Fashion Design Sketchbooks for Easy Illustration

The first step in designing your own fashions is to draw a sketch of what you want your new style to be.

A fashion design sketchbook helps you to create professional-looking sketches and illustrations, and maintain proper proportion (which is much harder than you think, if you're not a natural artist!).

These sketchbooks contain croquis - nude figure templates that you use for drawing your design.  Just draw the style you like right over the template - the realistic sketch will help you truly visualize the look you're going for. 

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fashion design sketchbook

This sketchbook not only has over 100 full-size (8 1/2" x 11") pages of croquis, it has a Glossary of Design, and some thoughts on where to find inspiration for your designs, and how to use that inspiration (without copying someone else's style!).

It's a sketchbook I created myself, and I've used croquis with realistic figures.  Many sketchbooks use croquis with very, very tall and thin figures, which can result in stunning illustrations - but the final product will never look like the sketch when it's worn by a real person. 

The croquis in this book represent a misses figure, with an approximate 8" - 9" difference between waist and bust or hip.

plus size full size sketchbook cover


Like the book above, this is one I created.  It has realistic plus size figures - if you design for larger women (or "normal", in my opinion!), this will allow you to show how your styles look on a body with real curves. 

The croquis in this book, aside from larger circumference measurements overall, also have a thicker waist. It represents a difference of about 5" - 6" between waist and bust or hip.  


misses small size sketchbook

These books are also available in a smaller size (5 1/2" x 8 1/2") that you can throw in a tote bag and sketch on the go!

plus size small sketchbook
dress design coloring book

This fashion-inspired book is NOT a sketchbook - it's a coloring book! 

I've included it here because, believe it or not, coloring books can be a great source of design inspiration. 

The styles in the book may give you some ideas for your own designs - taking the neckline from one dress, and the sleeves or body style from another, for example.  

And color itself is an integral part of design!  Choosing colors - and making different colors work together - is an art. It takes practice, and using a coloring book will help you refine your color skills.  (it's also just plain fun!)

This video shows you how I use coloring books for design inspiration.


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