Heyhey,
so this is a good way to draw figurines if you dont feel like constructing one. But its a really bad method if you struggle with your self-bodyimage, I am normally quite ok with the way I look (besides that ring around my belly and hips), but this one was a little confusing and depressing for me. If you have troubles with your body image you can take a picture of someone else. 😉
first you need a picture of somebody in tight clothes or underwear, with a high contrast so you can see the outlines of the body well, (the tight cloth made me look fine I thought), print on a paper with some space above and below
cut the body
and draw the outlines onto another paper, of course you can use the figurine like this, for testing which forms would look good on your actual body form
draw the 8 lines to the body, below the chin, at the armpits, the waist, crotch, middle of the thigh, below the knee, above and below the ankle, you probably will notice your 8 stripes arent equally wide, no person normally is
take your 8 equal stripes paper
and draw it onto another one, make sure the strips are about the same size as your head strip
then cut the strip lines and place them into the right proportions, my upper body until my waist only needed a linger neck, from waist to crotch I am to long (weird me:p) and then my legs again needed some stretching and believe me, I already have troubles finding pants long enough for me
connect the lines, because the upper arms got a little bit longer, I also made the lower arm a little longer and moved the hands, and I drew myself a waist;)
put another paper on top and draw the outlines with a pencil
then I redrew the lines with my thin marker, just inside of the pencil lines to make it even more skinny
original me and figurine me
looks ok, but if I compare it with other figurine I am still quite round after all the things I did, and I thought I looked ok on the picture. 😉 see not good for your body image 🙂 but on the other hand its good to have a almost average size figurine I think. Do you notice how fashion seems to be about supper skinny, and there are a few things in plus size, but what about the average ones in between? Some of the skinny fashion already looks bad but the super size also isnt right…, I am the one with wide hips, but a small round on my butt, a big breast cup and a high waist that isnt to visible, thats the way I am, and there are all those other body forms that have other things that work for them or not, but fashion designers design for super skinny ones, and often they are the only ones looking good in it… ok enough of the whining;)
well nevertheless I hope this was helpful for you guys! let me know what you think!
keep sewing and smiling
your TailorFairy
So why did you cut up your shape into strips them spread them out? Wouldn’t you want the shape to stay as accurate as possible?
You can of course keep it that way, if you want an accurate figurine for yourself. But maybe some people use pictures of others and just use the figurine for general fashion drawing and this way you have those 8 heads size that is considered as ideal. You for yourself can decide what will work best for you;) and I think it helps you understand your own body if you try it one time and see, where you dont fit into that ideal concept, this way you know better what to emphasize with your clothing 😉