Sketching is a valuable tool in a designer’s arsenal. In this course award-winning milliner, designer and artist Rachel Richardson breaks down the process of drawing heads and fascinators to help you translate your ideas to paper.

Rachel has a background in Fine Art and Sculpture with over 15 years of experience designing hats and accessories for brands and retailers. She has worked directly with hat manufacturers in China as well as producing her own bespoke hats and collections, giving her extensive knowledge of the hat industry.

You may have seen Rachel’s work on the ‘Sketchbook’ pages of the Hat Magazine, for which she has been a regular contributor.

The power of the sketch to both generate and convey design ideas for hats is at the core of Rachel’s extensive experience which she will share with you in this masterclass.

What You Will Learn

In this course, you will learn:

• Rachel’s tried and tested techniques to effectively draw heads from different angles as an aid to hat design
• How to create sketchbook pages and use them for design development
• How to draw a pillbox, fascinator and headband
• How to develop your sketches to faithfully convey your ideas

The course is broken down into 4 units. The first 3 come with a list of materials specific to the unit and a breakdown of exactly what you will learn alongside a video.

We have also created exercises for each unit that will help you practice and consolidate your learning.

The final unit gives you some next steps projects and references where you might find inspiration for your sketching practice. Enjoy!

After graduating from a BA Hons degree in Fine Art: Sculpture, at Chelsea College of Art, Rachel found her way into millinery. With her sculptural background, the hat was an organic and exciting way to manipulate and extend the 3D form of the head.

Having studied at Kensington and Chelsea College, she graduated with distinction winning a coveted work placement with a leading UK supplier.

Within a month the placement resulted in a full time position designing and sourcing materials for occasion hats and cold weather product specifically for UK high street brands, such as Marks & Spencer and Accessorize to name a few. Now with over 15 years in the industry she has worked for many different suppliers, factories, brands and retailers. Rachel travels to China regularly and works with large, yet specialist, Chinese factories, giving her unprecedented knowledge of this aspect of millinery. Over the years Rachel’s product knowledge and specialism has expanded and she works across many product areas including knit, woven, cut and sew, print and leather.

In 2008, after winning Hat Designer of the Year, Rachel launched her own millinery collection at Premiere Classe in Paris and continues to work on bespoke individual commissions whilst designing for UK brands. She also illustrates the ‘sketchbook’ pages for the Hat Magazine providing a range of ideas relating to a theme.

The power of the sketch to both generate and convey design ideas for hats is at the core of Rachel’s extensive experience which she will share with you in this masterclass.

This course contains approximately 34 minutes of video content accompanied by drawing exercises. All of the content in this short course is also featured in the full Heads, Hats and Fascinators course. If you have purchased Heads, Hats and Fascinators you do not need to purchase this course.