Marianne Egan

Ah, the T-shirt! The tee is easy to draw, and it lends itself to all kinds of fun prints. Throughout the years, the T-shirt has made its way from the gym teacher’s wardrobe to the high-fashion runway and back again! Guys, women, and kids practically live in them.Draw the basic woman's tee.Start with a basic shirt.

Drawing the waistband and belt loops on a pair of fashion pants takes just a few simple steps. The complication factor comes from the variety of ways you can design the look. You can alter the number of belt loops, the location of the topstitching, the placement of the button, how many buttons you use — the options are endless!

Patterns (not sewing ones) can really throw a fashion artist, but you can draw awesome fabric designs if you know a few artists’ tricks. So many illustrators opt out and just shade in fashion drawings.But what happens when you want to draw a whimsical skirt sprinkled with polka dots or high rubber boots with a great-looking plaid on them?

Fashion drawing is all about attitude, exaggeration, and style. As you develop your fashion illustration skills, infuse your work with personal flair — your signature — to create a look unlike any other. Start by observing the golden rules of fashion drawing, mastering the S curve and other figure drawing techniques, and putting a creative spin on the fashion drawings you create.

When drawing fashion illustrations, you first create a rough sketch of the body, also referred to as a croquis. Then you draw the clothes that go on top.Grab your pencil, a black pen, some tracing paper, sketch paper, and a fashion magazine if you have one handy. Here’s how to begin drawing a front view croquis:Lay tracing paper over a full-body picture of a model from a magazine.

When you’re drawing a dude’s arms, don’t aim for muscle beach in fashion drawing. Male arms can look toned and terrific without making people’s heads swivel in disbelief at their size and shape. Keep in mind that men’s shoulders are wider.To draw attention-getting arms on a man, follow these easy steps:Lightly sketch a torso with armholes.

Drawing a stick figure, or line figure, is a perfect way for beginners to get comfortable with basic figures for fashion drawing, and it serves as a refresher for people who’ve done figure drawing before.Draw an oval to represent the figure’s head and then draw a dashed line of symmetry.The line of symmetry, or balance line, runs down right through the center of the stick figure’s head and continues to the bottom of the stick feet.

The drama and interplay between the line of the shoulders and the line of the hips really bring fashion illustration to life. You can create a terrific torso by following a simple fashion formula that includes the S curve. Or you can make the basic shape even more simple by just sketching the opposite hip and shoulder angles.

Keep noses under control in a fashion illustration. The idea is to create a great-looking nose without going overboard with too many shapes and shadows. You’re not illustrating an anatomy textbook, and the nose isn’t an area you want to stress. Oh, and realistic-looking nostrils aren’t at all fashion forward!Draw a simple fashion nose from the front view.