This weekend I found something to really help me imagine my gowns I am sure those of you are who are professionals or artists know about Croquis. They are drawn mannequins that allow you to explore your creativity. I have taught people to sketch out gowns and attach fabrics so when you are heading to fabric stores or trim places you can bring them with you or threads!!! I call them' Garb Boards', however I had heard of the term Croquis and I took a class 3 years ago at CoCo but it just did not jell for me, it did not work at all. Then I took a class this year and BINGO it was like the bulb of light was hanging over my head. Since I am a Plus Sized person, the Croquis that we were given, were for fashion models and so the dimensions were just not fitting for my body type.
So I hit the net and I found several plus sized Croquis for me to play with, I don't own a light box as it was suggested to play with this, but I had no issues in drawing with plain printer paper over the drawing I found.
So here are some of the Croquis I found on the Net:
Plus Sized
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs18/i/2007/183/f/a/Plus_Size_Croquis_1_by_dedredhed.jpg (http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs18/i/2007/183/f/a/Plus_Size_Croquis_1_by_dedredhed.jpg)
An Entire Family:
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/assets/uploads/posts/3719/CroquisFamily_lg.jpg (http://www.threadsmagazine.com/assets/uploads/posts/3719/CroquisFamily_lg.jpg)
I have begun to play with the croquis and I am having a ball with this!!
Cilean
They are very useful. I use them all the time. Have to tried these ones:
http://www.designersnexus.com/design/free-fashion-croquis-templates/
There's also this one: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://fidm.edu/academics/majors/fashion-design/articles/how-to-sketch/images/frt_fem_croquis.gif&imgrefurl=http://fidm.edu/academics/majors/fashion-design/articles/how-to-sketch/print_croquis.html&usg=__j_L-0AHXQzR3Oxx-0H7XN2PqadA=&h=667&w=390&sz=17&hl=en&start=0&tbnid=_uxxKP5eyYm5EM:&tbnh=161&tbnw=94&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcroquis%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1680%26bih%3D833%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=129&vpy=77&dur=1542&hovh=294&hovw=172&tx=85&ty=145&ei=1zZlTJv4D4qQjAfE0MnMCw&oei=ozZlTNvQDs7KjAeTg5naCw&esq=13&page=1&ndsp=38&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0
And these:
http://caitiegirlh2o.deviantart.com/art/Fashion-Croquis-003-133488708#/d27fahi
http://caitiegirlh2o.deviantart.com/art/Fashion-Croquis-003-133488708#/d27fa31
The Threads family is possibly the most use for historical stuff as they are based on real body shapes and plain postures.
As a fashion design major I'm required to use croquis alot for some reason...I'm definitely gonna save these links when I'm looking for something besides the "ideal" male and female bodies...
I saved a bunch of them for me to use when I design my custom work for theater. I've got a plus size girl I really want to make a new dress for, but finding a fig that is plus size has not been easy.
I just printed a couple of those yesterday for my 9y/o daughter who is a budding designer, and handed her my pad of tracing paper, and she's in HEAVEN!!! She's actually pretty good, and her imagination is awesome! She likes to be challenged, and asks me to give her "a style", then she goes off and comes back in a bit with her interpretation of that style, so I'm going to check out some books on Renaissance fashions for her to look at and see what she comes up with! :D