Home Forums Explore Media Drawing and Sketching The Classroom Basic 101: Class 16 – Material Folds

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  • #984910
    JayD
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        Basic 101:/Class 16—FOLDS

        Or

        Ya Gotta know How to Fold ‘em

        Intro

        One-day man stood erect and threw a bone in the air as he reached for the sky realizing that he was now free of the shackles of the uncivilized animal. Coincidently, this was the same day the man discovered the as of yet unnamed force called “gravity”—he discovered and felt gravity as the bone fell back unceremoniously to the earth striking the naked and erect standing man on the top of his head. This was also the moment of great revelation as man discovered that everyone around him was naked! Thus was born the term “bone of contention”. Man, now full of knowledge and a splitting headache began to take notice of the world around him—more pointedly that he and the rest of his tribe, both male and female were nude, wore no clothes!. He looked over at his mate, her beautiful hairy face, firm supple breasts and man was pleased. This world was indeed a man’s paradise. Then he noticed his large and also naked lodge buddy and fellow mastodon hunter—let’s call him Ralf—also staring admiringly at his mate and thus was born the world’s first fashion designer because—something had to be DONE and with the invention of clothes came the search for fabric—he found quickly that turtle shells did not work—nor did sea sponges or porcupine pelts. Instead, he settled for fur and found that he could beat skin and create leather and from the fibers of various plants, he created cloth—and man discovered folds—and he was pleased—because he thought that he had invented it—which he had not…

        Welcome to the class on folds. There seven important words to remember when talking about folds they are:

        1. Pipe

        2. zig zag

        3. Spiral

        4. diaper

        5. Half-lock

        6. drop

        7. inert

        Learn what these are and what they look like and you WILL know how folds are formed and how to apply them to your everyday drawings. Fold are found in draperies, in clithes , in ANYHTING that is cloth—but folds can also be found in paper and even in skin—look at our friend the elephant or look at some of the elderly and see if you can identify any of the folds listed above. You will be surprised because you will.

        Here is a basic rule to learn—DRAPERY ITSELF HAS NO FORM OR SHAPE—INSTEAD ITS FORM OR SHAPE IS ENTIRELY DICTATED BY THE SPACE UPON WHICH ITS RESTS BE IT A CHAIR, A BOX OR THE HUMAN BODY. FOLDS ARE A RESULT OF ACTION AND REACTION.

        If you come out of the shower and you have a towel wrapped around your body, the towel conforms your specific body type. If you remove the towel and toss it on the chair, the towel will give up the shape of your body and react to the shape of the chair and if you just drop the towel to the floor, the towel will conform to the specifics of that floor. Folds are that simple.

        Here are some definitions and an example of each one:

        1. Pipe or drop fold—if you pick up a cloth and hold it up with one hand or nail up one side, you will notice that TUBE will radiate out from the epicenter. From the epicenter a simple tube will either or break out into multiple tubes. See the illustration.

        2. Zigzag Fold—If you take the tubular fold of cloth and bend it the outer section will become rigid but underneath the material will become more loose. The excess on the bottom will reshape or buckle itself into what is more or less a zigzag pattern. See the illustration.

        3. Spiral—a cloth will follow the radius of the arm or the leg of a shirt, for example –spiral radiates FROM the point of support and the folds themselves rarely parallel. See the illustration.

        4. Diaper—a diaper fold is has TWO or MORE supports. An example of this would be drapery emanating from both shoulders and dropping downward from the shoulders (which are the supports, remember). See the illustration as an example.

        5. Half-Lock Fold—The half lock fold occurs when a tubular or flattened fold abruptly shifts its direction. If the shift is at the right angle then the half lock will be sharper or angular. –if they fall in a more sweeping turn the angles will appear to be softer. See illustration.

        6. Drop Fold—This is an interesting fold because it is totally based upon the cloth being released from the support so the action is the release and the reaction is the drop and the resulting folds. So an example would be like a cloth dropping from the shoulder. Its outlines weave in and out in exact opposite to the other folds.

