Have you ever wondered how I draw a fashion figure? You’re not the only one. This post was a reader request – thanks Eliza! My technique is not original – it is based on studying texts and the instruction I received in university. I like to recommend books by Bina Abling and Steven Stipelman for aspiring fashion illustrators – be aware, not all fashion illustration texts are of equal quality.

Now, I have done this so many times it is second nature, so I rarely create a draft this formal anymore, and my sketches are now much looser and more enigmatic. However, for clarity I’ve broken it down into 10 steps. If you can follow instructions, you too can draw a fashion figure. Grab three (or more) sheets of translucent layout paper or tracing paper, a pencil and whatever other art materials you’ve got on hand, and you’re ready to go.

1. Center Line. Start by drawing a straight line from the top of your sheet of paper to the bottom. You can use a ruler or go freehand if you like. Mark roughly where you want the top and bottom of your figure. Divide this segment into eight equal sections with small marks. I’ll refer to these marks in this post – for clarity, mark 1 is at the top.

2. Head and Attitude. Most fashion figures are 8-10 heads high. Mine tend to be around 8.5 heads high. Each section, therefore, stands for the height of a head. Draw an oval for the head in the top section. Then I like to take a few abstract, loose swipes to represent the movement of the figure. Because intentions count a lot in drawing, these lines help to give a fashion illustration mood and attitude – be confident, not hesitant. These lines can not be right or wrong. This is just the draft, and no one will see it, so don’t waste time erasing. If you don’t like a line, just draw another one – your eye will sort out which lines work best.

3. Spine, Shoulders and Hips. The next line represents the spine, and connects the head to the center mark on the vertical line. Are you familiar with contrapposto? This refers to the stance where the weight of the body is shifted to one leg which throws the shoulders and the hips into different angles. Almost all fashion figures are contrapposto. Draw a line halfway between the second segment, perpendicular to the angle of the neck for the shoulder. Draw another line at the center mark, perpendicular to the lower spine for the hips.

4. Torso. The body has two major solid sections with a soft spot in between, which you can see in action if you’ve ever watched a model walk in a runway video. The shoulders and the rib cage are one section, and the hip bones form the other. Draw simple trapezoidal shapes to represent each section, centered on the spine. Mark the navel on the spine around the fourth mark.  The line of the breasts is around the third mark. Make sure the breasts are parallel with the shoulders or they’ll look crazy. The other thing to remember is that each breast is equidistant from the spine.

5. Hands and Elbows. Decide what you want to do with the hands. I have one resting on the hip and one hanging down in a classic fashion pose. Starting with the hand first is the best trick I know for drawing a hand that looks like it is plausibly resting on a hip. Draw little shapes to stand in for the hands. Remember that the hands hang at about crotch level, at the center mark. Elbows hang at the fourth mark, aligned with the navel. For both arms, you can figure out where the elbow is by marking the radius of the elbow from the shoulder.

6. Arms, Legs and Feet. Since you know where the elbows fall, all you have to remember when you draw lines for the arms is that the forearm and the upper arm are the same length. For the legs, draw a line for each. Each leg has to be the same length so you’ll know where to put the feet. Remember to put a foot on either side of the center line – or if you’re brave, right on the center line like I did. If you put both feet on one side of the center line, she’ll look like she’s falling over. The knees are halfway between the ankles and the hips and just about parallel with the hips. At this point you should have a stick figure with even proportions – always double check. The major one is to make sure of is that the legs are as long or longer than the length of the torso and the head together. Forearms should equal upper arms, calf length is equal to thigh length, and so on.

7. Flesh and Face. Grab a second sheet of paper – you’re ready to flesh out your stick figure. This is easier with practice – you can draw oval shapes to represent the thighs and calves to help you out. Feel free to use photo or a mirror for reference when working out tricky bits like hands and feet. If something looks wrong, just keep drawing lines until one looks right. This is just the second draft – no one is going to see this one either, so don’t bother with erasing. Feel free to make changes and adjustments as you go – you can see I’ve changed one of the feet to a side view. To draft the face, draw a cross through the middle of your egg shape. The eyes are equidistant from the center, halfway between the top of the head and the bottom of the chin. The tip of the nose is halfway between the eyes and the chin, and the mouth is halfway between the nose and the chin.

