Central Saint Martins - Experimental Fashion Drawing Course

In 2019 I took a course at Central Saint Martins in ‘ Experimental Fashion Drawing ‘. After some research I thought this would be the best choice for me to develop my illustration skills and the course could provide me with some new techniques. I felt like I was a real student again even if for just a week at an amazing art school in London, UK. Always wanted to study art when I was young, however, I have never had the chance to do it due to various reasons, life always directed me on different routes but eventually ended up living in London. This city has given me so much, opened up my eyes, influenced me on doing things that my heart desires. It was an incredible opportunity for me to attend to this art school, one of the best in the UK and spend a whole week on my passion, let my creativity flow. This week was about setting loose and seeing where it took me. Hopefully learning more about my personal style and a new confidence to my illustration.

I remember I was outside in the big hall waiting to be called in for the first class, whilst was already meeting some of my classmates. I felt the vibe was rising everybody was so excited. After entering the classroom I felt like I was at home, being in my kingdom. I wished I just could stay around forever.

The course was structured by daily themes and tasks that would improve our drawing skills, force us into new ways of seeing and try new techniques.

Day 1 was all about line & blind drawings, a lot of exercises of making quality of lines.

Day 2 was all about the face. This is something that most artists struggle with including myself. After a whole day exercising could see some improvements, positive results in my sketches, gained confidence in drawing a FACE absolutely! During the day we also tackled negative space, measurements & proportion which are also fundamental elements of drawing.

Day 3 - 4 would say these were one of my favourites days, experimenting with Collage, Design & Mixed Media, the results were fantastic.

Another an eye opener exercise, when we started to draw from patterns and dressed up a blank sheet with some piece of colourful papers , random things by using a drawn face , 2 hands and feet as a model. Once the abstract improvisation was done, we were using a tracing paper for drawing the lines around to come up with an outfit idea. I really liked this exercise I would love to implement this technique in my future clothing designs.

It helped me think outside of the box, and pushed me to beyond my boundaries and expanded my imagination while was creating an absolutely unique design piece.

I would also love to mention the group painting that was so much fun, loved it. We had 2-3 mins turns on each piece by going around / chair by chair adding our bits & styles to each piece of art we created all together.

There was a great model to draw from every day , wearing cool outfits, making the life drawing sessions more fascinating.

Day 5 last but not least, we played with silhouettes, the results were awesome, encouraged me a lot to work with different concepts and let’s not forget about the homework that made my evenings.

I really enjoyed the whole week, I have to admit it’s among my finest life experiences. We had been provided with an incredible talented teacher “ Alexis “ , also met some amazing people who I have been in touch with until today.