Realistic Textures And Clothing

Class 2
Basics Construction of Folds

Folds can be very frustrating for artists to depict because there is so much going on.

There are interior shapes, exterior shapes, edges within the shadows on the folds, edges to the highlights, et cetera.

And so the first step to knowing how to draw folds is to simplify the process and learn to see only the most important details.

You have to know how to emphasize only what’s important so that your drawings and paintings don’t become cluttered with excessive detail.

Look at some different photos of folds in cloth.

Even though you can’t touch it, the exterior shape of the fabric and the way the folds move through it tell a definite story about the weight, thickness, and texture.

As an artist, you need to be able to identify those same key elements so that you can tell an accurate story in your artwork.

Notice what’s important about telling the story: first of all, look at the exterior shape.

How much does the fabric hang?

Thick, stiff fabrics obviously stick out more than something thin and flimsy, so if you’re drawing burlap, it can’t hang like silk.

Look next at how the fabric reflects light.

Are there strong lines of highlights and shadows, or are the tones more muted?

Strong contrasts and bright highlights depict shiny fabrics, whereas soft textures like jeans and unpolished cotton usually have less contrast.

The thickness and number of folds will also tell the viewer how thick or thin the material is.

Look at the upper ridge of a compression fold on the fabric you’re trying to draw. If that ridge is thick, it indicates a thicker fabric.

If there are few folds, that also indicates a thicker fabric.

But most importantly, consider which folds on the fabric are the most important to describing the movement.

Is the fabric being pulled? Twisted? Pushed? Hanging? Gathering?

You want to tell a clear story of what is happening, but not get bogged down with unnecessary folds that confuse the viewer and clutter the composition. So how do you know what to keep and what to simplify?

Try this simple exercise.

Get a blow-up of a photograph that includes clothing.

Trace a portion of it onto tracing paper.

It doesn’t have to be complicated; you may just choose an arm in a sleeve and a collar if you want, but be sure to trace every single fold and wrinkle that you see.

Remove the tracing paper and try erasing all the folds that aren’t important to telling the story.

Start with secondary wrinkles, then work your way up. You can always re-draw anything that turned out to be important, so don’t worry about over-erasing.

Next, practice shading those wrinkles.

A fold is usually nothing more than a line with a hook on the top, so it’s easy to shade folds if you remember to add tone inside the hook, then make a little highlight ridge around the outside of the hook.

Blend with a stomp and you’re done!

Class 3
Identifying and Constructing Three Basic Folds

In this class we’re going to identify three basic folds: the pipe fold, zig-zag, or, letter folds, and spiral folds.

Identification is important to the drawing process because it helps you to break down what’s happening in the fold logically, which in turn helps you to make realistic folds even without relying on references.

1. Pipe folds

Pipe folds are found, usually, in long, flowing drape material that is gathered at the top as in curtains, long skirts, or pleats.

You will see these both in the vertical and horizontal position; horizontal construction is the same, but may involve tension from side to side, almost like a candy wrapper as it’s pulled to untwist the paper.

To draw pipe folds, start with the scalloped, bottom edge of the overall shape. The upper edge may be a reflection, or it may be gathered closer.

Next, draw a series of vertical lines that connect the outer scallops with the inner, overlapping-edge folds that make up the fold.

Add shadows in definite shapes on one side of each vertical line, and blend the shadows if desired.

2. Zig-zag, or, Letter Folds

These folds are so named because they look like letters; specifically the letters “S, T, U, V, W, Y, Z, P, and X.”

They are formed when tubes of fabric such as pant legs or sleeves are slightly compressed.

When you’re shading letter folds, keep in mind that these are usually ripple folds, so the shading will be light, and the contrast between the shadows and highlights won’t be that extreme.

Think of making bubble letters as you draw them: there’s the interior shape of the letter, then the outside shape that mimics the inside.

The space between those two lines is the crest of the fold, so it should be kept light, and the space around the crest has shading.

3. Spiral Folds

Spiral folds are very similar to letter folds.

