Fabric

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Every single designer needs to understand the qualities of fabric, what it does and why, and costume designers become complete experts on every seam and weave and thread. In the kit of symbols we learn to draw with, however, we don't really have workable marks for drawing fabric


In raising the level of our drawing, we want to move beyond the barely malleable bunch of symbols we've accumulated to create images - the 'eye' symbol, the 'hand' symbol, etc, like a set of stamps we pull out to use when we encounter these things.

The point of drawing observationally and responsively in our exercises is to break down the symbols we've learned and force ourselves to take in the surprising, unpredictable forms of reality. Opening ourselves to these forms, and passing them through the sequence of eye-to-brain-to-hand-to-paper, the forms become a part of our understanding, and we can then begin to draw from our imaginations with fantastic freedom and persuasiveness, which is the point of all of this, really.

I said before that we draw what something is Doing, not what it looks like. If we had the budget, I would issue everyone a parrot that would sit on your shoulders repeating this over and over.

We must always draw fabric by drawing the pull of gravity, what keeps the cloth from falling to the ground, and how does it twist and fold around forms. The dress, for example, that hangs from the shoulders and gathers across the chest and cascades down the back - it really helps to think in terms of active verbs that give life and energy to the forms of fabric. The dress is not just There - so much is happening!


Think of verbs that describe fabric; here's 15 off the top of my head:


Fall
Cascade
Drape
Spiral
Flow
Buckle
Stretch
Burst
Tear
Gather
Bunch
Pucker
Pinch
Drop
Twist

Can you add any? George Bridgeman, teaching at the Art Student's League a hundred years ago, broke down the different effects of fabric into the following five categories:

Now, even if fabric often acts like it never read any of Bridgeman's books, these are a really helpful guide, and repay study.

Your Mission

Take a piece of fabric, drape it over a chair, and draw it in pencil. Simple as that!

It may be a dress, a sheet, a towel, 2 yards of China silk - it's up to you. It should be a solid color without any pattern, and it probably should be a lighter tone for simplicity's sake. Convey the sense of the fabric's fall to the ground being impeded by the hard form of the chair. Use shading simply and clearly. Use line weight to make the overall form clear, and don't let the lines of folds and wrinkles overwhelm the drawing - big forms first, details within.

And show me that rather than just doing an exercise, you are opening yourself to the miracle of actuality before your very eyes, the joy of perception! As Blake said, all movements and all sights contain the seed of ecstasy!

Fabric Study, Leonardo Da Vinci
Ox Gall ink wash on prepared paper,
heightened with lead white