Fashion designers in Disney, by Ulrich Schroder

You know I love so much the topic of alternative promoting of fashion.

Now, here’s what I’ve discovered: in Elle Spain April issue, Ulrich Schroder transported some of the top world designers into the Disney world. Karl Lagerfeld, John Galliano, Marc Jacobs, John Paul Gaultier, Dolce & Gabbana and Donnatella Versace, just to list a few, have been illustrated as everybody’s beloved cartoon characters. Naturally, I instantly thought about these cartoons as a way of promoting in fashion. Totally different and totally viral.

Just look at them and say if you wouldn’t simply love to spread the news, or more exactly the cartoons!

Almost all fashion starts on paper…

“Almost all fashion starts on paper … where the ideas begin. This is the part I enjoy most about fashion, because you really can create anything you can imagine (even if it can’t actually be made). So I joined the idea of ‘Paper’ and ‘Fashion’ in creating the name,” explains Kathryn Elyse, the creator behind Paperfashion.

Read here the rest of an amazing and useful interview she made with Infashuated.com

How is the color wheel really useful when illustrating?

Until recently I believed that the color wheel is a nice theory. But I never really got how knowing its structure and knowing how colors relate to each other, can actually be useful when illustrating or painting. With this unspoken question on my mind, I stumbled upon some really nice information that I would like to share with you today.

It is about how the understanding and using of the color wheel principles can really improve your work. To make your work easier, I chose some of the most significant principles related to this subject and I shared them bellow, but you can find here more on this and on other matters related to illustration and painting.

1. Color Wheel
A COLOR WHEEL contains three primary colors of yellow, blue, and red, and three secondary colors of green, purple and orange. The secondary colors come from mixtures of the primary colors. When spinning the COLOR WHEEL, one sees white. When colors on the wheel are mixed, brown or black is produced.

2. Color Light
Apply lighter colors first in rendering. When a drawing is rendered too dark, it is too late. Using lighter colors first will prevent this. In addition, the human eye is generally like to see soft and lighter color, therefore, use of COLOR LIGHT is a good trick for the beginner. How: Render a drawing using lightest colors first, then gradually build up to darker colors.

3. Color Pair
The human eye is like a camera. When looking at a color, our eyes are constantly searching for its opposite color in the COLOR WHEEL (red to green, blue to orange, purple to yellow). These color combinations are known as complimentary color or COLOR PAIR. When COLOR PAIR is used, the two colors excite each other, but when mixed, they create an earthy tone, which depicts how our eyes see in the environment and makes a drawing look more real. In photography, a red dress on a color print will appear green on a color negative, and blue sky on color print will appear orange on color negative. How: When rendering, add a small amount of red to green grass and trees, orange to blue sky and yellow to purple carpet. An easy way to remember the COLOR PAIR is to apply the primary colors onto three finger tips. When any of the two fingers are put together, the color they create is the COLOR PAIR to the color on the finger remaining. Another easy way to remember COLOR PAIR is to associate red and green with Christmas, blue and orange with the sunset, and yellow and purple with the iris.

4. Color Next
COLOR NEXT is three sequential colors from the COLOR WHEEL, which creates harmony, GRADUAL VALUE CHANGE and is pleasing to the eye. How: According to the COLOR WHEEL, use groups of three consecutive colors. For example, the COLOR NEXT of a tree will contain yellow, green and blue, while COLOR PAIR of a tree is red. Therefore, all the above colors shall be included when rendering a tree.

5. Color Repeat
Rainbow colors exist throughout the universe and creates interest, excitement, and color, thus avoiding monotony. This technique will capture most of the previous color principles. How: Include at least six dominant colors from the COLOR WHEEL and two to three shades from each color.

6. Color Connect
Frequently leaving pure WHITE SPACE between colored objects can create spottiness. Proper use of COLOR CONNECT can help avoid this problem. How: If possible, do not allow WHITE SPACE to completely surround an object. Use lighter color to connect two objects together.

7. Color Glow
Often when lighter colors are applied to a drawing separately without touching one another, they will create glow of light so colors will illuminate the space and excite your eyes. How: Apply lighter or pastel colors directly on the white paper.

Drawing faces

What I am going to share with you now, I’ve learned during my short illustration course at Central Saint Martins as well. But I chose to put it in a separate post rather than including it in this one or in this one, because I believe that the face of an illustrated model has a very important role in transmitting a certain message to your audience, be it the final client, or the people from your team who have the task to transform your illustration into a real garment. Have you ever heard about the expression “having a certain attitude when wearing a dress”? That’s what I’m talking about. We transmit this kind of attitude mainly through our faces.

