Made 30 sample garment sketches before I actually learned proper proportion

Tbh I was just tracing over random silhouettes for weeks. Turns out I had the head-to-body ratio all wrong on every single one. I hit 30 sketches before my buddy who works in pattern making pointed out the shoulders were like 3 inches too wide. Now I start by mapping out the skeleton first before drawing a single pleat or collar. Has anyone else spent way too long on bad habits before getting basic feedback?

3 comments

3 Comments

noah9172mo agoMost Upvoted

@finley_lopez98 I feel that, my first 25 sketches all had hands bigger than their whole head lol

jade2711mo ago

My friend Brian went through this EXACT thing last year. He spent 3 months drawing these fashion figures that looked like they were built by someone who only knew about spheres and sticks. His first 50 sketches had shoulders that were like 3 feet wide with heads the size of an apple. He showed me this one drawing where the model had a waist so tiny it looked like she'd snap in half, but her thighs were the size of tree trunks. He actually framed one of his worst ones and hung it in his room as a reminder of how far he's come. Now he just uses the same 5 basic pose templates over and over and says it saved his whole art journey.

finley_lopez982mo ago

My first 40 sketches had arms that literally looked like noodles attached to a fridge lmao. I was so proud of them until my sister asked if my model was secretly Mr. Incredible from the shoulders up. I spent a full month drawing these boxy torsos with stick limbs before I even looked at a fashion croquis template. The worst part is I thought I was killing it with the fabric draping but the proportions were so off it looked like the clothes were melting off the figure. Now I literally trace over basic pose templates just to keep myself honest.