The entire fashion designing process involves several components, and fashion illustration is one of them. Fashion illustration is one skill every fashion designer needs to learn to build and grow a successful fashion brand.
This week, we spoke with Fashion Illustrator, Adebusuyi Babatunde, on the basics and importance of fashion illustration for fashion designers.
Mr Adebusuyi Babatunde is a Fashion Illustrator and the CEO of registered fashion illustration brand Abatcreations. He has trained and continues to train fashion students at AIRVY Training Centre, Kathy Anthony, CELAFRIQUE, Seye Oladejo, and Kolakuddus amongst others.
Mr Adebusuyi is also a Tutor, a part-time Lecturer at Yaba College of Technology, where he graduated from with a degree in Fashion Designing, and an expert in Virtual 3D fashion presentation.
What is Fashion Illustration?
According to him, “Fashion illustrations simply means knowing the result of a design from the beginning.” It is also representing ideas and design imagination into visual forms either on paper or by using CAD (Computer-aided design).
As a fashion designer, if you can understand garments detailing and the human anatomy then you can illustrate like a pro.
What is the Importance of Fashion Illustration?
Firstly, you need to understand as a fashion designer that fashion illustration is very important. Its importance cannot, in any way, be overstated. Whether you are a freehand or a pattern tailor, you need to learn fashion illustration.
Here are some of the reasons why;
1. It Makes you More Creative
The more you can draw out and visualise your designs, the more creative you will be. This is because you will see how your designs will look in real life and be able to identify ways to improve on it. Adjustments, additions, or subtractions you need to make to the design will become clearer to you so your designs can come out looking fabulous.
2. It Gives you an Edge Over your Competitors
Seeing as many fashion designers do not see the need for fashion illustration, any fashion designer that sees its importance and learns it is immediately separated from the rest. With fashion illustration, you have that edge over your competitors that gives clients the impression that you are a true professional.
3. It Earns you Respect from your Clients
Every client will respect a fashion designer that does not copy and paste designs from other designers or the pages of a magazine. When you, as a fashion designer, can illustrate, the respect your clients have for you will skyrocket and gain you more clients.
4. It Helps you Remember your Designs
Designs are like ideas, if you do not pen them down when you get them then you will lose them. With fashion illustration, you do not have to lose any of your designs because you get to put them down on paper before they vanish.
5. It Improves your Overall Brand Image
Your packaging is a part of your overall brand image. Fashion illustration is a part of this packaging. With fashion illustration, you pass across a subtle message to clients and everyone else on how you want your brand to be viewed.
It is so much easier for you to charge higher prices when your clients trust you because they have seen your level of expertise and the originality of your designs.
Rules in Fashion Illustration
The general rule of fashion illustration is that you need to be careful of every stroke you put in your illustration. This is because every stroke in your illustration is seen as a cut or s style line.
Do not leave any line, no matter how small, on your fashion illustration if you do not intend to see it on the finished outfit.
When your client, pattern drafter, or cutter sees your design, they assume that all the lines you have made in it are either a style or a cut and this can result in dire consequences. If you make a mistake while illustrating, the best thing to do is to erase it.
What is Fashion Croquis?
A croquis is a faint fashion template that allows designers to illustrate directly without having to draw a model. So, with a croquis, there is no need for fashion designers to start drawing a fashion model from scratch.
It is an already made model and all you have to do is cloth it.
Standard Measurements for Croquis
There are two main types of figures used in fashion illustration; the Petit figure and the Elongated figure.
- Petit Figure: When drawing a petit figure, which is a normal figure, the standard measurement is 8 heads.
- Elongated Figure: For an elongated figure, which is an elongated and slim figure, the standard measurement is 9 to 10 heads.
N.B: 1 head is equal to 1 inch.
Generally, the shoulder width of a petit figure is not the same as that of an elongated (or fashion figure). The shoulder width of the petit figure is usually broader the that of
a fashion figure.
In drawing a model, it is better to use an elongated figure because runway models are tall and slim. Using elongated models also adds beauty to your design.
Knowing how to proportion is one of the most important rules of drawing a croquis.
In drawing a croquis, you must know how to proportion. You have to make sure the head is not too big for the neck to carry, the thighs are not too large for the body, the torso is not too long, and so on. As with everything, practice makes perfect, so, if you are bad with proportion now, you will get better over time as you practice more.
Also, you need to remember that when drawing your designs, colouring and detailing are very important. This is because;
- Colouring beautifies your illustrations and
- Detailing tells the story of what is going on with the illustration. It explains the illustration to anyone looking at it.
To learn more about how to draw a fashion croquis with various stances and to be better at fashion illustration, you need to search out knowledge. Go online and look for resources that can help you learn these things so you are not left behind while others are moving on.
In closing, Mr Adebusuyi said, “Knowing how to illustrate is a plus for any designer because your clients will believe more in you. It will make them refer you to others and while doing it, paint you in a light that will amaze even you. They will let others know that you do not copy designs and you are a one-of-a-kind fashion designer.”
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