Hello all! Just a quick question. What(if any)process do you use to come up with clothing designs for your characters?

Well since most of my comics are fantasy or sci-fi I just make them up XD
But I've been thinking, and next time I'm going to find references in clothing magazines and online, just to make the clothes look more realistic and interesting :)

Well, I find looking at clothing magazines and sites can help, but I also pay close attention to things I see on historical sites and documentaries. For Fan Dan Go, due to the setting having strong 60s/70s/80s elements, I looked up clothing from those periods, then mixed it with a modern edge so that they looked more like a modern fantasy comic with retro influences rather than just dated. Some things, like wearing trousers belted at the natural waist, would be accurate for the period, but would look really uncool by our standards.

When I make a character design, I consider a few things:
1. What kind of character they are. So with Rekki, a tough action girl with a brash personality, I always go for tough fabrics and en emphasis on structure and shape, and bright colours with simple, bold accessories. Subo is an easygoing hippie with an honourable streak, so I went for frayed flares and sandals with a plain shirt in fairly natural colours and softer fabrics.

2. The climate and season. Since Fan Dan Go is set in an alternate England, people aren't walking about in hot pants. I use a lot of layered clothing so I can still make them look interesting and not too bulky, but realistic.

3. Th setting. Zips are a modern invention and should only appear in a setting where there are factories to make them. In ancient Rome, purple was an incredibly expensive colour, as the dye came from crushed shells and couldn't be made artificially like we can now. Think about the cultural relevance of your character's clothing. What does it say about their social status and does it fit with the time period. Look at historical clothing for inspiration.

4. Silhouette. A really good character design should have a distinctive silouette. The best character designs are recognisable as that character even if they're drawn by a very unskilled artist or heavily simplified as a chibi.

5. Can I draw them a lot!? This is VITAL. Don't overload your characters with detail like they're from Final Fantasy X or something. Trim down superfluous details until you have a character design you can draw fairly quickly with confidence. Save complex clothing for chapter covers, and for the actual pages stick to simple, distinctive clothes with a maximum of 2-3 accessories. If you don't do this, they will take forever to draw, and when a character is appearing a few times a page, it can be a nightmare! On that subject, never design an outfit you can only draw from one angle. You need to be able to draw it in any position and angle you need.

Darth Mongoose had some great suggestions.

For my comic (which is set during WWII) I do a little research on the time period, find something I like and then simplify it so I can draw it a hundred times without it being too much of a burden. One thing I always try to do is add a unique twist to it so it's not always the same style dress or the t-shirt/jeans look doesn't get worn out. For example, add a belt or watch or something that expands on the character's personality. Things like gender, climate, situation, etc are also important... but the above comment already covered those things.

I love making up costumes, but I have a lot of characters who will also change clothes eventually, so I have to come up with quite a few... so I'm always looking out for interesting costume ideas. I work in a department store, so I try to take note of interesting necklines or shoe straps or belts or jewelry designs or whatnot while I'm at work. Clothing catalogs are good too.

Also seconding the historical clothing sites/books! A friend just sent me some pictures of a couple dresses from the '20s which have really neat draping necklines. Mixed with other things they'll make a good fantasyish costume for some character :)

With Out There it's set in the 40s-50s version of the future so I might google image search some old Sci Fi B-Movies and such. Also Fallout 3 has actually been pretty helpful for some designs.

With Stain on the Nation I sometimes use shirts I wear or just make it up. But then I will reference SWAT uniforms and gang clothes too.

Darth Mongoose
Well, I find looking at clothing magazines and sites can help, but I also pay close attention to things I see on historical sites and documentaries. For Fan Dan Go, due to the setting having strong 60s/70s/80s elements, I looked up clothing from those periods, then mixed it with a modern edge so that they looked more like a modern fantasy comic with retro influences rather than just dated. Some things, like wearing trousers belted at the natural waist, would be accurate for the period, but would look really uncool by our standards.

