Design Process: Fashion Cutouts

Hi everyone!

This isn't an uncommon technique when it comes to designing or gaining inspiration for fashion, but I would still like to talk about it. Making cutouts is especially handy if you're not very comfortable with drawing just yet, or just want to experiment with an idea quickly without spending extra time making little details.

Cutouts are almost like reverse paper-dolls. Normal paper-dolls (or Stardolls, for example) have a flat body/base, where clothing can be layered on top. The cutout technique is very similar, but you either cut-out the clothing shape from a model, or use a 3-D material to create a new kind of clothing.

Let's get right into the technique!

You can use:
- Magazines
- Comics/books
- Your own drawings
- Photos of yourself/friends
- Stardolls! (just as a fun extra)

**and just as a quick note, everything I express here is all for personal/practise and free use only**

1. Magazines/Photos
My fashion school has a large collection of fashion magazines just for this reason. If you like reading magazines, comics or have photos of you and your friends... print, photocopy or rip them out!

(Also, do your best to remember where the images came from, the cover was already ripped out of this magazine, but it seems to be from the early 2000's)

You may also need a craft knife or something similar. Have a cutting board or heavy card backing available, such as the back of a sketchbook.

Cut out the garment, or a part of it - so it leaves an open space. You can also leave in edges, folds, belts.. it all depends on what you like about it!

For this one, I left a few lines for the belt and skirt.

I liked the shirt print here, so I only cut out the pants.

Then, collect up some inspiration, images and objects to create into a new design or print. Place your cutout on top, move it around a bit and see how it looks on the model.

(I have a tutorial on gaining inspiration here if it helps)

This really is just playing around with your images until you find something that works. It takes me quite a while to find something I like, so keep trying!

There are other things you can try, like photocopying something in black/white instead of colour, or tracing an image to show only the outline, which is what I have experimented with below:

You can make the final creation look very different from the original inspiration!

2. Drawings/Your own work.

Using your own drawings can work just as well. By taking your own photos, or drawing up shapes, art and croquis (fashion templates).

Here are a few simple templates I have used to demonstrate, you are welcome to use these too!

Once again, print and cut them out, and see what textures, colours and effects you can apply to them.

The cover of my binder for fashion school

A flower picture turned upside down

3. Using a Stardoll!

This is just a fun little extra for Stardolls. While we always see our doll in the digital realm, I think it would be pretty cool to bring it into the real-world too!

For this, I printed out various versions of my doll wearing different types of clothing. Then, did the same as before, cutting out various parts of the clothes.

I added a card boarder to some of them because the images were pretty small and needed some support, but this isn't entirely necessary.

Another great part of using a Stardoll is that you can print out the base (without clothing). This makes it a lot easier to overlay objects and things to make some interesting shapes and ideas!

Autumn leaves from the garden

A flower pot in my house

Holding it up to the sky

If you have any leftover easter egg foil, this is another way to reuse it!

From my holographic backpack

Use your own doll, or a friend's doll. I think it would make a lovely gift to design something inspired by what they love.

Get creating!

Throwback Tutorial: Proportions and Basic Joint Editing

This was originally from a tutorial on my old Stardoll Graphics blog. The information here I think is still pretty useful for both graphics and fashion illustration, so enjoy!

From Saturday, December 13, 2014

When drawing or editing figures, it is very important to keep proportions in check. If done right, they make the model appear more natural and realistic.

Proportions
Knowing proportions helps when resizing faces and poses. This can be difficult to judge at times so it helps to keep these guidelines in mind.

This tutorial uses Stardolls as a visual example, but since dolls are very similar in build to the real human form this can be referenced when drawing people too.
People come in all shapes and sizes but our proportional structure is almost the same, pretty cool right?

The 1/2 addition in head size for the female doll is from their pointed foot, without heels they would be only approximately 6 heads.

This proportion guide helps a lot when it comes to editing with a cropped body. Even through the entire body is not there to measure, there will always be some part to go from.

For example, when adding a Stardoll head to a custom body, I can size it correctly in reference to the side of her shoulders.

Joints and Bones
When it comes to basic pose editing, we need to know exactly what can be edited. In real life, there are restrictions when it comes to what we can move. Two of the biggest things to consider when making or shifting poses are:

a) Does the bend/shape rest on a joint?
b) Does the bend work naturally?

This is more directed when editing the Stardoll 'default pose' as it is a very straight form and we need to determine which areas can be altered.

Here is a simple placement of the joint areas in the body, in these areas you can cut and adjust the limbs to create a new pose.

Something I tend to do when drawing or editing is try to move my body in a similar fashion. It helps to see or feel how the pose will become, and if it's impossible or doesn't feel natural then I look for a better solution. To also look at real-life references or models helps too.

As an example, I quickly cut and arranged the body - try to spot which joints are incorrectly placed:

Here are the joints:

The limbs are not symmetrical, with some being longer and shorter in areas. They also seem exaggerated, but looks more painful than dramatic.

To fix this, I softened the poses with looser movement and altered the joint placement.

This is similar to the pose workings on Stardoll Stylista; normal Stardoll clothing can be worn, but it's a nice change-up from the regular look.

Hope this helped!

- Brittany

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Thank you to my wonderful models, HRHMadeline and kawaii.otaku