8. Clothes and Hair. Now you’re ready to start dressing your figure and giving her hair. Use the center front line to help you with things like buttons and fly fronts. I’ve given her a very simple outfit that I would wear (though I don’t wear heels). If you’re putting a skirt on her, remember that the hem is parallel with the waist, or if the skirt sits on the hips, the hem will be parallel with the hips. Curve edges like cuffs, necklines and waistbands so they appear to be wrapping around the figure rather than resting on top of the figure.

9. Rendering. Grab one more sheet of paper, you’re finally ready to create the actual illustration! Out of the tangle of lines on your draft, just trace over the ones that you feel look right. In this case, I’ve just taken another sheet of layout paper and inked it in with various widths of Micron art pens – 0.1 for small details, 0.3 to define some of the edges, and an outline around the figure of 0.5. Less is more when it comes to inking, especially for details – a few quick, brief marks work better than lots of fussy, careful ones. If you’re using a thicker paper you’ll need a light box to help you trace your draft. You can use any materials you want to render the final – watercolours, pastels, markers – whatever you enjoy using. Because you’ve got a solid draft with good proportions, the final illustration should turn out fairly well no matter how you do it.

10. Colouring on Photoshop. (Top of the post!) If you inked it like I did, you can scan it into your computer at 300 dpi or higher. Open it in Photoshop and fiddle around with the levels or the contrast or whatever tools you prefer to create pure black lines on a white background. Clean the lines up up if you like – this is another chance to fix minor mistakes in inking. Then I add another layer on the multiply setting to colour it in. You can drop in textures if you have them, like I did for the denim. The dodge and burn tools are an easy way to create shading and highlights. There’s a million different ways to use Photoshop and you can always hit Ctrl+Z so just play around until you’re happy with the results.

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There you go! You have illustrated a fashion figure. If you used this tutorial, I’d love to see what you came up with. Send me a note!

It may seem, from this blog, that I spend most of my professional life sketching at fashion shows and making pretty paper dolls. The lens of blogging can be a bit misleading because I also do a lot of hidden gigs – especially technical drawing and consulting. Having less glamourous work to do allows me the privilege of being choosier with my more creative projects.

Even though technical illustration may seem less enviable, I genuinely enjoy all types of work I take on. This type of project calls on my sometimes under-utilized specializations – like knowledge of garment construction and ability to sew. These instructional drawings were created for Colette Patterns, a home-sewing pattern company (with loads of adorable styles) based in Portland Oregon and shipping worldwide.

Walking Away - I’m too busy to have my photo taken. Can’t stop, I’m always late and they’re holding up the show just for me. The wind is in my hair. If you want my photo, shoot fast. Fabulous never waits!

On the Phone - I’m talking to someone on the phone because I’m a visual person, I don’t like reading. Yes you can take my photo but I can’t stop listening to this very important call. They’re telling me things that make me smile enigmatically, but I don’t have a big enough vocabulary to tell you what’s so funny.

Fingering an iPhone - even though I’m at fashion week, what’s happening inside this magic slice of toast is waaay more amazing. My fingers are as soft as butter.

Shoulders Raised - it’s so cold in the Northern hemisphere! Make sure my coat is outside of the frame because it doesn’t go with my new spring outfit. I’m really fashionable underneath my parka, see?

Arms Akimbo - look at my belly… now look lower. YEAH. I am a REAL man, even though I like clothes, you can tell because I’m taking up as much space as I possibly can. Even my double monkstraps are very far apart. I think you’ll have to move back to get all of me in the photo.

Looking Down, Scratching Head – are you sure you want to take a photo of little me? You like this outfit? But it’s hideous! I just fell into it by accident this morning after tripping over my Litas. I guess you can take a picture of me as long as my face isn’t visible. This is truly mortifying. I hope your website isn’t that popular.

Clutching a Bag that has a Handle - this is how they hold bags in fashion shows, and since I like mindlessly following trends this is how I hold my bag now too. I know it has a handle but I don’t have to use it because I don’t really need the use of my hands anyway. I’m just here to see and be seen, you know?

Pigeon Toes - I’m as twee as can be! I was born after 1990! Tee hee!

Head Tilted to Side - I shaved half my head, and now everything is askew! But I don’t mind because I like seeing the world differently. The Earth I walk on is on a 45 degree angle. I don’t follow trends or obey the law of gravity. I also only wear one sleeve of my coat at a time, and have mismatching shoes and earrings. Did I mention I’m different?

