FASHION HEADSChapter 4

Fashion Sketchbook by Bina Abling

Fashion Drawing

Honoria Starbuck’s FRM 131 course

We will create several head positions full-front, three-quarter-turned, and profile positions.

Learn to draw in head shape, features, and hairstyle.

You will be ready to create your own type of face, a “signature head,” because it will be as individual and as natural for you to draw as it is for you to write your name.

There are many ways in which to treat the eyes, nose, and mouth, and any method will work as long as you place the features evenly, blocking them on the face. After that, you can move onto the planes and angles in posing the head.

Everything you practice will lead you to create your own version of a signature fashion head.

There is a range of applications for a fashion head.

Four such applications are: (1) Portrait, characteristic of fine arts realism—sketches of a real

person’s actual features(2) Fictitious personality —defining a repeat character, as in a graphic

novel(3) Commercial advertising face —a face that a consumer could identify

with or imagine being (4) Fashion designer’s signature face—an abbreviation, the most

minimal head that serves to complement a fashion category such as casual, career, or dressy looks.

David Downton’s fashion portrait of Elizabeth Taylor

Different styles of fashion heads should be used to accentuate your design aesthetic and complement your collections.

HAIR IS A SHAPE AND A PATTERN

Hair shape shifts when the head turns, tilts, and moves.

The texture of the hair is simplified with emphasis on overall shape, pattern of light and dark, and not drawing individual hairs.

To develop your signature heads experiment.

Combine pencil with paint or marker. Don’t overdo the TEXTURE of the hair.

You can smear pencil to create shading unless the pencil outlining is drawn on last.

Remember to make your croquismulticultural to work toward a more diverse and inclusive fashion world.

Do’s from the Past

Period looks can be emphasized by period hair styles.

Shape and style of hair can tell as time-frame story and enhance a retro look.

Vocabulary

• Signature head• Three-quarter view• Front view• Profile• Portrait• Period hair styles• Shape• Texture• Pattern• Movement