Fashion Sketching: a Step-by-step Guide to Drawing the Basic Fashion Croquis with 9 Heads Proportions | For Beginners — amiko simonetti (2024)

Drawing the fashion figure doesn’t have to be challenging. In this tutorial, you will learn a simple method to create a professional female croquis template, one step at a time!

You can use this croquis as blank fashion sketch template to draw all your designs!

Prefer video?
Check out my free mini Course on youtube: Drawing the Fashion Croquis: a Step-by-Step Tutorial for Beginners

Before we get into it, let’s answer some questions…

What is a fashion Croquis?

A Croquis is a drawing of a fashion model that you trace over to design clothing. You can also call it a fashion figure or template.

Fashion croquis can be all different shapes, sizes, and styles. It all depends on the end use of your design and the demographic you are designing for. I’ve used different croquis throughout my career. Some were more stylized while others were super simple.

(P.S. If you want to take the pressure off of creating your own croquis and start designing right away, check out this 9-heads female figure Croquis Kit I made.)

What are the Proportions of a Fashion Croquis?

I will demonstrate how to draw a ”9 heads” croquis. The croquis is 9 heads tall from the top of the head to the ankles, which is much more elongated than the average woman. (The feet are excluded from the equation since they can vary in height depending on the type of shoes and heel height.)

A 9 heads model exaggerates the proportions of a fashion model to display clothes in an elongated and dramatic scale.

However, fashion models can, and should, have diverse body proportions, so I encourage you to evolve your croquis to be any shape and size.

This tutorial will teach you how to create the 9-heads croquis (with the proportions taught in fashion colleges) but you can adjust the proportions later to best fit your target demographic.

What Does “9 heads” Tall Mean?

The height and width of the head is used as an index for the dimensions of the rest of the body.

In this image, you can see how the body is broken up into 9 equal sections from the top of the head to the ankle bone. The feet are excluded because they can vary in height depending on the type of shoes and heel height.

It’s helpful to use the head as a point of measure instead of an actual measurement because your paper size can vary. From a tiny piece of paper to a billboard, you can map out the size and proportions of your figure by drawing 9 heads first.

If you are working with an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, you can have each head be roughly 1” tall but this measurement will change depending on your paper size.

Let’s Begin the Tutorial!

Before we begin, you will need paper, a pencil, and a ruler (or any straight edge.) Tracing paper would be helpful but isn’t necessary. Draw lightly with pencil so you can erase easily.

Step 1: Draw 9 heads that are roughly the same shape and size and label 1-9 (leave some space at the bottom of the page for the feet.)

Step 1: Draw a vertical line, perpendicular to the horizontal guidelines. This will be the center line

Step 2: Draw an oval for the head

Step 3: Draw a horizontal line for the shoulders (roughly 2” heads wide)

Step 4: Repeat step 3 for the hips (the hips and shoulders are the same width)

Step 5: Draw a horizontal line for the waist (roughly 1 head width)

Step 6: Connect the shoulder, waist and hips

Step 7: Draw a guideline for the arms as pictured

Step 8: Draw a vertical line from the waist down

Step 9: Draw a cylinder for the neck

Step 10: Connect the neck to the shoulder

Step 11: Draw small ovals for the knees

Step 12: Draw small ovals for the ankles

After the skeleton of the croquis is established, we can add muscular structure and shape. Take your time and draw lightly so you can erase easily.

Step 1: Draw ovals for the shoulder, bicep, and lower arm
Step 2: Draw ovals for the upper and lower leg
Step 3: Draw triangles for the feet

Step 4: Add shape to the neck and outline the arm, using the ovals as guidelines. Repeat on other side

Step 6: Add neck, bust, and underwear line as illustrated.
Step 7: Add center line at each side of body as as illustrated. This is called the “princess line.”

* These seam lines are helpful guidelines when drawing clothes*

Step 8: Edit the croquis as desired, adjusting proportions as necessary. Then follow the below steps to complete the croquis.

Both sides of the croquis should be mirror images of each other for accuracy when drawing clothes.

Ready for the next step?
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