It’s nice when you have an established look for a character since subsequent outfits can just draw inspiration from that look. That was certainly the case with Bocce, whose snow outfit was heavily derived from the look of his regular outfit.
I think I pretty much covered Bocce’s outfit in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 2.
Early on, I toyed with the idea of Sky having a snow cloak/poncho like everyone else, but eventually I abandoned the idea since her outfit is mostly white anyway, so she didn’t really need the camouflage. I also considered a form-fitting hood but realized the exposed long hair was a bit more feminine, which suited the look of her character more. Plus, long hair is something I can draw blowing to the side to convey windy weather, if need be.
I mentioned in the previous post that I like to use different textures, and that also applied to the fur in the snow outfits, which I wanted to be slightly different between characters. So Sky and Cember have very fine fur in their detailing, while Roka’s hat trim and coat collar are a longer, shaggier fur. For the record, the short fur is much easier to draw. I’m just saying.
Additional notes can be found in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 4.
This Saturday and Sunday (August 28-29), I will be set up in the Artist Alley section at Baltimore Comic-Con! This will be my first year exhibiting at the show, so I’m pretty excited about that.
Looks like my table will be A178, so feel free to stop by if you’re there!
I settled on Ril’s outfit pretty easily (I love when that happens!). Different textures are important to me in terms of adding variety to outfits, so for Ril, I thought a fine vertical ribbed pattern would be a nice way to make his outfit visually different. And, as mentioned earlier, that ribbed look was also derived from his hat, which had already been established in the flashback sequence from Bad Goods.
For Bennesaud, I wanted to give him a little something for this story arc in the form of a belt of pouches. I very briefly considered a bandolier across the torso, but quickly decided that that would be too Chewbacca. I always liked the look of military pouches across the stomach, so that pretty quickly became Bennesaud’s look.
To make Bennesaud’s belt a little more visually interesting (to me, at least), I made the pouches different sizes, so there’s one big pouch on the back, three small ones in the front, and three medium-sized ones on either side. The idea with the really big pouch is that maybe Bennesaud keeps Cember’s snow cloak in there for him since Cember doesn’t have his own bag in this arc. Not really sure the cloak would all fit in there, but that was the intent.
Additional notes for Ril can be found in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 1.
Additional notes for Bennesaud can be found in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 4.
For Cember’s snow outfit, I did like the idea of the radiating flaps on the bottom (sketch #2) since they seemed reminiscent of his lower body tentacles, but ultimately, the design just felt a bit too busy. The final design feels more streamlined while still being fashionable, as per Cember’s aesthetic.
And here we have the final design for Cember’s snow cloak as well, which ended up being shortened into a half-cloak. More like a poncho, really. Again, that just seemed a bit more fashionable for Cember than a full length cloak like Roka and Ril’s. The blue clasp and puffballs added that last little bit of flair. Because with Cember, it’s all about the flair.
Additional notes can be found in the commentary for The Big Snow Job #2, Page 4.