Hands in Pockets - there is no such thing as a manly “pose”, so I’ll casually put my hands in my pockets and stand as STRAIGHT as possible. Actually, just my fingers are in my pockets because my drop crotch pants are so tight, but also somehow still falling down. This way I can simultaneously push my pants lower and hold them up at the same time. Notice where my thumbs are pointing?

Holding Bag in Crooked Elbow - UGH, fashion week is so exhausting I have to put my entire survival kit into this massive designer bag. Carrying around 500 ml spray mist face refresher, SLR, iPad, all the requisite chargers, an extra pair of platform clogs and two unpaid interns in this bag is REAL WORK. It is so heavy I have to carry it on my elbow so I don’t chip my nail art.

Legs Crossed – why is there always a lineup for the women’s toilet at Fashion Week? I guess while I’m waiting you can take my picture.

This has been an incredible year, full of adversity and transcendence.

What follows is a redux, final fashion‘s finest for the year. Thanks so much to everyone who visits, reads, comments, emails and reaches out. Friends and colleagues, you inspire me. You are all wonderful. Thank you.

My favourite blog posts

• what it is for – it girls and fashion – You are in denial if you think you can make it in fashion without embracing it.
• the economics of style – youth culture patterns - we fetishize “functional” work because our own so-called work is so ephemeral and indulgent.
• the aesthetics of scarcity - the last visceral shocker left to fashion is olfactory. This is why crust pants represent fashion’s last stand.
• the technique trap - so many young hopefuls come to London to go to these star-making schools and yet the instruction they receive sends them down the path of obscurity.
• the insider issue - In fashion, insider status is coveted by those who lack it and flaunted by those who have it.

Paper dolls

• Vionnet – both back and front views. Braless, just the way Vionnet liked it.
• Agyness Deyn – the first of a model series, I have a wishlist.
• Anna Dello Russo – for the Hudson’s Bay Company. She is such a perfect fashion phoenix, delightful to draw.
• Pink Martini Collection – my first completely hand-rendered, watercolour paper doll.

Incredible encounters

• Colin McDowell – respected writer, historian and curator of the Fashion Illustration exhibit. I had chance to show him some live sketches to at the Design Museum in February. Later in September he recalled my work and invited me to sketch at Fashion Fringe.
• David Downton – the 21st century’s finest fashion illustrator picked my work out of a lineup.
• Stephen Griggs – the owner of Dr. Martens invited me to visit the factory and see how my favourite boot gets born. Highlight.

Extraordinary projects

• Jabberdust – designed a scarf/accessory collection with Leah Barrett and blogged the process. Rough, finished fashion illustrations, specs, first samples, and the final results.
• my beauty icon – I paint a heroine in beauty products for the Toronto Standard.
• Rokit Vintage – contributed a window display illustration among some other bright fashion illustrators at a great vintage shop on Brick Lane.

Print appearances

• The Times 27-04-11 – my proposal for a princess’ wedding gown received some good words.
• Cosmopolitan Australia November 2011 – I talk it girls with the smart and spirited Rachel Hills.
• The Big Book of Fashion Illustration – featured in the definitive compendium of contemporary fashion illustration.

London life

• … London can really beat you down sometimes. This year had some real low points.
• … and then it transcends. When it got tough I got tough. I redeemed myself.

This was a year that started hard for me and then turned around in the second half. While I didn’t tick every box, I feel like I got the gist if not the gamut of my 2011 goals.

I’m looking forward to 2012. How about you?

I have been illustrating fashion full-time now for five years. Every once in a while I like to revisit the subject of how to hire a fashion illustrator. I often work with fashion designers, more than editorial clients, so as a guide this reflects that, though much of this information will be useful to any type of client for any type of creative work.

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“I need a fashion illustrator to draw my ideas!”

Cool! Wait, do you really? I get a lot of inquiries from people who want to be fashion designers and assume the first step is to hire someone to draw their ideas professionally. The truth is, a lot of established fashion designers do what they do with the roughest sketches you can imagine. Illustration is not a necessity, and in the early stages of a business it can be yet another liability. Hiring an illustrator before you’ve done anything else is a red flag that you don’t know what you’re doing and won’t be a reliable client.

