June - Clothing and drapery month!

If anyone noticed, I haven't done any long written blog post in a while. The reason is that I wanted to make this blog more about the drawings and less about the talk. It worked for me as I got a lot of drawings and work done during May. But for now I have to make an exception cause I'm once again dedicating a month to improving a certain area of study - namely, clothing and drapery!

This month is supposed to be dedicated to working on my comic and learning more about story but as fate would have it, my current project extended and I have a chance to design and animate 6 new characters plus 20 aliens. Now I decided to go along with the circumstance and study clothing instead to improve my designs and to make the characters more fun to animate in the future.

So for now, my plan of attack is this:

Drapery :

1. Vilppu's video/notes on drapery

2. 7 types of folds on different types of fabric (thick, average, thin) and it's rigidity (hard, soft, crisp). Note the similarities and differences between them.(5 samples per fold, per fabric) 25 samples per fabric x 7 types of folds = (175 total samples)

3. Master copies - Look for fold patterns and study how of these people draw/translate them: (200 copies)
-simple - fabien-m
-intermediate - gainax (TTGL and FLCL)
-complicated - kekkaishi

4. Appeal (200 samples)- Now that you've learned how folds work, it's time to present them in a way that you'll find it fun to draw and people want to look at. Keeping in mind how interesting are master copies you've done earlier, the two things to do to add appeal onto your own work are:
-simple, interesting general shape of fabric
-interesting and well defined two tone, giving sense to the folds

5. Putting it all together. Draw from your street photography bookmarks = (125 copies)

Pencil Mileage:
The top priority is to draw clothing/drapery everyday no matter how long or short your available time is. Just don't miss a day. Aim to do 100 clothing/drapery studies every week. 30 are copies from animation and 70 are drawings based on real life.


As an additional guide, here are a list of the most common types of fabrics, categorized according to : (thickness) thick, average, thin + (rigidity) hard, soft, crisp.

1. (normal, soft) Cotton is derived from the fibre of the tropical cotton plant. When the cotton flowers bloom and die, a boll remains which ripens and splits open to reveal a white, fluffy interior with seeds – this is the raw cotton. Cotton is the most widely used fabric and is the basis of over 30 types of textiles.

2. (thick, hard) Denim is a type of cotton fabric woven in such a way that the threads produce that distinctive diagonal ribbing on the underside of the fabric. Traditionally it was dyed blue and the first denim trousers were made in Genoa, Italy. Both the words ‘denim’ and ‘jeans’ are of French origin.

3. (thin, crisp)Linen is derived from the fibres flax plant and is highly valued for it’s fresh, cool feel especially during hot weather. Some fabrics of cotton or hemp when woven in a linen-like weave are referred to as linen.

4. (thin, soft)Silk is one of the oldest and most luxurious fabrics known to man. This protein fibre is obtained from the cocoons of the mulberry moth and was first produced in China as far back as 3,000 BC.

5. (thick, soft) Wool is a natural protein fibre derived from the hair and fur of different animals including sheep and goats. The fibres are shorter than those of silk and generally form a looser weave.


Gonna post the results and a tutorial in the future. Till then, keep your pencils busy!