiding the edges. To end this selection, you just need to tap the highlighted selection button. And now you have a floral print on an independent layer from the dress silhouette. I'll just go ahead and finish the rest of the print, making sure that I am drawing on top of the floral print layer to avoid any confusion with the blue silhouette. To finish our address sketch, we just needs to match the color to the ones selected at the moodboard. Remember that just by dragging the color into the desired area, it will fill in. What I love about this, is that the outline also changed the color to a lighter shade of the same olive green. For the print, We will also drag and drop the color, but thankfully, we don't need to do it one by one. If you drag and slide before lifting your pen from the surface, you'll get a coloring threshold bar at the top of your canvas. The higher the percentage, the more it covers with the new color. So you change the overall print at once. You've got the silhouette, the print, and the color palette covered, the only thing remaining, that I was actually forgetting about is the additional ruffled tier detail. So I will just add it to the bottom hemline in the dress silhouette layer. I went ahead and finished the remaining body templates in the same color palette, print size, and added the bottom tier. And now I have my wrap dress sketch complete. I also added a bit more detail to my body template, adding texture to the hair, rosy cheeks, and changing lip color so my makeup matches my dress. So this is my completely finished dressed body template. To share your template to upload it to this class project section, you just need to go to the tool icon, select the Share button, and save as a JPEG. You can save it to your device by selecting Save image or save it to your Drive, e-mail or AirDrop, searching for your preferred app at the carrousel on top. This is my finished canvas with my three custom body templates. I'll see you at the next lesson to chat about our class project. 12. Class Project: All right, you completed all the lessons, so you are now ready to finish your class project. This is where you take one of the templates you created, It could be either the template from your selfie reference or themodel reference image And you color it and customize it. Plus, you create your mood board for a mini capsule wardrobe of two garments or more, If you want, and draw those garments onto your body template, making sure the proportions are true from the reference sketch. And we want to see your process!. So uploading your project with the first draft, customization, moodboard inspiration, and finished dressed body is great to see how you developed the skills and put together all the parts to create a whole. Also, if you enjoyed the class It would be great for me to know, your reviews help me tons in creating my classes, and they also make them easier to find for other students. If you need help with a particular question or something about the class wasn't clear enough, please let me know so I can help you. 13. Final Thoughts: Thanks so much for watching and for learning with me. I hope these skills are useful for your fashion design journey as they have been for mine. Making everything our own is truly the heart of creating. Again, my name is Valeria, and you can learn more about designing with me here on Skillshare, or follow along on my latest shenanigans at my socials. Thanks for being here. See you soon :)