Drawing your own proportional figure is a key factor to drawing a successful display of your fashion illustration. Creating your own fashion figure you can rely on will help you draw well put together garment illustrations quicker and more accurate. Drawing a figure can be intimidating, but with the right tools it’s very simple.
The basic croqui is 8 ½ heads high. A high fashion figure is a full 10 heads high. We will start with the basic croqui.
To draw a proportional croqui, create a figure map for yourself to create landmarks for positions of the body. When starting out it’s easiest to make one head equal to one inch but this can be proportionally adjusted. Create a 9 head or 9 inch figure map by drawing a 9 inch vertical line and a horizontals line at every inch mark. Also mark the 1 ½ line. Label the horizontal lines 0-9.
Now to begin your figure, start by making your figure very geometric.
1. Draw an upside down egg shape for your figure head. This should fit between lines 0 & 1.
2. From the base of the head at line 1, draw a rectangle that rounds out on the bottom to the 1 ½ line to create a neck. The neck should be 2/3s of the head width.
3. The 1 ½ line is the location of the shoulders. Draw a straight line parallel to your marking that is 1 ½ heads long (the length of the figures shoulders. Connect the shoulders and neck by drawing a straight line from the shoulder points to the base of the neck. This will create two small triangles.
4. Line 3 is the waist location. Draw a line that is ¾ of a head length parallel to line 3. Connect the shoulder points to the waist line to make a trapezoid for the upper torso.
5. Line four is the crotch location. Draw a line parallel to line four that is 1 ½ heads long (this should be as long as the shoulder length) to draw the full hip. From the waist line draw a second trapezoid to make the lower torso.
Your figure now consists of the head and body and needs limbs. Each arm and leg has 3 points where the limb can bend called the joint socket. These can be represented by a ball.
6. Draw a ball in the shoulder points and in the full hip to create the shoulder and hip joints. To draw the upper arm, draw tapering rectangles from the shoulders at the 1 ½ line to the waist at line 3. At this point draw another set of ball sockets for the elbows. To draw the upper leg draw two rectangles from the joints at line 4 tapering to line 6. at line 6, draw ball sockets for the knees. From the elbows and the knees, draw two smaller tapering rectangles to make the lower arms and legs. The arms should continue from line 3 to line 4 and the legs should continue from line 6 to line 8. (Key fact: the under arm should start at line 2. Line 2 is also the bust location)
7. Draw a ball socket at the end of each limb to mark the wrists and ankles, draw rectangles to represent the hands and feet ½ head long to finish off your geometric croqui.
Practice your figure developing it to look less geo metric and represent more of a human figure. Curve and shape the figure making the transitions smooth and fluent. Once you begin to become familiar with your figures proportions, you can turn your figure to a ¾ or profile view by shifting the body angles. These angles can be matching or apposing depending on your desired pose. Have some fun with it and stylize your croqui to your own personality. Just remember the importance of proportions!
