• Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial

    I had one goal in this tutorial: to make creating this sort of contemporary drawing accessible to anyone. I wasn’t sure how it would work at first, but I was extremely pleased with the chic results. Really, give it a go, and see where your creativity takes you!

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Today’s tutorial is a “hack” in every sense of the word {the literal meaning of “hack” will become clear in a bit}. I am going to show you how absolutely anyone can make a contemporary fashion drawing, and I’m going to show you how to do it in a very unique, mistake-proof way. It doesn’t require any special equipment. In fact, you probably have everything to make this tutorial laying around your house. And, trust me, you’ve got the skills to do it.

    To create your contemporary fashion drawing, you’ll need a small paintbrush or two {one is fine, though} and a gel pen. I like Pilot G2 05. Your life will be made easier if you also have a permanent marker and a hobby knife {though scissors make a decent substitute}.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Next, dig through one of your catalogs or magazines, and choose a guy or gal to use as a model for your masterpiece. I think women are more fun to draw {probably because of the hair and makeup}, but that’s my personal opinion. I chose the blonde here on the top, compliments of Anthropologie.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Now, use your hobby knife to cut her out.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Be sure and place a surface under your model that you don’t care about getting cut up. In my case, that’s a Paper Source catalog. {Sorry, Paper Source.}

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    This is what you should end up with:

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    At this point, we are going to trace around our model on a piece of paper. I have chosen to use watercolor paper; but you should be fine using any paper that’s conducive to mixed media, really.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Trace all the way around her …

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    This is where the “hack” comes in — I’m taking off her appendages. You’ll want to do the same with your model.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    The reason for this ruthless amputation is being able to know where the dress ends and the limbs begin. Basically, I’m now going to trace around the limbs so I can have a good, proportionate representation of this woman’s body.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Keep tracing!

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I decided to go ahead and cut off her hair as well, so I could trace around the hairline.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And here she is — along with a pile of body parts, which you’ll want to reserve.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    The next step for me in particular {and you, if you chose a model with a loose dress}, is to use a little guess work to think about where her body is under the dress. You’ll want to make an outline of that in pencil.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Now, use your permanent marker to fill in where her body is in the dress.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I used a Prismacolor art marker, but, trust me, Sharpie would work fine — as would acrylic paint or anything that can cover a large area in black.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Now, take your Pilot G2 pen, and draw some folds. Basically, I draw icicle-type shapes.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    One set of “icicles” goes down to account for gravity, and the others go up to account for tension in the fabric.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Do the same to the bottom of the dress. No need for downward-reaching icicles here.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Okay, here’s the really cool, fun part. We are going to harness the utter non-resistance of your usual, run-of-the-mill gel pen to water make a “watercolor” wash. Just get your brush wet, and brush over the edges of the icicles to blend. You’ll notice that the ink starts to bleed out, and will be darker near the edges of the icicles. That’s exactly what you want, and you’ll continue to tease the ink out with water until it fades into light gray.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Pretty cool, huh? Repeat with drawing your icicle folds on the other side.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    … And fill those in with water as well.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Now, I’m going to watercolor the legs. You’ll want to pull the individual body part you wish to draw out of your reserve pile, and position it near its traced counterpart. See how the right edge of the leg has a black shadow? I’m going to mimic that with my gel pen.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Use the same blending technique you used with the dress above. Use your wet brush to tease your ink out so it blends.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Since the left side of the leg isn’t very dark, I’m just going to use a medium gray shade. I got that shade simply by dipping my brush in water, then rubbing the brush in some of the black ink {from the gel pen shading} on the right side of the leg. Voilà — instant gray.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Now, repeat the process with the other leg.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Here I am actually illustrating how I’m getting a supply of gray ink. Just dip your {very} wet brush in an area of black that you’ve drawn …

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    … And use the resulting gray to make a medium shade.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    I am already loving the look of this!

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Repeat the same process you used on the legs with your model’s arms. I shaded in the noticeable shadows on both sides of her arm.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Then I used my blending technique to fade the black to white and contour the arm a little bit.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Cool, huh? Oh, by the way, sorry about the lighting change! The sun was setting as I was creating this tutorial.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Okay, now, the other side. I know you know the process:

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Now, I’m cutting off the model’s neck to figure out where her neck ends, and where her head begins.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Trace above the neck, as you did with the other body parts.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And mimic the shadows you see in the neck with your G2 pen.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Then blend!

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    The face is a little trickier; but the key is proportion rather than accuracy. It’s not important to me that this illustration look just like my model, but I do want her face to look realistic. To achieve that, I placed my model’s head parallel to the traced head, and used a ruler to draw lines where the top and bottom of the lips are. I used that same process with the nose, as well as the eyes and eyebrows.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    {You don’t need to measure, though. Go crazy and make the face however you want it!}

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Once you’ve got the features how you want them in pencil, trace over them with your gel pen.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    And, of course, blend!

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Now, we’re at the part of the tutorial that’s most fun: the hair! To create it, simply draw several quick lines representing the direction of the hair.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    You can then use these lines to get ink from, and give the hair a multi-faceted look.

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    Love it.

    And here she is!

    Contemporary Fashion Drawing Tutorial | The Postman's Knock

    The goal of TPK is to make illustration and calligraphy accessible to everyone — I believe that you shouldn’t have to have fancy, specialized equipment to make something beautiful. I am particularly proud of the tracing “hack” used in this contemporary fashion drawing because, truly, anyone can do it.

    At this point, it’s up to you what you’ll use this technique for. Some obvious suggestions would be to use it to make chic wall art or a striking sketchbook page. But, you know, you could also use it to make anatomically-correct fashion sketches featuring your own clothing designs. If you have skill in free-handing, you can even make a portrait of someone you know using this technique. It would make for a very classy gift, framed in black with a white mat. I’m sure you’ll come up with something; I create these tutorials because I love seeing where your creativity takes you after reading them. It’s the best feeling to see a TPK tutorial-inspired piece on Facebook and Instagram!

    Thanks so much for reading — enjoy your weekend!

    XO,

    Lindsey's Signature | The Postman's Knock