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Essential Tips For Drawing Drapery and Folds - Art Rocket
Essential Tips For Drawing Drapery and Folds - Art Rocket
Essential Tips For Drawing Drapery and Folds - Art Rocket
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Art Rocket > Character Art > Essential Tips for Drawing Drapery and Folds
Fabric and folds can take all sorts of forms depending on the softness of the material and the shape of the body. This illustrated tutorial by
comic artist miyuli covers basic concepts and approaches for drawing fabrics of all kinds.
Materials
It is very important to consider the materials that you draw when dealing with folds. They all have their very own characteristics that help to
decide where to put the appropriate folds. Their texture dictates how diffused the shadows are.
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Thicker material has wider folds that are usually less visible.
Hard materials are usually pulled more at the bending area or at the seams.
Soft and thin material produces the most folds, especially around the bending areas.
The amount of folds also depends on how heavy the fabric is and what kind of material it is made of. When drawing fabric it is a good idea to
consider how thick/thin, hard/soft, heavy/light and smooth/textured the material is rst.
Heavy fabric causes folds of a different volume and different width. It is also more idle and shows fewer folds even when moving.
All clothes have their own arrangement of parts, which heavily in uences the formation of folds.
It’s good to familiarise yourself with common placements of seams. You don’t need to draw them all, but it is better to have a good
fundamental knowledge of the construction.
Folds tend to pull at prominent seams, especially on clothes like suits where the transition between seams is quite noticeable at the shoulder.
Sweaters usually have their arm seams much lower and the folds don’t pull at them as much.
Clothes with a wide cut show different folds than clothes with a narrow cut. A tight cut follows the form of the body and wraps around it.
Wide clothes show a lot of droopy folds that go from the pulling point towards the ground.
Clothes are often designed with folds or lack thereof in mind.
Fitted material is designed to look elegant with as few folds as possible. When clothes are too tight or too loose there are more folds that give
a less elegant appearance of the clothing, especially when looking at the silhouette.
Worn-out fabric tends to crease more than new or well-maintained fabrics.
Note: When drawing clothes and folds, it can help to consider what material ts the character’s personality rst.
External in uences
Movement
When the body is resting the fabric is usually dragged down by gravity. More prominent droopy folds appear the wider and lighter the fabric
is.
When bent the fabric is pressed together and creates hollow shapes that vary in size.
There are more bumps with more narrow material. Wide material tends to squish together with fewer folds.
The material adapts to the forms’ movement. Folds usually follow the twist. It can be very helpful to emphasize the movements.
Note that the lighter and thinner material in the example above shows fewer folds since the arm is still mostly resting.
The arms heavily dictate the pulling areas where folds emerge.
Opening a jacket absorbs some of the pulling when the arms are raised.
Pants
When a leg is lifted, the knee becomes the strongest pulling point.
Be careful of the forms that the pant legs create when the leg moves.
Depending on the thickness of the material the shadows around the folds appear slightly different.
When shading folds, it’s good to use a combination of soft and hard edges.
When painting pay attention to how smooth and soft the material is. The smoother it is, the more it re ects light and has a brighter highlight.
Rougher and more textured materials diffuse light.
The darkest area is usually where forms are pressed together and an occlusion shadow appears. This also applies to very deep creases where
light does not reach.
Here are some quick tips that I noticed while shading materials.
The shading, like the width of the folds, varies between soft edges or highlights depending on the material, so it’s good to familiarise yourself
with as many materials as possible to build up a rich visual library.
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