Everything I Needed to Know about Clothing Folds...

Out of the infinite things I could have learned from the European comic artist Guarnido, I pick clothing folds for this entry. Just to let you know the level of awesomeness I hold his artwork in: a fellow artist and I talk about Guarnido's comic Blacksad in pretty much every conversation we have. The guy's an artistic genius; I highly recommend everyone to read the Blacksad books. Artists should study his work not just for clothing folds, but character design, expressions, and action choreography.

Anyway, clothing folds are something I really enjoy drawing. I've been told that maybe I focus too much on them, but I'm okay with that for now. The great thing about well-placed clothing folds is that in action or in an important gesture, they can help lead the eye, or simply emphasize an arm or leg's direction. Think of it this way, it's a bunch of completely necessary lines an artist can put on a figure that can point exactly where the artist wants the audience to look. In the case of this panel, I took into account that I wanted to draw attention to the hand, and also the fact that drapery must obey the law of gravity. Had the gesture been more forceful, the folds would have been straighter and more direct (like in the Blacksad panel). But since it's a sweeping gesture, there is more of a curve to everything about the figure.