They too are constructed when tubes of fabric are compressed, but spiral folds are usually more compressed then letter folds, and so may involve overlapping lines and will have more contrasts in the tones.

This is the type of fold you will see on the curtain rod when the curtains are open, so to draw a spiral fold, it may be helpful to start with the indication of a rod, and then draw the fabric as you see it on top of that rod.

Make sure that the outside shapes match the inside shapes.

On the inside of the fold, you will often see the letter H, so the work you did in letter folds will help you when shading spiral folds.

Class 4
Common Folds 4, 5, and 6

In this class we will continue the step-by-step tutorial on the six basic folds, ending with the last six. These are called half-lock folds, diaper, or sag folds, and drop folds.

4. Half-Lock Folds

Half-lock folds are created when tubes of fabric are both compressed and bent, so not surprisingly, you will find them at the elbow joint and at the knee.

To draw a half-lock fold, begin with the overall shape of the bent joint.

Then, there will be a bulge near the point of tension, so, right under the kneecap in the bent leg, or right above the elbow in a bent arm.

On the inside of this bulge, there’ll be a dark line that forms a hook.

Shade inside the hook, and don’t forget that there needs to be a crest around the hook that corresponds with the bulge.

5. Diaper, or, Sag Folds

The sag fold is found in places where loose fabric sags down between two points of support.

For instance, in cowels, cloaks, and in loose skirts that drape between the knees of a seated figure.

To draw a sag fold, make two dots on your paper that signify the points of support.

The top line of the fabric needs to dip down between these points, and the dominant fold lines will radiate from these points as well.

The hook lines in this type of fold will look more like a checkmark because of the line of tension, so when you add shading, darken the inside of this checkmark, and don’t forget a highlight edge right above the darkest lines.

Also, don’t forget that you need two lines for each shape, whether highlight or shadow.

6. Drop Folds

Drop folds are very similar to sag folds, except that there is only one point of support.

Fabric hanging from a hook will have drop folds, and there are always drop folds in still life scenes of fabric as well; these are the most artistic, beautiful folds.

A simple ribbon drawing exercise may help you to understand how the inside shapes and the outside shapes need to correspond together in a drop fold.

Folds always involve a consistent pattern or rhythm, because as one part of the fabric is pulled, a corresponding part is pushed in.

So as you draw folds, look for the point of tension in the cloth, and give those strong lines, especially if they form overlapping edges in the cloth.

When you shade, develop the darkest shapes on the folds first, and then use these dark shapes as a roadmap for placing the rest of the folds.

Soften the dark shadows with a stomp or chamois cloth, and don’t forget to leave a highlight edge on the crest of the folds.

Class 5
Creating a Cloth Study in Watercolor

Now you get to try your hand at painting a cloth study in watercolor. Choose a light-colored piece of fabric with either a simple design or no design at all.

Set it up in an interesting way, being careful to avoid symmetry in your design.

Draw the outside shape of the overall piece of cloth on your watercolor paper, then draw the inside folds.

As always, make sure that the inside shapes match the outside shapes, and don’t be tempted to include every fold that you see. Remember, good clean composition comes first.

When you’re satisfied with your drawing, get a large, medium, and small watercolor brush ready and mix a base color for the fabric.

Paint the base color with a large, flat brush, avoiding the highlights on the crest of the folds, but covering everything else evenly.

While the color is still wet, mix in multiple shades of the same color, or use complementary colors.

Let the base tone dry.

If your cloth is sitting on a support, paint that, then start to paint shadows on the cloth with your medium flat brush.

To be sure that you’re using the correct color, test a swatch of it before you start painting.

Paint the largest shadow shapes first and try to make them as large as possible.

Don’t let the paint dry before the entire shape is complete.

For areas where you need a gradual lightning of the shadow, use a more watered down mixture of the shadow color and work outward from darkest to lightest.

In the darkest areas of the shadows, you may need to drop in some blues or other darker colors to make those tones stand out. Let it dry.

Use a small round brush to carefully add the very darkest shadow shapes.

