pose/base only sketch. this took me 2 hours to figure out. the hands are supposed to make a heart.
completed sketch w. character details! i had no clue who Ish was before this (i kinda live under a rock), so I kinda just freestyled his design (aka a lot of projecting my XLOV-influenced design sense).
yap time!
as a whole, i really liked designing these outfits. definitely put so much thought into them considering they'd only be used for this one event. I think they did really well at balancing cohesion and individuality. like I want to redraw these outfits again, especially for Ish and Scott so they aren't half blocked.
now onto the usual bullet-point details:
there will be a lot of "i have no clue what's going on in the skin, so here's me doing whatever i want". the first one is: Ish's hair. the lack of shading makes me feel the most straightforward and "canon compliant" way to interpret it would be like blunt bowl cut bangs with a bit of asymmetry. but that's unflattering on like. basically everyone. everyone looks better in something else. so I freestyled it and... randomly decided he has curls ig. i think the curled bangs with a much longer side section turned out unique and cool looking, but it's also something where like. you can very obviously tell this was designed by an EVOL lol.
so Ish and 4C's skins are very very similar. going by the artstyle on the skins I suspect Ish and 4C's were made by one person and then Scott and Cam's were made by a different person. anyhow, Ish and 4C's skins are basically the same thing, just mirrored, with a few small differences like the tie/collar, cuffs, and shoes. I generally tried to stick to the skins, though I used my ability to add more detail than the limited quantity of pixels on a minecraft skin to make them look less obviously similar.
I liked the colour blocking for Ish's cuffs, with the gold band in the middle, so I came up with something unique to maintain that. The other important thing from his skin I used to get the "vibe" was that he seemed to have a brooch instead of a tie. I considered it being a white jabot that simply didn't show well but I wanted to draw something that I haven't yet drawn 5 times in my VSMP designs, so I made it a necklace. this sort of settled his vibe as being like the fancy/formal version of the outfit while 4C's version is more the casual/sporty version.
hence why Ish's jacket has a more tailored vibe in the shape of the shoulders and lapels. also Ish's jacket gets to have longer sleeves since he doesn't have a black section between the red of the jacket and the white of the shirt the way 4C does.
the bottom half of their outfits are the same thing but flipped though. No extra details for distinction there.
I was a bit confused by what the stripey section was, I thought it could be stockings or boots, but I settled on making it leg warmers for silhouette variety. since Scott and Cam already have silhouettes that are baggy shorts/skorts and then fitted stockings, making it leg warmers for Ish and 4C would give them a different silhouette that has more volume towards the bottom. and helps make each character feel separate.
the stripey section cuts off into the shoes at a higher point on the inside than the outside for Ish and 4C, which I decided meant the leg warmers were cut asymmetrically, but in a higher at the front lower in the back sense. which did not combine well with the stripes but shshs.
I know there's little visible difference on here and it's mostly blocked anyway but I imagine Ish's version of the shoes to be black boots and 4C's version to be white sneakers.
4C has a double crown since he's won two MCCs back-to-back. there's a throwaway comment where he says something along the lines of "I'm glad I got to keep my crown" which made me decide that in-universe, the winner's crowns literally disappear if you don't maintain the winstreak.
yeah 4C's heart glasses are more-or-less opaque. It's a hivemind headcanon among certain Lifesteal fanartists that c!4C just. does not understand how goggles/glasses work. since many of his skins depict him with goggles or glasses on his head as an accessory, but never actually wearing them.
4C has a frilly collar because at least one of them has to for 1 joy and whimsy 2 variety because they literally all have the same collar style otherwise. same reason for why he has a bow instead of a regular tie, because I don't want 3/4 of them to have the same accessory.
since you can see the sleeves of the black layer on 4C's skin, I decided to make that layer a cardigan for him.
to get the red - black - white colour blocking for 4C's sleeves, his jacket needs to have short sleeves. his jacket has patches and big cuffs, I imagine it to be more like a canvas spring jacket than Ish's cropped blazer.
one of the small details I picked up from VODwatching 4C's POV is that he and Ish have two buttons on their shirt cuffs. except the side with the buttons is only visible for one of 4C's hands so like it barely mattered anyway.
if you're wondering why 4C and Cam have significantly different poses while Ish and Scott have basically the same pose give or take a bit of limb posing tetris, it's because I lost so many braincells trying to make Cam's pose look right that I wanted to do something simpler for 4C. I tend to draw characters in the same generic standing up pose with a little bit of arm/hand posing for variety, but as a fashion nerd I instinctively avoid anything that will cause distortion or blocking in the clothes. I have not attempted a kneeling pose or anything similarly complex in a long long time (possibly never), and now I never want to again.
the hair accessory heart laurel bits for Scott and Cam were fun to draw. they're only on one side on the actual skins but I realized that'd make them almost completely blocked in this drawing, so I decided to make it symmetrical (or a full laurel that wraps around the back, i find that a cool concept as well) for joy and whimsy.
random tiny detail, Scott's earring is an itty bitty heart.
Scott's outfit is pretty much just. follow what's on his skin. the main decision I made was to give him ridiculously puffy sleeves for joy and whimsy. yes that's my entire decision making process. i couldn't figure out where the black cuffs on his skin were coming from so I made it a more fitted undershirt under the baggy white shirt.
I realized a bit too late into this that Scott's white shirt does have cuffs with a button on them, but I like ridiculously puffy sleeves too much to change it to be more "canon compliant". I did put little button closures on the sleeves of the undershirt though, just to have that amount of detail somewhere.
I gave Scott puffy shorts into tall stockings and ankle boots because that's what the colour blocking on his skin read as to me. It doesn't really matter though since it's almost all blocked anyway.
honestly a good deal of my decision making process in this was. more random heart-themed details. so the clasps for Cam's capelet are little bitty hearts.
I intended for Cam's black overlayer to be a cardigan type similar to 4C's, since it has sleeves, but somehow I forgot that in the lining process so it has the waistcoat closure. it doesn't look particularly cursed like this so I'm leaving it, I cannot be bothered to revise this more.
I had no idea if Cam's skin is supposed to have shorts or a skirt, so I cooked up a cursed third option. I figured with how it's longer in the middle it's probably a skirt, but the pattern of the black/dark green lines was a bit strange. so in an attempt to make the colour blocking as close to the skin as I can I made it shorts with a bunch of skirt-like panels.
this is finally the day where I put a thought or two into in-universe logistics for video game people who go through a decent amount of action. aka normal shoes for everyone, no super chunky callmespice-influenced platforms.
I still managed to forget the design for Cam's boots and put the gap on the cuff in the middle instead of the side. so there's no zipper and looks a bit bland so i gave him slight heels just so the design feels less plain. that made my life a bit more difficult because I don't usually put thought into how shoes warp.
I gave Cam knee guards because wearing skorts and under-knee stockings in any sort of action game is a disaster waiting to happen when you trip or fall and get a ton of scrapes and bruises. It felt especially glaringly obvious when his pose is kneeling on the floor. So yeah today is the day I decide that my designs shall have a reasonable amount of logistic functionality.
