32 Using a Simple (But Logical) Approach to Drapery
The draped figure will be one of the many problems that will follow you like a heel fly throughout your career. The best thing for you to do (to keep your sanity) is strive to handle it in the simplest way possible. This is not to suggest simplicity is easy — just less frustrating. Think of the character as the star of the scene, and the garment as a subordinate actor chosen to make the star look good. The director of a stage play does not have to plan action for drapery, what the actor does will take care of it. But you as an animator must do just that. You have to act out the character’s role, plus the costume’s, which should be done in such a way as to compliment the action of the actor.
It is important, also, to drape a figure to emphasize the type of character portrayed. Is it a woman or a man? Is it a neat person or a slob? Is the dress formal or casual? Is it supposed to flatter the actor or make it look ridiculous?
A clear understanding of drapery plus a general understanding of the types of garment construction would be helpful. There is a book called The Complete Book of Fashion Illustration by Sharon Lee Tate and Mona Shafer Edwards (Harper & Row, publishers), which gives a very helpful view of drawing the figure with clothes on. I recommend it.
Glenn Vilppu has made videotape on drapery wherein he simplifies it very succinctly. He has broken down the folds of cloth into seven basic categories, which should help you to make logical what often appears to be haphazard.
Category No. 1 he calls the “pipe fold.” It occurs when cloth hangs from just one point.
Category No. 2 is when cloth hangs from two points causing a “diaper fold.”
Category No. 3 happens when a hinging bit of cloth is allowed to fold up on the floor as the cloth is lowered at an angle. This is called the “zigzag fold.”
Category No. 4 is a “spiral fold.” This results from cloth as it wraps around shapes such as arms, legs, or other parts of the body.
Category No. 5 is the “half-lock fold,” which manifests itself at the knee when the leg is bent and also at the elbow when the arm is bent. When the knee or elbow is bent to more extremes there occurs what Glenn calls the “complete-lock fold.”
Category No. 6 is the “falling fold.” This will develop when some hanging cloth is allowed to bunch up on some surface.
And finally, category No. 7 is the “inert fold.” This is the only fold that seems to have no potential for energy, it just lies there, inactive.
Being aware of these somewhat simple categories of folds will help you interpret what happens to drapery under certain conditions. Also, the more complex actions and poses will cause those categories to overlap and produce a hybrid fold, which, without the benefit of knowing the origin of the contributing folds, might prove to be slightly bewildering.
So when you see a fold that is hard to categorize, with the help of this list, you can search out its origins and, lo, erudition shall prevail. Identifying the types of folds will be harder when drawing from the model, for natural drapery doesn’t always just lay it all out in simple terms.
However, when drawing on your own, such as in animation, you can use more simplified forms of drapery — those that match the action or enhance the pose. With the help of Vilppu’s list of folds it will be easier to spot and identify such problem areas as you are forming your “first impression.”
It might also help to develop a vocabulary of “drapery action terms” such as hang, suspend, dangle, swing freely, be pendent, adhere to, sag, revolve around, drape, incline, bend, droop, descend, incline, sway, dip, settle, plunge, drag, trail, hang over, drape over, envelope, wrap, adorn, and enshroud. Each of these terms suggests an individualized action that helps get you involved in what is happening to the drapery. It is good to be aware of the vast number of possibilities that are always present—especially if you are academy award winning scene conscious.
Here are three extreme drawings by Milt Kahl. They show how directly he went at drawing the figure and they demonstrate how, in spite of using folds in the girl’s skirt, it is basically treated as a shape. Glance from one drawing to another and observe how the overlap on the skirt embellishes the action.