That being said, let’s face the issue!

Proportions of the perfect front view
Draw an oval (your shape is going to differ in accordance with the shape of your model’s face). Split it into two halves, then split the lower part into another two halves, and finally, split the lower part of the face into other three equal parts. The upper line will cross the eyes, on the lower line you’ll draw the end of the nose, and you’ll draw the lips right in the middle of the lower part of the face. The ears will be placed between the first two lines you draw across the oval of the face.
I also illustrated on the scheme above, the position of the eyebrows. In order to find the position of the eyes, trace a vertical line through the middle of the oval, then divide each half into three equal parts. The eyes will be placed in the middle thirds, as you can see on the scheme.

Proportions of the perfect profile view
Draw a trapeze like the one you see in the scheme bellow, then follow the instructions from the perfect front view tutorial in order to find the position of the eyes, nose and mouth. Unlike the front view, the ears in the profile view will be placed between the line of the eyes and the line crossing the lips.

Things are quite simple until hear. Now, what about drawing faces/heads of models that don’t look straight ahead or in profile? Here, I’ll have to urge you to call for your sharp sense of observation and your imagination, rather than following exact proportions.

So, what should you do? Choose a starting point. It will be your landmark. It can be the nose, the mouth or the eyes, depending on the position of your model’s head. In any of the cases it should be the part that is the most visible, the most prominent. Then, find the position for the rest of the parts of the face, relative to your landmark. In order to simplify your task, trace imaginary lines between them, thus connecting them.

Good luck and good drawings!

Fashion illustration tips from Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design

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

The creativity song or how to increase your creativity

You have possibly read about ways or techniques to increase your creativity. I did it, too. But this one, I have experienced myself recently so I decided to share it with you.

You know that sounds, color, smells, tastes, images are able to recall certain memories or states at human beings. So, while working in my class during the fashion drawing for beginners short course at Central Saint Martins in London, they put us several times this song.

After one week, I randomly heard the same song in a different scenery, but I suddenly felt a crazy will to start drawing. I felt a boost of creativity and a will to create.
The same can happen with any kind of set: smell, decor, color.

If you don’t have such a set that could boost your creativity due to previous experience, you can simply create one. If you want it to be a song, train your mind. While working listen for the same song several times. After a while listen again to the same song.

See what happens. Then enjoy your creativity boost!

By Catalina Rusu

Karl Lagerfeld - A Quick Sketch

iulias:

Awesome to see Karl drawing. He made my day!

Watch him:

A tutorial on how to illustrate using the iPhone/iPod Touch

Due to the kindness of one of my favorite iPhone painters, Susan Murtaugh, retired Artist and community volunteer, we can provide to you this tutorial on how to illustrate faces using iPhone apps, I’ve spoken about in this previous post.

This tutorial applies for male faces, as well as for female faces. Just adapt the curves and the colors a little bit. When should you use this kind of drawing in the fashion creation process? There are multiple ways of which one can think of. I will give you an example only: print on the garment you’ve created an illustration of yours and the result will be astonishing!

The images and the explanations inserted speak for themselves, so I will let you enjoy learning!

Thank you for your support, Susan!

By Catalina Rusu

Fashion Illustration Media: iPhone Apps

It is probably one of the less known, talked or written about fashion illustration medias, but surely one of the most at hand and comfortable ones. I’m talking about the iPhone Apps.

When using it you won’t need a huge bag to carry sketchbooks, pencils, brushes, paints. All you need is a pocket for your little, fancy iPhone. And every time a brilliant idea or just a casual one occurs to you, take out your iPhone and start sketching or painting. Quite uncommon and so challenging. Only when you’ll try to make an illustration on your own, you’ll know why is it challenging.

Illustration made with Layers App by Catalina Rusu

It works somehow similar to softwares like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator, but it’s much easier to use and more intuitive. You can draw with your finger or with a Pogo Stylus, a pen specially designed for iPhone drawing.
Here’s a list of iPhone Apps developed for sketching, painting or for processing your works afterwords, if you want to:

- Brushes2
- Layers
- Inspire
- Artists touch
- Photo fx
- Photogene
- Artisan
- 101 photoeffects
- Spinart
- Vihgo
- Eastern draw
- Jackson pollock
- Paintbook
- Mill colour
- No photo realistic painter
- Musophobia
- ZeusDraw
- Frame Muse
- Sketchbook

Now there’s one thing left to do! Upload the apps and start testing your digital art skills.

*Special thanks for contributing to this post to Patricio Villarroel, one of my favorite iPhone finger painters.

By Catalina Rusu