Monday, October 10, 2016

Self Made Croquis

AS with so many things that change as I age, my perception of what looks good and what doesn't has had some difficulty with the transition that my body has undertaken.

In my mind, I still look the same. 
And I'm not.
So this is an exercise in how I'm making a croquis for drawing and doodling ideas
and
 mostly it's an exercise in coming to terms with how things are right now.

I have never used them before.
http://www.designersnexus.com/fashion-design-portfolio/v53-free-fashion-croqui-templates/
I just don't move like that. I also don't have legs that are possibly three times my torso height.
You can do this at home for yourself. You need a camera, a mirror or a pal, a picture editing program with tools (Paint is great, still comes imbedded in Windows 10, there are other editing programs on the web for free but this is the one I can use in my sleep), and access to the Internet. 
Well, you surely have the last one  if you're reading this.

First come the photographs.

 (shakes head and sighs)(that's an audible sigh. I'm doing this for you, kids!)

Then we edit in paint



Clip out the background

Then we go online to PicMonkey. Which is free. You can buy in for more advanced features, or you can do a free trial for them. Your choice.. I made the image black and white, then posterized it.

I used the Edge Sketch to reduce it to a line image. Kind of a line image.
This one is going to be easier to edit back in paint

The front image that I didn't edit is harder to read. And it took longer to clean up. But I got a useful result from it as well.


Back in Paint, I've lightly drawn over the basic, sad, chubby little outline (slaps self: those cookies were good, dammit. Quitting smoking was hard! And then there's been the gym-interrupting injuries!)



It was easier to use the line took instead of the pencil at some points. This is a cartoon, not a pencil sketch. I could make it pretty or I could make it useful. And looking at yourself knowing you're going to make a blog post out of it is painful.  Yes, I have left out photos. I'm here to explain a process.


I select the better half of me (if only!) and rotate and paste.



I've never been bilaterally symmetrical before!


So this is what I have. It's not that pretty, but it's realistic. And it took about an hour and I can make as many copies as I can stand to look at.
Hmmmm coookies.....


8 comments:

  1. That took guts. I know exactly what you mean. I think our bodies took the same path. Thanks for the tute. Now you can make paper doll clothes too.

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    1. I don't know that I'll ever use it as is, but I did want to address what I look like NOW, not that frozen image stuck in my head from 1983. I weighed 120 pounds then. Pretty much the same silouette, but with ....shoulders.

      I have to remember I don't have shoulders like I used to.


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  2. I don't believe that Croquis is even supposed to look human.

    This is a great post, thank you. Though I'm slightly worried that we'd never make anything but hats and bags if we knew what garments would actually look like on us.

    I hope your frozen shoulder is better (now I've been reminded!)

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    1. So why do people get so stuck on drawing on croquis? It's like Barbie, it's just ridiculous. The YSL show (you're all going to get really sick of me writing about that) has his paper doll project from the late 50's. And they're unreal as any barbie. Oh, and the Barbies are in the lobby.

      I just don't get the disconnect. I don't know that anyone can wrap their head around that one. And I love hats.

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  3. This is fascinating. I think you are very clever in so many ways but being able to use Pic Monkey or whatever is impressive. Most of us are not models so we need clothes that make us look better, so a croquis would be very helpful. It would be nice to have an app for this.

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  4. Impressive and very useful. And brave. I'm not that brave yet. I'll aspire to be that brave. Love your spirit about sewing.

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  5. Good for you! I did one of these a few years ago and was severely traumatized! ;) I don't think I've used the croquis I got out of it more than once. 😂 I'm sure you'll do better though.

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  6. Brilliant job! I tried this a while ago, then realised that [a] it was too depressing and [b] I truly can't be arsed to draw out style ideas, I just go for it!

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