Last December I attended a Fashion Illustration Short Course at Central Saint Martins in London, taught by an amazing professor and artist, Alexis Panayiotou. 
I’m not going to talk too much, but I’ll start giving you the amazing tips I’ve learned during the course. And, of course, I will urge you to attend one by yourself, because no advice or demonstration can replace experiencing on yourself.

Don’t consider wrong things that haven’t been defined by the industry as wrong… Even if so, stay open.
This is perhaps the biggest lesson I have learned during this course, give up fear while drawing and stop building imaginary barriers. Explore! Explore colors, media, tools for applying media. Explore moves of your hand, speeds, curves… There’s nothing wrong! Don’t even use a gum, unless you want to create the effect of a interrupted line. Try to make an illustration with such a state of mind and see the result.

I’ll further describe the first part of the exercises we have made during the course and I will give you some examples. More are to come, so stay tuned.

You’ll need a live model or models from magazines posing in different postures:

1. Enjoying the process of drawing
Take a piece of paper and a pencil or a marker, and draw. don’t lead your hand. Let your hand lead you. Intensify the moves and the marks you leave on paper form time to time. Imagine you draw a melody. The result is not important, only the process. The outcome of the exercise is that you have enjoyed the process.

Marker on paper

2. Deconstructing in geometrical figures
Make sure you have a live model and have it posing in different ways so as you can make fast sketches of her figure. Deconstruct the body in simple geometrical figures, but taking care at the proportions. If you don’t have a live model, look for models with different body positions in magazines. The time you make the sketches has to be limited. Start with 3 minutes per sketch and get to make them in 30 seconds in the end.

3. Negative drawing
While observing the figure, draw the negative spaces. That is the space between her hands and her body, the space between her legs, or the space between a part of her body and the ceiling, the floor, or another landmark. While drawing pay attention at the position of one negative space towards the others. In the end, your negative spaces will precisely describe your figure. Take 3 minutes for this drawing.

4. Blind drawing
Draw your model without taking even a glance at your paper. Be very attentive at every small curve of the model. Draw slowly. Never look at the paper. Take 4 or 5 minutes for this drawing. The outcome is not important, but catching every little element of the silhouette.

5. Combined drawing
This time combine blind drawing with drawing while looking at your paper. Use two different colors for each of the stages. It will help you if there would be someone who would tell you when to switch from one stage to another. You can also use a timer. Take 2 minutes for the first stage of blind drawing, then 1 minute for drawing while looking at your paper, 2 minutes again for the second stage of blind drawing and 1 more minute for completing your drawing while looking at the paper.

Pastel pencils on paper

6. Drawing the figure’s “spine” and being aware of its center of gravity
Use a brush and ink to draw the “spine” or the “thread’ that passes through the entire model’s body. It will describe the actual curves of the body that describe her position. Compare the position of the leg where her center of gravity is to the top of her head and draw it correspondingly so as your figure wouldn’t seem to have no equilibrium. After having traced the ink “spine” draw the actual silhouette using a pencil. Take 3-4 to perform this exercise.

Ink and pencil on paper

Remember that while performing all these exercises your attention should be mainly focused on your live or magazine model, not on your paper.

To be continued…

By Catalina Rusu