Tuesday 19 April 2016

Costume design - the impact of colour

Hi again,

I know its been a while but rest assured stuff is happening!

Firstly as a supplement to this blog, we are about to launch the Bolt Comics newsletter so you can get all the latest info sent straight to your inbox.

You can sign up here: http://tinyletter.com/Boltcomics

Anyway, on to today's topic.

As many of you would be aware, A Brigand's Tale began life in black & white. When designing the uniform/costume, I was very mindful of how the character would not only need to look in a black & white world, but also stand out.

I ended up having alternating black & white zones all over...


Brigand making himself all 'purty in A Brigand's Tale #2

Since Brigand is based on my faithful golden retriever, Samson, his fur is of a light colour. That made the choice for clothing easy - make it dark.  As you can see from the above however, if his pants were also black it would be too much dark. So they are white with a black stripe.

Fun fact: these pants are a homage to the excellent series Xenozoic tales by one of my fave artists, Mark Schultz.
Jack Tenrec, all pants, no shirt.

Even funner fact: I think Schultz's stripey pants are actually a homage to Alex Raymond's work on Flash Gordon from the 1930's and 1940's.
Flash Gordon, trendsetting from planet Mongo.

So yeah, it's fair to say stripey pants are perpetually cool.

Onto other design elements, what's guild without a logo, people gotta advertise. The hunter logo, once again is a vision in black & white.  Being black and white though, it can work on both a black OR white t shirt.
The Yin & Yang of T-shirts

This 'colour'  scheme however, is somewhat flawed when you have a whole universe of colours to choose from. At this stage, I am slowly dipping my toes into the water with colour on his uniform. Occasionally, Brigand will have a bluish tinge to his pants.His accessories have colour even his fur has shades of yellows and browns.

He even has baby blue eyes...(a homage to Robert E Howard's Conan for those playing at home)

A panel from the upcoming Bolt Comics Presents #1

I am certain we we continue to see our friend in a different light (pun intended) as time goes by, but you know, sometimes there are just black & white images that work, and to add colour to it would be superflouous...



STOP PRESS: I will be attending FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, Saturday 7th May, 2016 at the Game Cave in Nowra! If you're about drop in and say hi and stuff.

As ever, comments are welcome.

Brigand, Cheeks, A Brigand's Tale and all distinctive likenesses thereof are TM and copyright Daniel Tribe 2016. All rights reserved.
Xenozoic Tales, Flash Gordon are TM their respective owners,


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