I always refer these types of inquiries to Fashion-Incubator and Kathleen Fasanella’s book The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturing. This is required reading for any wannabe fashion designer. Often fresh designers don’t really understand the scope of what they’re attempting to accomplish – this textbook lays it all out in plain language.

Ok, so you’ve read the book and you’re on your way. When do you need a fashion illustrator to draw your ideas? Here’s a few common scenarios:

1. You are making a persuasive business presentation or creating a sales document like a line sheet. Whether you’re selling to an investor or a buyer, if you’re in fashion you know that great images sell. Sometimes those images need to be illustrations.
2. You are communicating very specific design ideas to patternmakers, sample makers, and production. Sometimes language barriers and oceanic distances are involved, so very accurate, precise drawings are required to reduce the number of iterations involved in developing a finished design. This can save you money in the long run.
3. Your products require instructions for the consumer. Drawings have a simplicity and clarity that works well for instructional use, often better than photography and easier to reproduce, especially in black and white.
4. You want to use illustrations in your branding. Again, great imagery sells. So if it suits your brand, the right type of illustrations can lift your website, printed materials, and PR content to the next level.

How do you find the right fashion illustrator?

Look at their portfolio! When hiring a creative, a lot of people rely on their social network – they look for a friend of a friend who is an illustrator or a photographer or whatever. This is a terrible way to get the results you want – creativity isn’t a commodity. Two different illustrators working to the same brief can produce completely different  illustrations. You want to make sure that the illustrator you’re hiring has the ability to nail your vision. So checking out their portfolio is critical. Here’s what to look for.

1. You love their style. Their past work will be a good indication of their future work – so check out as many examples as you can. If you like certain images, bookmark them to refer the illustrator to later when you present the brief. Sometimes potential clients will send examples of work by other illustrators for reference material – my feeling as an illustrator when presented with this is “why didn’t you just hire that illustrator?” Being asked to imitate the work of another illustrator can feel borderline insulting/unethical. That doesn’t mean you should never use illustrations as reference, but if you do please make it clear that you understand the illustrator will interpret that material through the lens of their own style.
2. Their skills suit your project. If you’re looking for a technical fashion illustrator, you need to be working with someone who understands how clothing is constructed. If you’re doing children’s wear, you want to be working with someone who demonstrates flair at illustrating children. If you need an illustration that will be used as a logo, find an illustrator who understands the practical principles of graphic design. And so on.

So you’ve found the illustrator – or maybe several – you might want to work with. How do you approach a fashion illustrator with your project brief?

You do you have a project brief, right? A great project brief is a short document that has the following information:

1. A brief but detailed description of the scope of the project. What type of drawings do you need, and how many of them? What are they of? Do they need to be in colour or just line art? Front views only or back views too? Including a couple examples of reference images can be really helpful – the illustrator needs to know if the content they’re rendering is simple or complex.
2. An explanation of where and how the illustrations will be used. This will give the illustrator a sense of how visible or important the project is, which will help them accurately assess the value of the project.
3. A due date or timeline. When do you need the finished work by? Remember that rush jobs are very expensive – the more lead time you can offer, the better the rate will be.

This is the basic information an illustrator needs in order to develop an estimate. How much does a fashion illustration cost? It depends on these factors. So knowing that…

“Budget is totally an issue! How can I get the best deal?”

1. Let the illustrator set the schedule. As freelancers, our schedules vary wildly. If you give us the ability to fit your project in between other priorities, we can be more flexible with the rates.
2. Rethink the scope of the project. It would be great if you could afford 10 illustrations, but maybe you can get by with one. Perhaps you don’t need back views of every style. Perhaps line art is sufficient and you can forget about colour (cheaper to print, too).
3. Work with emerging talent. Working with students or recent graduates can be tricky as they won’t necessarily have a good sense of what they can do best and how long it takes. However, if you can give a promising young person a modestly paid opportunity you will benefit in good karma – and often excellent work – at a fraction of the price of a more experienced professional.

You’ve hired a fashion illustrator – awesome! What can you do as a client to help the project run smoothly?