Keep overlapping edges in the shadows very crisp, and be careful not to darken every shadow, but only a few places where the shadows need more depth.

This step will give your painting more dimension. Let it dry.

If your cloth has a pattern on it, add that pattern now, making sure that you follow the contours of the folds.

While the pattern is still wet, you can bring out highlights on your pattern by simply blotting it with tissue. Let it dry.

Finally, paint cast shadows from the cloth on the support and table.

Take a step back from your painting and see if there are any final places that need a touch up.

If not, let the painting dry completely, and then you can take it off the support.

Class 6
Developing a Cloth Study on Toned Paper

In this class, be doing another finished cloth study, but this time working on toned paper.

Working in pastels on toned paper will allow you to focus on highlights as a separate part of the drawing and strengthen your ability to see them.

Begin by sketching the exterior shape of the cloth on your pastel paper in charcoal.

When the rough shape is down, you can clarify the outside and inside shapes.

When you are trying to draw complicated folds, it will be helpful to work from large to small, using your large pieces to help fit in smaller pieces almost like you’re building a puzzle.

Darken any overlapping lines in the folds and clean up your drawing until you’re satisfied.

Next, use a pastel pencil to establish a base tone.

Toned paper will help you to see things in reverse—you are adding lights and leaving darks.

Cover the fabric slowly, working in one consistent direction with your strokes.

Make sure that you follow the contours of the folds as you work.

Now use a pastel stick to fill color over the top of your pencil strokes.

Use at least two colors and let them mix together on the paper.

If a box is visible, add a base tone to that as well. Shake off excess pastel dust as needed.

Then, blend your base tones with a stomp or your finger, but be aware that you can damage your skin if you do a lot of work in pastels, so try to use blending tools.

Darken your shadows with another pastel stick.

As you work, try to name the folds that you recognize from earlier lessons to reinforce them in your mind.

Blend the shadows with a stomp, then add an even darker color over the top.

You can use a pastel pencil to sharpen lines and bring out your very darkest darks and smallest details, just be careful not to overdo any line work.

Use a white pastel stick and pastel pencil to add your highlights.

Be aware that there is a difference between light-colored fabric and highlights on the fabric; you should only see highlights on the crests of folds.

Blend your highlights, and then take some time going back and forth between adding darks, blending, adding highlights, and so on.

Finally, add a cast shadow on the box and ground and blend.

If you don’t have soft pastels and pastel pencils, you can do this exercise with any opaque medium: colored pencils, oil pastels, acrylic paint… even crayons will work in a pinch.

Just remember, the point is to be able to bring your highlights out as a final step, so the medium you choose must have a clean white that will cover other colors.

Class 7
Drawing Clothes on the Upper Torso

In this class, we’re going to focus on how to draw clothing on the upper torso of men and women.

The class will cover seven different body positions, and while each position will have differences, there are some general similarities to keep in mind no matter what position the body is in.

1. Keep the underlying body position in mind as you draw clothing.

It maybe helpful for you to review a book on human anatomy just to familiarize yourself with the way the large bones and muscles of the body move together.

Knowing the underlying structure, you can quickly build the framework of the human skeleton by using either a double triangle system or a double trapezoid system.

By sketching the upper torso as a one trapezoid, and the hips as a second trapezoid with the spine connecting the two shapes, you can quickly and accurately develop the human body moving in any position you want.

2. Keep the clothes in perspective.

As the body moves, the clothing moves with it. This means that collars, hems, seams, pockets, etc. must only be as visible as the movement would allow.

3. Look for the point of tension

Examine the body for a bit before you start drawing. Where are the points of tension occurring?

Tension is what causes the cloth to wrinkle and fold, so anything that sticks out (breasts, pectoral muscles, shoulders, belly…) will potentially cause an accompanying dip in the material.

Similarly, when there are movements in the body like bending, twisting, reaching and leaning, the material will reflect that movement and twist, compress or stretch right along with the body.