        7. Inert—Understanding that cloth has no independent form or shape and the cloth is DEPENDENT on the kindness of supports. When you took that towel and dropped it on the floor, it became inert. It is shapeless and without form or void. It is faceless and without point. Chaos demonstrated. But that towel that you dropped is actually alive—it moves and reshapes itself constantly as it settles.

        The Excercises:

        This week’s excercises are a series of copyright free photos of statutes courtesy of Ian Britton of Freefoto.com* Your assignment this week is to first draw the human figure as you would a nude and then dress the figure using your knowledge of fold. This should be a very easy exercise to undertake.

        Field trips: This week I am sending you to visit Freefoto.com as a source for copyright free images.

        http://www.freefoto.com

        See Below:

        *(2) An individual teacher may make occasional us of our images in the course of their own personal teaching work. A credit to (c) Ian Britton – FreeFoto.com is required. You may not distribute any materials that contain our images outside your own classroom.

        catmandolin.deviantart.com

        #1048486
        JayD
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            Here are 6 and 7

            catmandolin.deviantart.com

            #1048487
            JayD
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                And here are the excercises–Enjoy!!!

                catmandolin.deviantart.com

                #1048488
                JayD
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                    Here are the last exercise samples:

                    catmandolin.deviantart.com

                    #1048641
                    mothsailor
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                        Great stuff as usual, JayD! Thank you once again! Fantasy one week, drapery studies the next! It’s a great mixture.

                        Dave

                        #1048489
                        JayD
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                            Thanks,Dave–can’t wait to see what you come up with. :)

                            catmandolin.deviantart.com

                            #1048618
                            Mary Woodul
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                                Very nice, JayD and your write ups are always a pleasure to read. Thank you! :D

                                #1048490
                                JayD
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                                    Attention: It Looks As If Several Of My Drawn Images Of The Different Folds Were Removed: Here Are The Missing Ones:

                                    catmandolin.deviantart.com

                                    #1048476

                                    I’m here to subscribe to week 16. :wave:

                                    The folds look fun, although I reserve the right to change my mind when I actually try to draw them. :evil:

                                    I’m not sure if I will start this week with this exercise or try to catch up from what I didn’t do for lessons 14and 15 first. I guess it will be a surprise for everyone…even me. :p

                                    Looking forward to seeing some great folds!

                                    #1048491
                                    JayD
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                                        Hey Staci–remember that the classes are modular in design so that you can take them in ANY ORDER after the first five so if you have a hankerin’ for folds–HAVE AT IT! :D :clap: :clap:

                                        catmandolin.deviantart.com

                                        #1048429
                                        Cathie Jones
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                                            Hey JayD – are there any techniques for shadowing, shading, etc. that might be helpful with this lesson? What is the best way to create a reasonably realistic looking fold? Do you ‘map’ it first, and if so, how?

                                            I draped a towel over a tissue box on the kitchen table (my studio) yesterday and tried to draw it, and had an awful time. It just looked like a bunch of dark smears on the paper. :(

                                            #1048423
                                            SILKNSATIN
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                                                I’m slow lol
                                                But ill get in here :D
                                                An old drawing I did.

                                                #1048430
                                                Cathie Jones
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                                                    WOW Bon!! She’s a beauty! Love the red! :clap: :clap:

                                                    #1048492
                                                    JayD
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                                                        Bon, what kind of folds, based on my child-like scrawls, would you say those are?

                                                        CJ–shading will depend on where the light is striking the material as you know–as for shading technique–the technique that you choose needs to be uniform to the entire piece so you dont want to cross hatch in that ONE area if there is no cross hatching else where. So smudging, blending, crosshatching, whatever–is entirely your choice. I tend to use hatching and cross hatching a lot but my very first drawing were copies of John Tenniel’s illustrations.

                                                        catmandolin.deviantart.com

                                                        #1048553
                                                        Judi1957
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                                                            Hey All :wave:

                                                            Looks like another great class here. :clap: :clap:

                                                            Bon, That is fantastic! (Slow, yeh, you probably did it in an hour, in between loads of laundry! :D )

                                                            [FONT="Impact"][FONT="Arial Black"]Judi

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