When I make a character design, I consider a few things:
1. What kind of character they are. So with Rekki, a tough action girl with a brash personality, I always go for tough fabrics and en emphasis on structure and shape, and bright colours with simple, bold accessories. Subo is an easygoing hippie with an honourable streak, so I went for frayed flares and sandals with a plain shirt in fairly natural colours and softer fabrics.

2. The climate and season. Since Fan Dan Go is set in an alternate England, people aren't walking about in hot pants. I use a lot of layered clothing so I can still make them look interesting and not too bulky, but realistic.

3. Th setting. Zips are a modern invention and should only appear in a setting where there are factories to make them. In ancient Rome, purple was an incredibly expensive colour, as the dye came from crushed shells and couldn't be made artificially like we can now. Think about the cultural relevance of your character's clothing. What does it say about their social status and does it fit with the time period. Look at historical clothing for inspiration.

4. Silhouette. A really good character design should have a distinctive silouette. The best character designs are recognisable as that character even if they're drawn by a very unskilled artist or heavily simplified as a chibi.

5. Can I draw them a lot!? This is VITAL. Don't overload your characters with detail like they're from Final Fantasy X or something. Trim down superfluous details until you have a character design you can draw fairly quickly with confidence. Save complex clothing for chapter covers, and for the actual pages stick to simple, distinctive clothes with a maximum of 2-3 accessories. If you don't do this, they will take forever to draw, and when a character is appearing a few times a page, it can be a nightmare! On that subject, never design an outfit you can only draw from one angle. You need to be able to draw it in any position and angle you need.

As usual there's not a lot that I can add to this, though one thing I like to think of as well is how a character got their clothing. That is to say a character that buys clothes at a department store would have clothes that fit fairly well whereas a character that wears an older brother's hand-me-downs might have clothes that don't quite fit. I guess the main concern is how well a character's clothes communicate who they are and how they prefer to present themselves. As far as inspiration goes I get mine from looking at what people around me wear.

Piscareous
Hello all! Just a quick question. What(if any)process do you use to come up with clothing designs for your characters?

I use a lot of my own clothes and combine outfits from clothing catalogs and video game magazines to design many of my characters' outfits xD. My characters' clothing is largely based off of cyber punk/tribal styles.

I just look at a fashion magazine or just type a google search or base it on photographs of me and a few friends.

My characters are pretty straightforward.

I almost have NONE of them wearing fancy-looking costumes.

I mostly design my character's clothing. Only problem with that is I'm very partial to dresses and suits, or practically anything fancy. For some reason, I can't stand putting my characters in T-shirts and jeans, especially not the females. I feel like it's a cop out because they're so easy to draw and lay really awkwardly. So yeah, my characters are all spiffied up. They look like they're going to church 95% of the time. :P

If I can't think of a design myself, I might go to a clothing website like Bloomingdales or Mod Cloth and make a variation of an outfit I like.

An important aspect of costume design is individuality. Make everyones costume have something special. It doesn't matter if it is a hat like indy, a mask like darth vader or a visor like cyclops.

functionality is important too, it must look like it would actually be worn in the time, location or temperature. it doesn't have to be practical though, most fantasy characters have things like leather straps, capes, big ass shoes or swords that are 20 times bigger than real life (although that's not really part of the costume).

The best costumes I've seen on the duck are those that draw attention to a special part of the character. If your character has big breasts you can make the costume have a tear there, be very tight or have a logo in that area. when your character has a cyborg arm it helps to have that arm have a short sleave, an armband, big wires or flashy lights. If your character has only one working eye, give him an eyepatch!

late to this, sorry


to add with Darth, I also consider how often I will draw it, what the person will do in the clothes, if the character has special abilities (like they can stand cold weather so would where summer clothes in the arctic) and make a 'theme' for the culture/society they live in/come from. With a theme its easier to come with multiple cloths that still look like a cohesive collection... like fashion designers do. Notice how everything matches everything in the current season?