4. Examine how the clothes are made

Collars on fitted shirts are stiff and smooth, hemlines often have little puckers at the stitches, and sleeves fit onto shirts at seams.

The way the article of clothing is manufactured will have a lot to do with how it moves and folds.

Look for folds in places where you’re always going to see them, such as in the armpits or at the collar, and start by putting them in.

Additionally, in shirts, you can start by drawing the length of the sleeve, then decide a few key elements.

Is the shirt tight, or loose? Does it have buttons? A collar? Rolled sleeves or straight?

If you start with an accurate drawing of the figure, it is a simple matter to add the clothes as you answer these questions for yourself.

It will also be helpful to visualize the movement of the body and how that will affect the clothes as you work.

If the body is shifted to one side, there will be compression folds on one side and tension on the opposite side.

If the arm is reaching, you will see lines of tension radiating from the shoulder clear down the sleeve.

Keep all this in mind as you work, and you will have an easy time clothing the upper torso.

Class 8
Drawing Clothes on the Lower Torso

In this class, we’re not only experimenting with how to draw jeans and dresses on the lower torso, we’re also adding the new element of working in pen and ink.

I recommend using a brush pen, which makes it very easy to change from a thick line to a thin one by simply modifying pressure.

If you don’t have a brush pen, though, you can get the same effect by using several pens of different thicknesses, or by using a quill pen.

The same principles apply to drawing the lower torso as to the upper, so keep the underlying form in mind as you work and always visualize the way the body is moving beneath the clothing.

Fabric on the lower body is often looser and more bouncy than the upper body, as in loose, flowing skirts and dresses, so the outer line of the garment is very important in depicting the weight of the fabric.

Lightweight fabrics will bounce up as the person walks, whereas heavier, stiffer fabric will stay fairly stable and static even during movement.

Begin drawings of the clothing in pencil, and make sure the body is accurate and realistic before attempting to add clothing.

As you start adding clothes, take some time observing the movement first so you can find the points of tension and understand how the cloth would have to pull and compress to accommodate that motion.

Then draw the clothing in pencil and make changes as necessary until you’re satisfied that the drawing makes sense, looks realistic, and shows enough information for the viewer to understand what’s happening without getting distracting in the amount of detail.

When you’re ready to start adding ink, begin by laying in a broken line for the outside shape of the garment.

It can be tricky to draw in pen and ink, because you have to depict everything in line—the exterior shape of the clothes, the texture on the clothes, interior shapes of the folds, and shadows on the clothes.

You can understand, then, how extremely important it is to use line variation to make your drawing clear.

After drawing the exterior shape of the clothes, use a thin line to develop the folds on the inside.

If the lines are overlapping edges, thicken the line or use hatching and cross-hatching techniques to develop a variation in tone.

If the lines are ripples in the cloth, use thin lines.

You might also find it useful to develop tones with a gray marker, which will make it easier to see folds versus color on the clothing.

When you draw jeans, use the techniques that you learned for developing half-lock and compression folds to add realism to poses that involve bent knees or leaning.

Take special care when drawing action poses; your clothing needs to accent the action and not confuse it.

So, if your figure is running, make sure that the clothes on the upper and lower part of the body work together to tell one consistent story of motion and don’t conflict.

It’s best to work from references when you’re drawing action so that you can be very, very sure of the lines and folds.

As you improve and become more practiced in drawing action, you can begin to draw from experience.

Class 9
Developing Texture in Watercolor

Seeing folds and learning how to draw and paint them realistically is only half the battle when it comes to clothing.

Equally important is learning how to depict textures. Texture is not just the look of the fabric, but the feel of it.

In this class, we will examine how to paint two very different fabrics: burlap and satin.

As different as they appear, however, the techniques for painting both are surprisingly similar, and in fact, can be used to paint any texture you choose.

Begin with a clear reference.

This can be a piece of cloth from life, or a high-quality photo.

Draw a square on some watercolor paper and draw the main shapes of the folds.

Keep it simple for yourself and try to use a reference with fairly basic folds.