1. Take the time to assemble and organize all your reference material. This is especially important for designer clients – create a folder for the project and subfolders for each specific style. Include as much information as you can to get your ideas across, both written and visual. Make sure your file names and your style numbers are all in order – it will make communicating about your project much simpler.
2. Respond clearly to correspondence. Good email hygiene goes a long way. When the illustrator gives you a rough sketch to review, take enough time to compile all your comments into one email, and understand that the project can’t move forward until you send them. Try not to send constant, ongoing updates or changes, especially by IM or other social networks. Keep all of the project-related correspondence in one place, keep it concise, and use appropriate subject lines.
3. Limit revisions. There is a statute of limitations on revisions before the illustrator starts adding them to the invoice. The first two points go a long way to reducing the amount of correspondence and iteration it takes to reach the finished work. The essence is all about knowing exactly what you want and communicating that clearly, sooner rather than later. Being aware of this saves you time and money, not only on illustration but in all aspects of life.
4. Pay promptly. A conscientious client makes an illustrator want to go the extra mile. If you pay the agreed amount at the agreed time, you’re a model client that the illustrator would want to work with again – and the work you receive will reflect that good will.

Any questions, is there anything I missed? Are you an illustrator yourself, do you have any comments to add?

I am so pleased to be included in Martin Dawber’s definitive yearbook of contemporary fashion illustration. This hefty volume contains so much to admire and inspire. It is an honour to have five illustrations interspersed throughout including a full-page featuring my Jeremy Laing paper doll.

I am briefly quoted in the introduction from a longer email interview I did with the author – the best bits are below the fold. Keep in mind this was written a year ago!

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Cristina Sabaiduc‘s audacious London debut. This is an image of the rehearsal. You can see the magnetic garments clinging to the back wall there. Cristina dressed her models in these modular effects as they walked around the block. Check out her full collection here.

The video is off the hook.

CRISTINA SABAIDUC SS12 Motion from Cristina Sabaiduc on Vimeo.

My sketches and notes from the show are here.

This wonderful candid was captured by Lynsie Roberts. See more of Lynsie’s shots at her site.  Emma and I were absorbed in sketching by Cristina’s runway. Emma Block does brilliant illustration with a delightful collage technique.

The much anticipated finished samples of the Jabberdust project have arrived in Toronto, been photographed, and on the suggestion of Leah, I fitted them on illustrated models. Are you a retailer or an individual interested in purchasing any of these beautiful, hand-embellished accessories? Contact leah@jabberdust.ca for more information.

These are based on ideas I proposed, which Leah then developed. If you’re interested in the process of creating these designs from pencil scratch to embellished sample, check out these posts.

Paris! If you were wondering where I was, I was in Paris for fashion week – okay, I went to a handful of shows. Straight up, I went to Paris to be in Paris.

The first show I saw after stepping off the Eurostar was Manish Arora (above right). It was one of the best fashion shows I have ever seen, even though I couldn’t see much of it. The clothes were vivid and imaginative, the beauty was striking (from my vantage point I mostly saw heads and shoulders of the models). The show featured a magician who made a girl appear and disappear on the runway, something which was obscured by smoke and crowds for me, but the excitement was palpable even so.

Getting into the Manish Arora show was a lesson in and of itself. Unlike London, Parisians do not queue – they cluster.  I don’t like a cluster, so I tend to stand to the side, and in this case I positioned myself against a wall. However, my position was such that the cluster swallowed me and I ended up being jostled or shoved around, something I find very uncomfortable. Just as I was starting to feel a sense of absurd panic, I turned around to find myself face to face with Suzy Menkes who was carving through the crowd. “I don’t belong here,” I thought (or may have said aloud) and I squeezed my way out of the cluster. Just a few feet away, outside the cluster, there was a virtually empty parking lot where I stood at a cool distance trying to assess how this worked. I watched the cluster part for famous fashion editors and important fashion people, and people with seat assignments, and then in due course the security guards called those with standing tickets, and I found at that point, I could walk right in too. The cluster was just people without invitations who were hoping to get in, like some kind of parasitic (Paris-itic?) infection at the door of every show.

Lesson learned – stand at a cool distance and my turn will come.

The second show I saw was Barbara Bui (above left). She showed a series of neutrals – sandy beiges, whites and blacks, that played on texture blocking, arranged in horizontal layers. It was a simple, confident idea, executed very well. What was also very striking about this show was the statement non-diversity of the casting. Not only were all of the models white-skinned, they were also almost all blonde, and it was clear in the final procession that they were all within an inch or two of the same height. The lack of diversity was clearly not only unapologetic, it was very deliberate.

