Types of Fashion Figures
Get Started with Fashion Drawing
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In this lesson, I’ll show you the 3 most popular fashion figures, and their proportions – so you decide which one to use for your fashion work.
If you want to go back to the main page of this free video series, go here.
You can watch the video or read the lesson, whatever is best for you 😉
Alright, the fashion figure you use can have any proportions and size that you want. Actually, if you fancy, your fashion figures don’t have to be accurately proportionate and look as similar to the human body as possible – I’ve met a couple of designers and illustrators who exaggerate the size of the head, or slim the whole body, or play with the whole proportions to make the fashion figures their own.
But, usually, the fashion figures are similar to the human body because most people like to present their designs and illustrations in figures that look like real persons. For me, that’s true, I want people to feel related and attracted to my designs and illustrations (as if they would say ‘hey, that could be me’).
So, let’s see the 3 most popular fashion figures:
- The eight heads figure.
- The nine heads figure.
- And the ten heads figure.
The eight, nine, ten heads? What’s that?!
Well, the height of a realistic human body from the crown to the toes is around eight times the height of the head.
For fashion purposes, the body is stretched and elongated to nine head and sometimes ten head sizes (always below the waist only). This elongation is given to make the fashion figure look more stylish and chic.
That’s why you’ll see here, and in books or other people’s videos talking about eight-head, or nine-head, or ten-head figures.
Once that’s clarified, let’s continue 😉
1 | The eight heads figure.
As I mentioned, the eight heads figure is the one with closer proportions to the real human body. In the images below you can see an example of a fashion figure with an eight heads size, and also the equivalence between the eight heads figure and the human body.
2 | The nine heads figure.
This figure is taller than the real human body by one head. And the elongation is created below the waist. This is my personal pick; I like to have a stretched figure, but not too elongated. And, in the image, you can see the proportions of the nine heads figure and the parts of the body.
As you can see, the torso has the same proportions as the 8-heads figure, but the legs are longer to get a more stylish look.
3 | The ten heads figure.
This figure is even taller than the real human body, and the size of the torso and arms also change.
If you want longer fashion figures, this is your size (10-heads height). And if you want even longer figures, you can add more head sizes below the waist. In the image below you can see the proportions of the ten-heads figure and the parts of the body.
And in this image, you can see the difference between all of the three fashion figures.
So, do you have a favorite fashion figure now? Which one is your fave?
It doesn’t matter what’s the one you prefer or if you change your mind later, you can follow the exact same process to create your fashion figures in any size and with any proportions.
Now that you know what’s the size of the fashion figure that you want to create, it’s time to grab your tools and materials to create some preliminary exercises on the next two lessons 🙂
With LOVE!