After all, you’re trying to concentrate on the texture in this class, not the folds.

Next, mix a base tone that matches the lightest color in the fabric that is not a highlight.

Satin has very clear, distinct tones, but burlap does not, and in either case, you’ll want to test your color on a swatch before you paint it on the paper.

Let the base color dry almost completely.

For the burlap, add some darks to the folds while the paper is still slightly wet.

You want the shadows to transition from light to dark very gradually, and that’s best done when working wet-on-wet.

You may need to drop in the darks several times to keep them from lightening up too much when the paper dries; remember that watercolor always dries two shades or so lighter than it appears when wet.

When the paper is completely dry, add the shadow shapes to both fabrics.

For satin, don’t blend the mid-tone shapes; because the fabric is shiny, it reflects light very well and has extreme transitions from light to dark and sharp, precise edges.

You may need to use a small round to get the dark shapes clean and clear in the satin.

Just be sure that you’re always pushing yourself to use the largest tool possible for the area, because that will result in uniform colors and professional-looking paintings.

To add the texture in the burlap, start with lines that follow the contours of the folds.

They need to stay in perspective, getting very steep the deeper the fold is.

Use a variety of solid and broken line to cover the surface so that it doesn’t look too mechanical.

When the lines are dry, use a darker color and paint the small squares that make up the burlap.

This step will take a small brush and great patience, but if you’re careful, the results will wow you.

To add the finishing touches to the satin, you may need to mix up an opaque paint of white and a bit of blue to paint in the highlights.

If you introduce opaque color in one highlight, however, prepare to do it everywhere or it will look like a mistake.

Use a small brush, and tilt the board as needed to give yourself as much line control as possible.

Class 10
Developing Texture With Other Tricks

The final class of our course will end with a few tricks you can use to draw realistic textures.

While you won’t always be able to use them, they will come in handy very often and are good ideas to have in your artist’s tool kit.

Indenting

Indenting the paper to preserve small, white lines is a technique I’ve used for everything from fine hairs to buttons.

If you’re drawing something with a tedious pattern, such as plaid, small polka dots, or the like, you may be able to save yourself some serious time and deliver a higher quality drawing by indenting the paper before you add any tone.

Use something pointy but not sharp enough to tear the paper (like a blunt-tipped stylus or a sharpened wooden dowel) and draw the line or pattern you want to keep white.

If you’ve indented enough, you should be able to rub over the top with charcoal or graphite and not interrupt that design.

Rubbing

Every child knows how to make rubbings, but that doesn’t mean that it’s a technique merely for children.

Experiment in your studio with different fabrics and non-fabrics that lend themselves well to a variety of textures.

It would be wonderful to have a sketchbook filled with sample swatches of texture rubbings to have to refer to as you work—you never know when you’ll stumble upon the perfect texture to apply to something you hadn’t considered before.

Some examples of good materials to take rubbings from are fabrics that have a stiff, easy to feel texture such as burlap, tulle, canvas, and velcro, but you can also use non-fabrics to depict fabrics.

For instance, wood grain and elastic both make a convincing jeans pattern.

Sandpaper lends itself well to high-pile cloth such as towels. And other cloth can be rubbed over to depict itself, such as lace, burlap, canvas, or tulle.

Drawn Textures

There are also textures that are impossible to rub, but are fairly easy to draw convincingly.

Some good examples of these textures would be quilted cloth, which is just a series of diamonds with rounded edges.

Fur is another good example of a texture that is fairly easy to draw, either by using pencil line, or indenting the small hairs beforehand with a stylus and then rubbing over the top with charcoal or graphite.

All three of these techniques can be done with colored mediums as well as charcoal or graphite.

Take some time in your own studio and experiment with rubbing, indenting, and drawing textures using colored pencils, pastel pencils, watercolor pencils, pastel sticks, and the like and add those to your sketchbook.

The more you experiment, the more you’ll have to bring to the table when you’re facing that blank page of possibility.

Reference Material …

Click here to download burlap and satin reference

Click here to download reference for jeans and skirts

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