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Discover the secrets behind necklace illustration.
Wed Jul 31, 2024
As a jewellery design educator who has taught thousands of students globally, one of the questions that jewellery design students often ask me is, "Ma'am, I have this necklace design in my mind, but how do I illustrate it?". Well, this is a valid question since there are so many necklaces out there, and they all look so different from each other, they can easily overwhelm a beginner.
Hence, I decided to make necklace illustration easier for you. Here is a necklace design guide that will tell you everything you need to know about necklaces.
But first, what is a 'Necklace'?
According to the internet, a necklace is a piece of jewellery worn around the neck. It could be a chain or a string of beads. I would say, a necklace is something much more than that. A necklace is an ornament that not only adorns one's neck but also completes an outfit, like an evening gown. It is a little piece that has the potential to elevate one's confidence. A necklace can create a statement or even establish one's status in the society. A necklace can hold memories, remember that heart shaped charm that displays two photos on each side once opened? And a necklace can even be used to ward off spirits, well, that's what my friend told me when I returned from a haunted fort and started having the worst nightmares one could ever get. For almost a year I wore a cross around my neck that she gifted me. Call it a miracle or some psychological assurance, I stopped having those nightmares, but thank god I am here to talk about necklaces. Here we go..
When you have a design for a necklace in your mind, you must decide its type. Now, as we know, design is a 5 step process: Define, Empathy, Ideate, Prototype and Test, you might have a motif in your mind that you would like to use in a necklace, and it is very much possible that at this stage you just want to ideate and iterate a lot, to come up with the best necklace design, but, at some point, you must think about the necklace type, because the type of the necklace you decide upon will decide its overall length, placement, what body type it will be best suited for and how it will be styled by the end-user. So here is a guide to help you understand the different types of necklaces we have based on their length and placement.
1. On/Around the neck: These are the necklaces that are worn around the neck. There are two necklaces that fall in this category:
2. Above the bust: These are the necklaces that fall below the neck and above the bust. There are two necklaces that fall in this category:
3. On the bust: This is the necklace that falls on the bust. Only Opera necklaces make it to this category measuring 28"-34" or 71-86.4 cm in length.
4. Below the bust: This is the necklace that falls below the bust. Only Lariat or Rope necklaces make it to this category measuring over 45" or 114.3 cm in length.
Now that you know that necklaces come in different lengths, it is important for you to learn how to measure them. A common misconception amongst jewellery and accessory design students is that the necklace length is equal to its diameter. So a collar necklace will have a 12"-13" diameter. Think about it for a minute. Does it make any sense to you? Have you ever seen a human neck that is 13" in width? So when it doesn't make any sense, students then think that maybe the fault is in the chart itself and maybe the illustrator mistyped 13" for 13 cm.
So what's wrong here?
Well, the average human neck measures 15"..
in..circumference..hehe :)
This means when we talk about the length of the necklaces in a necklace size chart, we are talking about the circumference of the necklace, not the width. So next time if you want to find out the length of a necklace, simply unclasp it, make it lie flat and straight on a flat surface and measure it from end to end. There you go, that's your necklace length,
As you can see in the illustration below ( I had a really fun time illustrating the ruler, so please take a minute to admire it), the pearl necklace measures 32 cm in length, excluding the box clasp, so that makes it a collar necklace. Now, you may or may not include the clasp while measuring a necklace's overall length, it's up to you. Since in this box clasp, one part (female part, as we call it in product design terms) will be inserted into the other (male part) to fasten it, I have only considered the outer part of the clasp in the necklace length, thus measuring it to 33.8 cm in length.
Now that you know how to measure a necklace, let's have a look at the necklace grid. A necklace grid is..well, a grid..that we use to illustrate necklaces. Basically, we draw a circle, divide it into many parts using grid lines, and illustrate our necklace around it. Sounds easy, right? Well, here is the interesting part, we can't just draw any circle, because the diameter of the circle depends upon the length of the necklace.
Thus, to find out the diameter of the circle, let's go back to school, where we have learnt in our mathematics class, circumference of a circle = 2∏r or ∏d, where ∏ = 3.14. Hence, d = circumference/∏. So if you want to create a necklace grid for a 16" choker necklace, the diameter of the circle = 16"/∏ or 16"/3.14 = 5.09" 0r 12.92 cm = 5" or 13 cm.
So for a choker necklace grid, you can draw a circle with a diameter of 4.5"-5" or 11-13 cm. Usually we draw a necklace grid with a circle having a diameter of 126 mm or 12.6 cm.
But what about the grid lines and the angle at which they are drawn? Well, the angle depends upon the number of elements and their sizes. If your necklace design has a lot of small scale elements, go for a smaller angle, like 5∘ or 10∘, because a smaller angle will give you more grid lines that will result in better and more accurate elements placement and spacing, since the purpose of these grid lines is to know where to place what. On the other hand, if your necklace doesn't have a lot of repeating elements, is more of a statement piece, or has a few elements, you can have fewer grid lines at a bigger angle, like for say 30∘ or 45∘. You can just have two perpendicular lines as well if they are enough to help you illustrate. Just make sure, whatever angle you choose, you can divide 360∘ with it to ensure you have equal spacing in between all the grid lines.
