There once was a Leprechaun named Lucky Whom all ladies thought was ducky His secret weapon concealed Shamrock briefs rarely revealed That is except to his beloved wife Kentucky
Tag Archives: Croquis poses
Croquis Named Lucky
Mardi Gras Croquis
WordPress baffles me. Yesterday was my second largest number of blog visitors in a single day. The previous record was held by Kristin Espinasse’s Tuesday Talent interview. This make sense considering her loyal following. But there is no rhyme or reason to yesterday climbing the charts to #2. Either there are a ton of foodies out there or you’re all trying to figure out how to launder money.
And it’s been far too long since I’ve given my faithful Fashion Illustrators anything. So in honor of Mardi Gras I dressed up a croquis pose. How do you like her? I plan to post more poses from time to time. Let me know if there are particular poses you’d like me to draw. That’s Right! I’m taking requests.
Rogue Illustration #8 ~ Pop Art
It has been months since I drew someone I saw out and about. My favorite subject is capturing a Moment in the life of……kind of thing. I could dedicate an entire blog to this as well. It would be the metaphorical love child of Garance Dore and the Satorialist.
I am a rogue Illustrator. I often madly take notes of each person I see using anything available at the time in my purse. I want to be able to capture them later. I have been known to surreptitiously snap shots with my IPhone to rememberwhat they are wearing. I really should carry my camera around with me and ask to take people’s photos. Like Lisa Warninger does in her blog Urban Weeds. Only mine would be illustrated Street Style. I could strike up a conversation with my subject and go from there. Then I might even be able to share a little bit about the people that catch my eye.
I came across this gal at Michael’s over the weekend. She was standing in line purchasing paint brushes and a sale pack of canvases. I wish I had talked to her, found out what she was creating. The site of her pink underlights and purple shoes laces was all it took. I finished my return, scribbled out the details and then went home to sketch her up.
Ha! I just renamed these posts Rogue Illustration. Here are my previous versions and there are more to come.
#7 To the Dogs, #6 Morning Prowl, #5 A Work in Progress, #4 My Morning Coffee, #3 Tatiana & #2 Knuckle Punch (Colored here), #1 Aarrghhhh (Colored/Pencil)
Magnetic Mannequin
So the Wooden Mannequin never worked for me as a visual reference for fashion illustration. I constantly fall back to my trusty friend the Croquis. Lately, I have been playing around with my travel design kit ideas and decided to create a magnetic croquis to use on a magnetic white board and eventually on the magnetic cutting board in my travel design kit.
Here is my latest How to project for the budding Fashion Designer.
First up you’ll need some supplies:
Now the Steps:
1. First you’ll need to break out the croquis parts in sections so you can reticulate the figure. You’ll need Head, neck, Torso, Hips, Arms and Legs sectioned upper and lower, hands and feet.
I hand drew these parts directly onto the magnetic sheet using a black permanent ink marker. I will have templates you can to print out on a magnetic printer sheet (One Male, the other Female Croquis parts) soon. In the meantime you can always use my croquis templates from Croquis Part II or any croquis figure you want. I would encourage you to create a custom Croquis template and then create your own personal magnetic wardrobe consultant.
2. Next you will need to cut out the shapes.
3. Now begin to play with poses.
Here is a quick Doodle of poses for inspiration.
4. Now trace out your image.
First I tried using the dry Eraser pen. Once I had the image defined I would trace it onto paper. This would have worked if I had a white Dry Erase Board. Since mine is Purple it wouldn’t work.
Next I tried to place a piece of paper beneath my croquis parts. I found that the magnetic sheets that go into your printer are not strong enough to hold a piece of paper to the White Board. You could always try purchasing the thicker magnetic sheets available at most art supply stores or use thick cardstock and glue heavier duty magnets to the back.
It all depends on which method you want to use for transferring your pose. I just placed my paper on top of the croquis and traced the shape. Since my lines are black it still worked. I just had to be careful not to bump the pieces.
But make sure to decide which method you would prefer as this will inform how to create your own custom croquis project.
5. Last but not least Draw your Design. I chose an outfit featured in Flare Magazine May 2012 Issue ‘Beyond the Sea’ worn by model Bekah Jenkins and photographed by Chris Nicholas.
I only hope you have as much fun as I did with this project. Good Luck!
Croquis Pose Quick sketch method
I came across a video on quickly hashing out a croquis pose from a photograph. I wanted to make sure to share it with you but have managed to lose the link. Ugh!…the dangers of blogging and idea storage mishaps. Once I rediscover it I will post the link.
Since this is the method I use for quick sketches I will do my best to reiterate the idea. First I have created a Croquis drawing guidline sheet for you to use. I draw by eye on a blank sheet of paper keeping mindful of the body proportions. But the template helps in the beginning.
In Croquis II I went over the basics to creating the croquis figure. I talked about the average person being 8 heads tall. My tutorial talked about creating a 10 head figure. But as this illustration by Aciele shows you can make your croquis as small or tall as you desire. The process is the same so create them at your whim.
But for the purpose of this exercise you can use my new 10 head figure template. I made it a little lighter so it won’t compete with your pencil lines. I suggest you start with a simple pose like this one.
The center line on the template now serves as the plum line. Start by defining the angle of the shoulders, waist and hips. Then connect the shapes creating an outline for torso and hips and draw in the crotch. Next you will draw circles in for the elbows, wrists, breasts, knees, and ankles. Then connect these dots.
From here you can add in the neck, head and feet and flush out the figure. Once you are happy with how it looks ink the lines you want to keep and erase the pencil.
Like everything practice, practice, practice. Then you can move on to more challenging poses like this one of Veruschka by Richard Avedon, 1967
Hope this tutorial was helpful. Enjoy!
Images: Aciele / Frida Gustavson for Neiman Marcus / DCTdesigns
DCTdesigns Creative Canvas 
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