Fashion: You are who you wear

I've gotten quite a few offers, including a gaming company asking me to do concept art for their next game (Which I declined), but the most reoccurring reference to me is to become a fashion designer, and I agree. I love drawing people, but more then half of it's gotta be the clothes.

People don't get to see your inside feelings. People only see what you show, and that's the same for art and the art 'reader.'
If you saw someone wearing shredded jeans, a grease-stained tank top and a huge, moth eaten coat, you wouldn't think they were the owner of a million-dollar establishment.

You wouldn't think this girl lived in Antarctica. You can tell season, personality, and surroundings just from what the characters wear.


For this reason, it's extremely important to focus on what your character is wearing.

It's always a great exercise to draw a few simplistic models and do a few loose sketches of some outfits in your mind and decide what you like best like what I did here.

When you're trying to design your manga characters it may take awhile. Part of the process is too draw them several times, switching out clothes and minor features until you get a face- and an outfit- that fits them.













My favorite manga outfits to design are the kind you'd take to prom- glamorous dresses that everything in my wallet couldn't buy. Not that there is much in there, but still.
Here are a few of my favorites I keep revising.

These are for three separate dances in my manga 'The Academy.' The best places to go for fashion inspiration are prom magazines, clothes magazines, and sites  like pinterest, loaded with reference pictures and information. Always remember too take your characters appearance into account! First appearances matter, whether you're creating a manga or just drawing a character in your head.