Now if you look at the necklace grid, you will see that I have divided the grid into three zones. The light grey denoting the area where you will have the main design of the necklace. This area is the neck or bust of the wearer. A medium grey denoting the area where you can have the design or a chain. This is the part of the necklace that will be placed over the shoulder, and last but not the least, a dark grey marking the area where you will most probably have the closure of the necklace, like a clasp, along with the rest of the necklace design or a chain. This area is the back of the neck or upper back of the wearer. Of course this grid also applies to chains.
The reason why I have marked these areas in the grid is to help you place the different elements of your necklace, have better linking throughout and to help you visualize how your necklace will look post manufacturing.
The part of the necklace that will fall over the shoulder is the most important part to look out for, since a bad placement or linking can really ruin the aesthetics of a necklace and can also cause discomfort to the wearer.
Now one thing that you should keep in mind while illustrating your necklace is that, you must not ever draw anything inside the circle of the necklace grid, like, never ever, like, ever. (Ah, the swiftie in me). This is because the neck is supposed to pass through that circle, if you draw anything inside the circle, it will be there in the fabricated piece, and the wearer will have hard time wearing it or even get choked.
So just like me, if you like to have your career outside the jail, don't draw inside the circle.
Illustrated below is the same pearl collar necklace that we had in the illustration before (You know the one with an adorable ruler, nevermind, I will just upload it again). In the first illustration, I have illustrated the necklace on a collar necklace grid with a diameter of 10.5 cm or 105 mm. Here you can see that the box clasp of the pearl necklace is fastened and all the pearls are beautifully placed around the circle. In the second illustration, I have illustrated the same necklace, but this time on a choker necklace grid with a diameter of 12.6 cm or 126 mm. Here you can see that while the pearls are placed around at equal spacing, the box clasp could not be fastened or even placed close. This is how a necklace will look like on different necklace grids. So, it's best if you optimize the grid for the respective necklace type and length.
For sure, drawing a necklace grid for a collar or choker necklace is easy, since it is small and can easily fit inside an A4 paper i.e., 21 x 29.7 cm. We may be able to draw a necklace grid for princess necklaces, but what about matinees, operas and lariats? How can we draw a necklace grid with a 14" diameter for a lariat? Well we can use a bigger paper size, but again, a lariat doesn't go around the neck in a circular way like a collar or a choker necklace does. So even if we do manage to draw a grid, the necklace illustration will look weird, as if we designed it for a giant.
In such cases, you can draw a regular necklace grid, for say, with a circle of diameter 126 mm (red line), and then you can draw an ellipse (blue line) as shown in the illustration below. You can take a rough idea of how below you want the necklace to be from the bottom of the neck, and with that rough idea, you can place the different elements of your necklace and illustrate it.
You always have the option to illustrate your necklace on an upper body illustration in case the grid doesn't work for you or you prefer this over the grid. In this case, you can not only illustrate your necklace, but also help the viewer understand the design better. In such illustrations, the placement and length of a necklace are better conveyed compared to the grid, and you can even draw big necklaces on an A4 size paper! Just that, you will have to draw small, keeping in mind the proportions. But hey, you can always mention the actual dimensions somewhere on the paper or at the back of it. (I mean you kind of have to, because if you don't, the necklace might get fabricated in wrong dimensions. Don't come running to me if your boss yells at you. I warned you well in advance.)
Now it's important that you show the bust lines, because those lines will help the viewer or manufacturer understand the necklace type and what length you are aiming for. You can also show the backside of the necklace. We do it so as to show the closing mechanism of a necklace, one of the reason why we use necklace grids in the first place. If you are illustrating your necklace on an upper body illustration, you can have lighter strokes or dotted lines to show the back part of the necklace in a manual illustration, or you can reduce the opacity for a digital one.
And that's all you need to know about necklaces and how to illustrate them.
Now, if you are a beginner who is interested in mastering the art of jewellery design and making a sustainable career in it, or you are a jewellery design student interested in upscaling your skillset, feel free to checkout all of our jewellery design courses here.
Thank you for reading our blog. I hope you had as much fun learning about necklaces as I had teaching them. Do let me know what other topics you would like us to write upon next.
Swasti Garg
Jewellery Designer | Global Design Educator | Founder, DESDES
Disclaimer: The illustrations and content provided in this blog are the intellectual property of DESDES. These materials are protected by copyright law. You are not permitted to copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, sell, license, or otherwise exploit any of the content for commercial purposes without prior written consent from DESDES. Unauthorized use or duplication of this material without express and written permission is strictly prohibited and may result in legal action.
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