Secrets of Fold effects?

[PogMaThoin]

Well, to start off, I'm sort of an artist in my free time (a beginner at the best), with no means of a formal education in the arts But it can't hurt to ask right?

Anyhow, I've got a bit of a problem that's been very consistent as of late. Whenever I draw people (may it be real or cartoon), I have alot of problems mastering folds and creases on clothes. It really wasn't a problem before, but now that I realize, it seems to be a consistent issue whenever I am doodling the pants or shirts of a person. Sometimes, I have too many folds or too little folds and I really can't make up my mind. My question is, is there a secret to getting the perfect amounts of fold in clothes? Also, when it comes to coloring folds in the doodled image, what advice can anyone give me?

Unfortunately, I am unable to provide any artwork in the moment, but will in the future. Also, If there is a topic already discussing this issue, please link it here!

Thanks

[Jyoung]

the only secret is observation. take pictures of people and look at the way the material folds go on their bodies. drapery and clothing pull at certain spots in certain poses, being mindful of this while drawing will help considerably. i would grab any one of these ebooks and see if they help.

http://alexhays.com/loomis/

[vineris]

"My question is, is there a secret to getting the perfect amounts of fold in clothes?"

Sure.

- look at photo reference of whatever it is you want to draw to get an idea of what it would really look like
- do a rough version using the photo as a guide
- remove (or add) folds from the rough version as necessary
- when it looks right, do the final

Eventually after you've done thousands of the things you'll have a feel for what to put where.

"Also, when it comes to coloring folds in the doodled image, what advice can anyone give me?"

Understand the fold as a 3D shape. Things like shadows and highlights exist because light falls on a 3D shape in a certain way. If you don't know what the fabric is doing when it bunches up then all you're really doing is guessing and there's a lot more ways to guess wrong than there are ways to guess right. You should understand what's going on well enough to draw contour lines that follow the 3D surface you're drawing, like a mesh for 3D graphics. Unless you're doing a very flat style (like a paper cutout style, for example) always think in 3D, otherwise your shading will make no sense. (You should also know how to shade basic 3D shapes given any light source, of course. It does you no good to know that a fold is a bendy cylinder if you don't know how to shade a cylinder.)

[dpaint]

Learn the basic type of folds; learn the stress points on the body for the creation of the different type of folds; this way you can design them and aren't forced to only rely on reality which may not give you exactly what you want design-wise.