Becoming a Fashionista
Just finished a class in fashion drawing, it was my first drawing class in 15 years.
My Own Creation 2019
So this outfit I’ve been obsessed about and thinking about for a super long time in my head. I’m not sure how this popped up in my head but it did and it also helped me stay motivated in taking my 16 week course. Now, I finally have a proof of concept that this outfit works.
Original Inspo:
What part I like the most
It was my first time rendering a white sheer fabric on a super dark inner fabric and I really liked how it came out.
I’m not sure if the picture shows it or not but I actually added a little bit of yellow ink on top of every part with the sheer outfit. I noticed that there was just a slight yellow tint on the sheer blouse. I used a micron pen to fill in some space on the sleeves since I wanted to convey that there was empty space.
My roommate really liked this top (so yay for validation). I’m now excited to style myself like this~
Challenges I faced
I was really concerned about the sheer white material as I’ve never experienced rendering it before. I also made the bust area too dark on first try so I had to improvise on that.
This was really hard to put together because along with replicating from observation, I also had to use my imagination on how it would look when I put it together. Part of this difficulty stems from the different poses each model had and so I had to really think about where shadows would fall, how gravity would affect each item (the flare jeans), where the lighting was, etc. I didn’t have very high expectations for this one, but I got super lucky that this turned out well.
Balmain 2020
I looked on Vogue for this one; Balmain has the signature double breasted jacket and I love that look. However, this one also really intrigued me and was very challenging to draw
Original Inspo
How I think I did
So this was a shiny latex material in a golden color. I thought the pants really reflected the light sources and how shiny the material is very well. Especially the left thigh (from our POV). You can also see on the right knee, there’s a spot that really reflects light and I was able to capture that. When looking at the picture, I also thought that her shoulders were definitely padded to be wider. So in terms of proportions - hip/leg width to shoulder ratio, I think I did well.
Challenges I faced
If you notice the jacket, you can see that there is a lot of fabric gathering around the waist area. That was extremely challenging for me as rendering it was incredibly hard. I should’ve used different shades of the same golden brown that the jacket was in but I wasn’t really good with that. Either that, or spread out the actual brown I used a bit.
I also didn’t communicate how shiny / reflective the material was on the jacket. I could’ve left more white space for that effect.
It was also 3:30am at this point so maybe I felt like giving up?
Dries van Noten 2020
Oh my. Dries van Noten. I have been eyeing his work for many (?) years now. Ever since the first season of Killing Eve when Villanelle wore his patterned brocade jacket to the club in Berlin and murdered Eve’s MI5 partner. For those of you who don’t know Villanelle, she is TV’s most fashionable Russian assassin or the most fashionable assassin - I think she would be top in the broader group.
I decided to go with this season’s tailored suit since I couldn’t find the right image for her suit. I only found one picture where she styled it together, but that picture was in the dark (you know Berlin’s nightclub scene, I actually don’t know, I’ve never been to Europe). But yes, it was filmed in the night time so the lighting wasn’t ideal in the picture.
Original Inspo:
How I think I did
I really like the shape of the pantsuit and the purple color of the flowers. I think I did a pretty good job of rendering the creases from the movement of the legs and the shadows that were created.
Challenges I faced
I think my green could have been a bit more vibrant. I could’ve put on one more coat of green or I could’ve added more water color pencil details - like the green vines. Looking at the picture, there’s a lot more of the small greens, oranges, and blacks in the detailing. I hesitate to say that I want to go over the entire jacket with green since the white space gives off the satin/silk-like feel of the suit.
Minju Kim - Next in Fashion
Hope I’m not spoiling anything and telling you that Minju Kim won Next in Fashion. For their finale, she faced off against Daniel Fletcher and they both had to make a complete line (10 different looks) in 3 days .
Her inspiration for this line came from Frida Kahlo and this was one of the outfits.
Original Inspo:
How I think I did
This image was super fun. I would totally wear this. I really liked that I finally figured out how to use white to make something more pink. If you look closely, there’s one side of the dress that’s much lighter because of where the lighting is. I had my original darker pink color and then I rubbed my water color pencil onto the wet paint brush and painted over that area multiple times. Same with the top triangular part with the clouds/flowers.
Challenges I faced
The lighter pink was so hard to get but I didn’t want to lose out on the pink color of the dress by making every other part darker. In terms of the shadow areas, I think I should’ve used a lighter color to convey the shadow and movement of the garment since the garment itself is super light. I like her right leg though.
Alexa Chung - NY Fall Fashion Week 2017
I know of Alexa Chung through watching Next in Fashion. Although this image didn’t stem from her; it grew from the idea of wearing a turtleneck under a collared shirt. It’s very popular in certain parts of the world; however, not where I am. So I wanted to look for something that would normalize this trend. I wanted to look for this outfit in a Korean drama, but I had such a hard time pinning down who wore it in what drama. So I just looked on Google for this trend and voila, Alexa!
I initially had 3 Minju Kim’s creations that I wanted to narrow down from. Alexa actually wore one of them and it was my favorite (even more so than the one I drew). And I didn’t want to use Alexa twice so I tried really hard to look for this trend elsewhere. But alas! It didn’t work out.
Honestly, if I had found this one elsewhere. I would’ve had too many suits in my line up since Alexa in Minju Kim would be a skirt suit.
Original Inspo:
How I think I did
The fuzzy jacket is AMAZING! The collared shirt detail. Amazing!
Challenges I faced
The jeans were pretty hard. In terms of order, I drew this one before my own styled one. So doing this denim was just slightly less practiced for me.
I messed up my order too because I started drawing the handles for the bag first so I had to figure out the jeans around it. I should have done the jeans before.
I knew for this outfit, I actually wanted kick crop pants instead of the semi straight leg / bootcut ones she had. I could’ve found a pair of kick cropped pants styled with an ankle boot as inspiration. I think the kick in the kick crop doesn’t look very natural.
I want to end on a good note so I’m going to do my complaining first. This. Was. So. Tiring. All of the research, drawing, rendering, putting things together took me 8 hours for all 5. Yes, I’m a master distraction artist (I get distracted super easily), but I’m so tired. Maybe it’s because I’m writing it the day after I finished and I barely slept after staying up until 4:30 finishing this.
Overall, I really enjoyed doing this lineup. I took this course for 15 weeks prior to this and I definitely felt like I’ve improved significantly. I also feel like the course gave me a very good foundation of how to showcase different materials and how to draw figures. I think this lineup was a great culmination of my work and learning through the past few months. I really hope that I can do more drawings in the future and just be able to continue to do something that sparks my creativity in this same way.
