How to draw leather pants

This “How to draw leather pants” tutorial is exactly what you need if you are going for a sexy, rockabilly look in your fashion collection. Leather is one of those things that no matter the season, continues to be part of the runway shows and provokes us! Learn how to represent leather in your fashion sketches.

Step 1: A perfect fashion body

Start by choosing an appropriate pose to show the best of your design. Often fashion illustrators would choose a pose of the model that is showing the side hem of the pants, but here I have picked a front view walking pose.

Step 2: Design the pants

Draw the trousers with the belt loops, the pockets and the hems that are visible. Leave enough volume, so that the pants don’t look like tights. Even if you are designing slim fit pants note that there is still some volume around the legs, especially in the lower part of the leg.

Step 3: How to draw leather folds

Leather pants have very specific folds. Usually, they are many and they are sharp and tiny. Draw horizontal folds that affect the outline of the pants. Pay special attention to the crotch area, around the knees and in the lower end of the leg. Some of the folds are not horizontal, but slightly tilted – they should be the exception, not the rule.

Step 4: The big secret of drawing leather

When you are ready with your design and have drawn the outline you are only halfway done. The rendering of the leather is the really tricky part.
Using a pencil double the contour of the pants, but a few millimeters IN. Note that the contour is not perfect – some parts of it are missing, some are thin, others are thicker. The diversity of the line is really important! Double some of the main folds as well.
You may want to contour the biggest ones and those around the crotch.

Step 5: Coloring

Take a black marker and color everything except for the selections you did in the previous step. Erase the selections and refine them with a black pen if needed (close to some smaller folds for example).

If you have some details of the pants that you don’t want to lose (as are the pockets in the example illustration) just go around, leaving them white. Or you can come back later with a white gel pen of white tempera and draw the details again).

Step 6: Reflections

Leather is a shiny fabric. In order to make it look believable, you have to add more reflections to the pants. Take a light grey colored pencil and draw some highlights in the middle of the legs. Again you can interrupt the highlight.

Using this technique now you can make your fashion illustrations look so rebel, sexy and modern! Add a corset or just draw a  leather jacket to finish the look, create unique designs and always have fun!