How do you draw clothing?

[Aloredd]

I'm a new artist with zero training and little practice under my belt, and have a question that's been bothering me for a couple of days now.

Do you draw the shape of the body and then put the clothes around it, or do you draw the clothes and then add the body? Is it a preference thing? Is it even possible to do one way and not the other?

[fighterxaos]

I've been taught to draw the body then draw the clothes.

[UzukiCheverie]

Do you draw the shape of the body and then put the clothes around it, or do you draw the clothes and then add the body? Is it a preference thing? Is it even possible to do one way and not the other?

what sounds like the easiest and most convenient method? xD

(body and then clothes).

Mostly because, well, that's just the way you do it. It's not even a preference thing, it's mostly a knowledge thing when it comes to drawing characters, like the knowledge of drawing general anatomy in the first place. Draw your character, even if it's just a quick sketch or base, then add the clothes, or add the clothes as you go along. Drawing the clothes first would just be inaccurate and you wouldn't actually be drawing the character, then the actual anatomy would be wrong and you'd get frustrated pretty quick lol But I'd like to see the artist who's drawing clothes first and then body >.>

[Aloredd]

haha...that would be something to see but as i said I've had no kind of training what so ever so I wasnt sure with some of the detail some of the artists put into their clothing. All the clothing i try to draw looks somewhat like a multicolored skin suit and if I try to do anything else it certainly doesnt look like clothing.

[GlanceReviver]

For cartooning, you should probably learn to draw the body no clothes first, because the position of the body will affect the way the clothes fit over it. The clothes will bunch and hang differently depending on position, and it's difficult to express that if you don't know where the body is pulling at it from.

There are cases like, if you have a model for reference and you're drawing it from life, then your goal is to draw exactly what you see. But it's difficult sometimes to process what you're seeing without a basic grasp over anatomy.

So regardless of how you choose to go about it, figure drawing is going to be an important skill to practice.

[hades]

beep beep
body - - -> clothes

I am a link full of tutorials and refs

[Aloredd]

thank you so much for this! It is more informative than the book I have here at home ^^

and none of these came up in google search, so thank you

[scythe]

Body first, then clothes. And look at a lot of references if you can. Clothes don't always fold in ways you think they would. Your imagination can only take you so far.

[Zannen00]

Came into thread for the post

Goes back home with new tutorial and newfound knowledge in hand

Thank you

[bmacbride]

You don't have to fully flesh out the body before you draw the clothes on, but at least block it in on a sketch layer. If you at least have the proportions down, the clothes won't look weird and there'll be minimal guesswork.

As for fleshing out cloth/drapery, @Marchen has provided some great refs. Also, as always, the best way to learn to draw anything is to draw from life. Bunch your bedsheets up, hang them from a chair, wrap them around something... do some speed sketching and try to get a feel of how direction, pressure, and placement shape the material.

[hades]

I caaaaaaaan't express Bmac's advice enough. The best way to learn is to study and observe what is around you and what you actually wear. Fabric is different for different sets of clothing and reacts differently to various stresses and movements!

[TAMAnnoying]

Why would you draw clothing? :v just make everyone naked!

[AnnaLandin]

Those tutoriasl @Marchen linked are great, and I'm seconding everyone else in the thread by saying yes, you do need to have some idea of what the body beneath the clothes looks like; knowing where and how the limbs are bending makes it so much easier to draw clothing-folds around knees and elbows and shoulders.

Different fabrics behave in different ways; a silk skirt willl behave differently from one made of, say, denim; denim is a heavier material, less likely to fold up in very small folds, and less likely to be fluttery in the wind, for example. Heavy fabrics are more likely to fold in only a few places, and then more likely to have softer folds - as in, the type that bulge a bit more, as they have to accomodate a thicker volume of fabric. Thinner fabrics will have more folds, and those folds are likely to have sharper lines, as they have to handle less fabric-volume within that fold. Silk will get wrinkly really easily, while leather hardly folds at all, and so on.

[Menbung]

The struggle is real when you draw a pretty naked peep and then it's time to add the clothes, why why, but yeah clothes are so pretty and awesome too, so sometimes I need to add clothes u..u .

To answer your question, you draw the body first and then you add the clothes. You see, clothing folds according to the person wearing it, if he/she raises his/her arms you'll have some folding different to, let's say: your character is flexing his/her arms. So you need to visualize what your character is doing to draw fitting folds for their clothes.

You could practice drawing your own clothes, or your friend's. I'm pretty sure you have some pics of yourself wearing some formal-informal clothing. Pics are at party, at school. Try drawing them, see how they fold =] . You'll be drawing pretty awesome clothes in no time.

[ashriott]

As above posts, defo body first then clothes. I think it does help if you draw he body real nice and then draw the clothes, but not really convenient since no one sees the body after >< But it's definitely a good way to practice for beginners imo. Then slowly you can start "blocking" out the bodies in rough sketches, then clothes come quite easily. There are lots of great clothing tutorials on Deviantart, I recommend you do a search and see which one speak to you : )

[punkarsenic]

shape of the body, then put the clothes around it. be aware of where they fold, look at real clothes for references.