Draw-a-lace

How to draw lace

In this step by step tutorial, you will learn how to draw lace. Most probably you consider this type of fabric hard to draw. How to draw the lace to make it look transparent and realistic? What type of pattern to use? The answers you will find in this fun and easy tutorial. Enjoy!

Time, Tools and Difficulty:

Time to complete the tutorial: 12min
Tools you’ll need: drawing paper, a pencil, colored pencils, and an eraser
Difficulty level: 6.5/10

How to draw lace in 11 steps:

Step 1: Apply a base color

The first thing you need to do is to find a darker color than the skin tone one and render the fabric with it. Even though lace is translucent it does make the skin look shaded. Check the ” How to draw chiffon” tutorial for more information on drawing light, translucent textiles.

If you can’t find a proper shade just add a little bit of black to your skintone colour and use it to colour the clothes you want.

What base color to put for the lace fabric

Step 2: Draw some Shadows

Lay down some shadows to give your illustration more dimension. Draw the shadows as if your model was not wearing any clothes. For example, you can look into the “How to draw skin shadows” tutorial.

How to draw shadows on the lace fabric

Step 3: Draw the lace mesh

Fill with fine net mesh the places of the design that will be made of lace. For best results use a well-sharpened pencil.

How to draw the lace mesh

Step 4: Draw Lace ornaments

The lace pattern should follow the diagonal direction of the mesh. Try to leave equal space between the ornaments and put the next row of the pattern as shown in the picture (every ornament lays in the middle of the space between those above it )
You shouldn’t worry about making all of the figures exactly the same size and form. Just think of easy to repeat patterns and allow yourself to make some variations of it.

How to draw lace ornaments

Step 5: Inking

Ink the ornaments with black color. Don’t forget to play with the width of the lines as you don’t want your illustration to look boring!

How to do the lace ornaments inking

Step 6: Tiny details

Use the pencil to draw small crosses between the ornaments and follow the mesh direction to make everything look ordered and logical.

How to draw the tiny details on the lace fabric

Step 7: Leaves to match the flowers

Attached some leaves to the ornaments. Fill about 2/3 of each leaf with black ink.

Most of the lace fabrics have some kind of floral motives. However, if you don’t like flowers for any reason feel free to experiment with abstract forms on your liking.

Step 8: Decorative dots

How to draw leaves to match the lace flowers

Use dots for the contour of the leaves. This will add a lot of lace sensation to your drawing.

How to draw decorative dots to add a lace sensation

Step 9: The endings

Draw half-circles to cover the end of the lace. You can make the outline double for a more complete look.

How to complete the end of the lace

Step 10: Complete the half-circles

Put an “X” in every semicircle. Let it overshoot the borders of the circle.

How to finish the endings of the lace fabric

Step 11: Final touches

Finish by drawing small dots on top of the “X” marks and a wavy line a bit higher.

How to do the final touches of the lace pattern

Now you know an easy way to draw lace for your fashion sketches. You can apply it just on the hemlines as lace trim or create a whole collection out of lace fabric. Do you feel inspired already?

How to draw lace patterns

CC-BY-NC 4.0. Share and re-use for non-commercial purposes only.
Always give attribution and a link to I Draw Fashion.

Tags
Comments

42 Comments

  3. Yah i agree! Just keep on posting these tutorials…….u r my first teacher for fashion designing….thanks s lot…

  4. I love every thing you post….I wish you could add how to draw the lips of the model??
    Love it! Love you!

  6. I don’t have a sketch pad and I don’t have computer.but my life goal is to be disigner idk if I spelled it right but that all I want .and do you have any tips of practicing drawing.?

  7. Wow this is really helpful! I love all your tutorials, they have helped me sketched down my collection of designs to be released soon! thank you!

  9. OMG . I so love this website . This is so helpful . Is there any way that we could share our work so everyone could see how how well we did after visiting this site ?? Thanks .. :)

  14. I love this site, I love this lace. I am making an audition piece for a school and I am using this tutorial and the corset one to make a gown. I wish I was as good with lace as you are :roll:

  17. wow how amazing the lace stuff is! I am a fashion enthusiast .Often to buy fashion clothing at

  18. I wanted to ask that if we want to draw a lace over a cloth will we use a darker shade of the colour of the cloth or anything else… :sigh: :sigh: :sigh:

  19. can you put a link to your other site? it didn’t want to pull up on my computer, and you are an amazing artist thanks for all the tutorials.

  20. lol..just tutorial..the most important was the right technique..never had any talent or experience in designing dress.but this page helped me a lot even though ma skill was still weak..thanx btw-wink!

  21. [quote name=”Iya”] that shirt does NOT in any way look good with that bottem. The colors look awful together in every way and the pants are up way too high[/quote]
    Where do you live? In fashion stone age?
    The shirt is a neutral color so it is totally okay to be paired with a bright pink item. And although I’m unsure if those are skirts or pants, they are not way too high because it actually is fashionable to be that high.

  23. [quote name=”Bee”]You should also add back view croquis that would be super awesome 8) ♥♥♥x10[/quote]
    You can find back view fashion templates in my new website htttp://www.ifashiontemplates.com
    Enjoy! :-)

  26. [quote name=”Kaykay”]wow your amazing at this lace stuff! I am a fashion drawer but i never could have drawn lace as good as you! ;-)[/quote]
    Hopefully after looking at this tutorial you’ll be drawing lace even better than me :-)
    Enjoy :-)
    Teya

  27. wow your amazing at this lace stuff! I am a fashion drawer but i never could have drawn lace as good as you! ;-)

  28. This is fantastic!! This helped me sooo much! Thank you! Your a fabulous designer by the way!

  29. hi!! i love this tutorial, it helped me sooo much!!
    But I am currently doing Arts Award and it would really help if you could put up a tutorial on how to draw lace appliques (the very detailed ones!) as it would help me further my knowledge. Thank you!! All the best!! :-)

  30. Thanks, this helped a lot, but that shirt does NOT in any way look good with that bottem. The colors look awful together in every way and the pants are up way too high! Otherwise, it’s great. :D

  31. 6te smenqm specialnost i mi se nalaga da podgotvq portfolio s min 20 modela+ sketchbook. Vse o6te sre6tam trudnosti s ocvetqvaneto, zatova mnogo bih se radvala ako pokajete illustration s tehniki v ocvetqvaneto. :)
    Pozdravi

  33. OMG!!!
    Thanku thanku thanku sooooo much…..
    It really did helped alot! I don’t believe how easily you explained that , wow!!! :D .
    How can I subscribe you or follow ? Anything ? I wanna sign up for your updates….. You there on fb, twitter,blogger ?
    Thnx alot ! :)

  35. [quote name=”chanel”]hey,this is very nice.i want to ask you for a tutorial about drawing leopard print…….please can u help me?? :oops:[/quote]
    Sure, dear! The chita print tutorial is one of the first thing I plan to release in February

  36. hey,this is very nice.i want to ask you for a tutorial about drawing leopard print…….please can u help me?? :oops:

  37. [quote name=”Ash”]Ty so much.. This really helped.. Im doin fashion designing n need more information on such techniques that are nt generally taught.. Can i have your email adress ? Are you a designer? Ty[/quote]
    You can contact me by clicking on “Contact” in Menu. You can also ask for any tutorial you’d like to see on this site. Don’t be shy :)

  38. Ty so much.. This really helped.. Im doin fashion designing n need more information on such techniques that are nt generally taught.. Can i have your email adress ? Are you a designer? Ty

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fashion Designing Courses
Back to top button