20 Ways to Draw a Dress and 44 Other Fabulous Fashions and Accessories

20 Ways to Draw a Dress and 44 Other Fabulous Fashions and Accessories: A Sketchbook for Artists, Designers, and Doodlers
By Julia Kuo
Gifted by Quarry Books
Reviewed by Molly Fletcher, Editor of AllFreePaperCrafts.com

You don’t have to be a professional artist to enjoy 20 Ways to Draw a Dress. With over 90 pages of illustrations, Julia Kuo teaches both inexperienced and experienced crafters the building blocks of fashion design. Although some of her drawings look complicated, they’re all based on simple shapes. Once you’ve learned how to break down each design to its most basic forms, sketching a sophisticated outfit is much easier.

A blank page can be overwhelming if you’re not sure how to begin. Kuo sets people of all artistic levels at ease by providing over 900 illustrations that readers can color, copy, and tweak as they see fit. Maybe there’s a color combination you’ve been meaning to try, but you can’t decide on the right shade of blue. Pick out one of the book’s illustrations, break out your colored pencils, and find out which hue works best.

Feel free to turn 20 Ways to Draw a Dress into your own fashion lookbook. Instead of flipping back and forth through the pages to match a pair of shoes with a cardigan, clip out the drawings and experiment with different combinations of colors and styles. Whether you want to master sketching a little black dress or a piece of traditional Asian garb, this book has you covered. Kuo sketches examples of every piece of clothing for every occasion, from flats to high heels, from sportswear to evening dresses, from bracelets, earrings, and belts to wristwatches and gloves. There’s a great selection of men’s clothing, too.

Fashion allows us to express ourselves in new ways every day. If we’re feeling extra girly, we can put on floral print skirts and lace blouses. If we’re feeling edgy, we can throw on some studded bracelets and a pair of distressed jeans. 20 Ways to Draw a Dress allows you to splice these looks and more into one outfit. You might be surprised by what you discover.