Ladies and gentlemen, for today's #dailysketchext I give you the croquis. It's ok if you don't know what that word is, apparently my spell checker doesn't either. A fashion croquis is the official "paper doll" that you draw the clothes you design onto. I just made this official one for the first time in my life yesterday. The good news: they are not that hard to draw. Drawing skills are not required. It turns out that actual fashion drawing is much more of a technical skill than anything else and can most definitely be taught and learned. The bad side: this figure is the standard figure, but there is no way this stick person could actually exist in real life, yet this is the standard figure for communicating what clothes are supposed to look like... and subconsciously I feel it kind of communicates what is thought a woman should look like. I get that the croquis is unrealistic in order to help convey a sense of gracefulness and delicacy to the clothing--it's exaggerated and everyone in the industry knows it is. But what about people who don't know? I mean, I know the instructor started off by explaining how unrealistic this figure is and real women look like this and that, but still, I cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong with this. I think of the things I saw in high school, the insecurity of teenage girls (and even grown women I know now), and all this skinniness and unrealisticness just leaves the slightest bad taste in my mouth... I do want to learn this though. It's best to learn the rules properly first in order to really break them.