Here again after a long (too long) break. My Inspiration in every Issue didn’t last very long! To be fair, I did do a few more projects, just never got around to posting them. I’ve also spent most of the summer working on another major project, which is almost finished, but I can’t write about it just yet.

One thing I’ve been doing is a short course at Central TAFE in Perth called Fashion Design for Beginners. It covered things like trend forecasting, branding, illustration, designing a logo etc. I had been going to do a course just on Fasion Illustration, since that was what I really wanted to learn, but there were not enough enrolments for that one. The course was still very interesting and stimulating, and I did get to do quite a bit of drawing. I think mainly I should just try and practice. Styles of drawing are so varied, and don’t necessarily involve accuracy or realism, which is what I usually find hard about drawing. There doesn’t seem to be a right way to do it, as long as you convey an impression of the garments. There are in any case two lots of drawings, the illustrations on a model which give an impression of the garment or outfit, and technical drawings, flats or lays, which show how a garment is constructed. The latter I found quite easy, probably because I know how a garment goes together, but the more artistic side of it was difficult. And I gave up trying to draw realistic people, realistic clothes was hard enough!

All together a worthwhile exercise, particularly if I can keep up some practice. I really wanted to learn the drawing part so that I can illustrate the ideas I have when I want to make clothes. The lecturer was a very talented artist called Seonaidh Murphy, who also has a website called Soft Constructions.

I was going to post some of my drawings here, but now I realise I haven’t scanned them yet, so they will have to wait. In the meantime if you are interested in fashion illustration there is a useful tool you might like to try at Fashionary.