The Barbara Bui show was inside the tent at Place Concorde, and it is the nicest fashion show tent I’ve ever been in – in particular, the seating was at a steep grade so every row and the standing room all got a terrific view of the show.

Sonia Rykiel had brilliance and spectacle – it is clear that Paris really knows how to put on a fashion show. With a chain link fence down the middle of the runway and a soundtrack that sounded like a story, the scene was set for (once again, nearly identical) models who sat amongst the front row, sashayed down the runway hand in hand, met and chatted by the fence, and most endearingly, smiled. All while wearing fabulously vibrant colours, lush furs, deeply saturated plaids. This show really gave me the boost I needed to start mixing my pinks and reds, a combination that is so incredibly lively – in fact I did that the very next day.

Waiting to get into Sonia Rykiel was an exciting event in and of itself – many celebrities and famous fashion folks came through the crowd surrounded by much flash and fanfare, though the only one I recognized was Kanye West. It was incredible to see him come through the crowd, and everyone was smiling and lifting their cameras. He literally lit up an already very bright scene. That is real celebrity!

The first show I had a seat for was Amaya Arzuaga, so I attempted to sketch with watercolours live – which isn’t an easy proposition – above shows what I managed to get. This show was incredible for the exploration of dimension, volume, and line – using stiff felted fabrics in saturated colours. The construction ideas were new and interesting to my technical curiousity – the best was the way Arzuaga used the fabric on edge to create honeycomb embellishment echoing bone structures. It was a nearly flawless show, marred only by a finale dress which was too long for the model to walk in.

As I said, I spent a lot of time just sketching from imagination in cafes, and two of the better results are above. In addition to my new paintbox, I acquired a few brush-pens (introduced to me by Steffi in Berlin) – brushes that have water in the handle. You can squeeze the handle to dispense water as you need it, which makes watercolours so much more mobile – no need to carry around a container of water with you. Watercolours do take a bit of practice to use, and I’m still exploring the difference between an unintentional mess and an intentional mess.

My final two shows were Estrella Archs and Valentin Yudashkin, and once again I was seated and attempted to paint live, with the rough results above. They both had some lovely pieces, they were both shows that would have seemed quite outstanding in any other city. I think Paris had raised my expectations very high by this point. Archs show was all camel and fluorescent pink, and raw edges that seemed either not raw enough or just unfinished. My favourite piece had a tangle of spaghetti straps accenting a bare back. Yudashkin’s show was a series of very rich girls in rich-girl dress-up clothes, short short skirts, fishtail trains, lots of lace and exaggerated fedoras, finishing with a great furry black hat and an orange and black coat. It was much muchness, and not to my taste.

I think the best part of Paris, besides the fashion which was spectacular, was the spaces in between shows. Watching the street life and fashion crowds was sublime. The weather was perfect – I didn’t see a single cloud the entire time I was there. In between fashion shows, I spent my time walking the streets and my euros on cafe au lait in cafes. With my new watercolour box, I spent a lot of time just doodling fashions I saw or imagined.

The spaciousness of time and mind was just as clear as the skies, as open as my schedule. Nothing is as satisfying as nothing. Exactly what I wanted, exactly what I needed. Merci, Paris.

Last week I warned everyone on my social networks that I had entered yet another internet popularity contest. I try not to enter these too often because they are, uh… silly. But when I got an idea for reinventing the Anne Klein lion logo that I felt was half decent, I decided to go for it.

I’m not kidding myself – I know I won’t be able to keep up the e-whoring for six straight days (especially because I am in Paris at the moment), however the higher ranked I am on this thing the more visible I am to the real judges, so if you like my logo idea or you like me, please indulge me and give me your vote. You only have to vote once. It would be sweet to get in the top 50, but realistically, anything better than dead last would be wonderful. Thanks so much to all of you.

Also, please scroll all the way down and check out the full concept – there’s two elements to it that I’ve shown used in a variety of ways to suggest the versatility of it. I couldn’t tell if it was too obvious or too conceptual when I was rendering it – its obviously a bit of both which is what I think makes it neat. I should have used the logo mark as the leading image instead of the figure, in retrospect.