How to Draw Fashion Sketch

It's a common misconception that fashion designers must be good artists. Especially with the internet as a resource, there are lots of creative shortcuts. Even the worst artist can learn how to draw clothes.

One of these design shortcuts is called a "croqui." A croqui is an outline of a naked person used by fashion designers to sketch their clothing ideas onto. There are croquis for essentially every type of human body: male models, female models, petite, plus-size, child, baby, etc.

The definition of croquis is French and means "lifesaver." Fashion croquis can literally save a wannabe designer when he or she doesn't have the drawing skills to keep up with the professionals. There are free croquis available with just a quick search on Google images.

If you want to turn your sketches up a notch, then there are special croquis to do that too. You can learn how to draw clothes in a more realistic way, using model croquis that show the lay and twist of the fabric and the human-like bends of the body. These are the same type of fashion sketches you would see in magazines, pinned up behind the actual sewn clothing sample.

Don't let an artistic hindrance deter you from following your dream to become a designer. When we started designing our own clothing line we lived and breathed croquis. We used them to practice drawing clothes, and we saw improvements in our sketches every day. Croquis saved us when we started designing clothes and they can save you too.

Have you ever wondered why learning to draw is believed to be difficult? Here's why... it's because everyone tells you so.

Those who can't draw tell you it's hard, those who can draw tell you it's hard, and, most of all, those who teach you to draw tell you it's hard.If you want to learn to draw you already hold the belief that you are going to have to put in a lot of work to learn, practice and master all the special techniques that "gifted" people get for free at birth.

So lets change that belief. Let's say you want to learn how to draw people... Now you could get a book on drawing people - study the anatomy of the human body, learn the general measurements of the head, where the eyes and ears are positioned relative to nose and mouth, how to divide the face up, where all the muscles lie and what happens to those muscles with expression change. You can learn about posture and balance, body proportions, movement, clothing,perspective, and so on, including special study of eyes, hands, feet, hair and other details.

And then there's the really difficult part - learning about shading technique and how to draw a portrait with likeness.

With all these instructions, it's not surprising anyone would give up trying to learn to draw people. But there is another way, an easier way, a quicker way - and that's by drawing cartoon people.

It's funny, but many instructions on drawing cartoon people begin by saying you should first understand drawing real people - but in my view it's better to work the other way round. Why? Because drawing cartoons is fun and easy, and because of this you are motivated and inspired to draw more and often - and the more you draw, the more you improve your observation skills and your drawing ability.