Drawing and Painting Tutorials

One of the cornerstones of fashion school is learning how to sketch fashion figures. However, as fashion school students learn, there’s a big difference between proper body proportions in art and in fashion.

In art, the body’s proportions are measured in heads. The average figure is about 7-7 1/2 heads, including the actual head, tall.

However, in fashion, the body proportions are elongatedin order to better represent the models, who are above average in height. Because of this, the figures become 8-10 heads tall. Though the basic proportions of the fashion figure are about the same — give or take 1/4-1/2 of a head — every illustrator adds their own style to the formula.

FIDM's Fashion Club offers a free fashion sketch tutorial to learn how to draw the nine-head fashion figure. 

Gather your supplies. You’ll need a pencil, eraser, ruler, and sketchpad.

Sit down at your desk with the open sketchpad in front of you. Now you are ready to let your imagination take over and fill the white space with your fashion sketches! 

The natural figure is typically rendered as an 8-Headed Figure. The 9-Headed Fashion Figure is longer than the natural figure.

Throughout these sketching lessons, we will refer to your figure as a croquis. Croquis is the French word for sketch and refers to a figure outline used as a basis to sketch designs on. Get to know this word!

Step by step tutorial on how to draw a business jacket in fashion sketches and illustrations.

Drawing a jacket may seem like a difficult task, but once you learn the basics it will be one of your favorite garments to draw and design. A good-looking jacket will add sophistication to a dress, suit or why not even jeans. “Dress for success” and enjoy the steps in the new tutorial!