COSTUME

STORY TELLING

Costume and wardrobe can be a really effective way of adding layers and meaning to the telling of a story

Costume is such a big part of what helps give personality to a character. What a person wears and how they wear it gives us an instant feeling about who they are and what they're like. It's especially powerful because we aren't always aware that we're even making those kind of judgements.

Great artists will use the clothes as an extension of the character's personality. Always avoid giving your characters bland and nondescript wardrobes. Be specific!

Adversaries that represent different ideals should have costumes that represent who they are and contrast with what their nemesis wears.

 - Mark Kennedy Using Costume to tell a Story

Scottie Young

Clothing can convey quite a bit of conscious and unconscious information to the reader, but it should never be doing 100% of the legwork.  Body language, shape and overall behavior all come into play when building a character, and the trick is to figure out what clothing can do that these other elements can’t.

SHAPE- Every character, no matter how complex, should be designed around an overal unique visual shape.  This theme should not repeat in any other character.  This shape should be readable enough that if you were to shrink all your characters into a super-simplified cartoony state, they should still be distinguishable. Core shapes and patterns should repeat on the outfit.

DETAIL - Character designs follow a hierarchy: you grab the reader’s attention with the most essential information and then invite them to investigate the details.  If important elements of your design are only evident in the details, then it needs to be reworked.  If your character is not completely distinguishable in silhouette, it needs to be reworked.  Detail should always radiate from the core theme.

UNIFORM - What does your character do?  In what way would their clothing reasonably convey how they spend their time? What is their job? social status? personality?

ATTITUDE - how does your character move? What are their default postures and body language?  A good outfit should accentuate the body movements that you deem most important.  If a character stoops and hunches a lot, their clothes can augment that behavior.

- Aaron Diaz Tips on character and Costume Design

THE ANATOMY OF COSTUME

Remember, the costume is just as much a part of your character as their hair or expression. DESIGN!

Materials:

know what materials you are drawing. Is it leather? cotton? metal or silk?  Think about how gravity will act on each of these materials and also how they will interact with the softness of your characters. Understand how they fit together. where are the seams? are there zippers? buttons?  is this hand crafted or machine made? Is it heavy? how is it worn or attached? - even if the details arn't there (goodness, we don't necessarily want every button and seam drawn!) understand how it is put together.

If the cloth is thick - where and how will if bunch?

If the cloth is very fine, how and where will it drape?

History:

whether consciously or unconsciously our brain makes connections between ideas and images.  Even if we are seeing something we have never seen before, our brain will search for a frame of reference to make sense of what is seeing. As a designer, you can control this.

Look at reference and Historical costumes: what connotations go with these designs? how can you use or manipulate them?

Ex: Star Wars

Darth Vader - Samurai Armor = power, ruthlessness, skill, fear

Imperial officers - Nazi uniform = evil, unfeeling, stiff, military, slaughter, war

Jedi Robes - Spanish Monks = quiet, calm, serenity, peace, in control, steady, solid, oath bound

Leia - Greek Goddess = Beauty, order, regal, elegant, minimalist, bold 

Han Solo - Cowboy = gunslinger, tough, cocky, suave, witty, heroic

Check this out: for a great source on period dresses used in character design - pay attention to the different handling of different cloth and materials - http://drawthisdress.tumblr.com/