SKETCHING

Designers draw inspiration and ideas from everywhere ranging from: the sidewalks of cities to their morning cup of tea; the beauty of nature to the books they read. Inspiration, innovation and creativity are limitless and to express this, designers sketch!

Fashion designers sketch in journals, diaries or workbooks. They form a visual record of design thinking and process that is a valuable resource. There is no correct or incorrect way to sketch as it is about expressing an idea quickly from the mind and onto paper using the hand. As designers grow, their ability to sketch fearlessly improves and designs blossom from this process.

Below is a gallery of fashion designer sketch books, resource folders and design ideas. Explore it and get inspired as you should be sketching throughout your design process.

(Burke, 2006; Castle & Peters, 2007)

Let's get started on sketching...

Activity 1: Natural environments to inspire sketching.

Gather the following items together:
- Sketch book or paper
- Pencil, charcoal or mechanical pen
- Magazines
- Camera
Find a spot outside the classroom or learning environment, preferably filled with trees/bushes or different colours/textures.
Absorb the area for 5 minutes collecting bits 'n' pieces and taking photos.
Find a quiet spot and sketch the textures and details of the environment for 10 minutes.
Now, quickly create some fashion sketches that reflects this experience for 10 minutes. You can use a template.
Collate the photographs, texture sketches, gathered items and fashion sketches and montage them together in Photoshop, write a reflective paragraph on the experience and post your image here.
Examine everyone elses sketches and process montages. Give feedback, ask questions about their process and look at the translation of environment into design sketch.

Tip: Use a template to make your sketches quicker, to scale and easier to do.

Anchor 1

Explore the lead pencil...

Activity 2: Understanding the qualities of lead pencils.

Gather the following items together:
- Sketch book or paper
- Pencil, charcoal or mechanical pencil
Follow one or more of the videos to develop your sketching skills and lead pencils drawing techniques.
Design and record your own 30 second sketching activity to share with your fellow illustrators.
Record your activity on your phone, edit it in animoto and post here.

Activity 3: Find an example of a Fashion sketch. Share it here and write two sentences describing its style.

(Avram, 2013)

Reflection time...

Did you like the process of sketching?
Did you feel yourself getting more confident each time you sketched?
Was it easy drawing inspiration from your surrounding envrionment to generate design ideas?
From these exercises, do you now think you have the skills to keep sketching?

Respond to one or more of the reflective questions in the box below.