As with a lot of my outfits go, this one started out with me wishing I could wear a piece of clothing I can’t have. And always, my solution is to just draw it on a character. @vephriel has a character whom would wear the outfit I had in mind perfectly, so I borrowed her!
Then while drawing the outfit, I decided to make her outfit fancy! And then why the heck not, I’ll put her on a magazine cover since she looked like she would belong in a fashion magazine. It was so much fun!
This time around, I actually recorded my design notes: all the design decisions I have made and the reasons why I made them. I want to get into the habit of making these notes since I love to talk about costume design so much, so I started off with something easy.
You can read the notes are below the cut
THE DESIGN BREAKDOWN
One of my favorite things to do when it comes to video games and turning them into modern outfits is to base the design off of their in-game getup. There are two ways I approach this:
I interpret the mog and transform it into some sort of equivalent clothing. For example, a cape can turn into a jacket.
I take the the characteristics of the mog and apply them to my design. For example, I will take the color scheme of the mog and use it as my color scheme for my design.
I did a little bit of both here. The purpose with this design was not re-interpret Vephriel’s mog, so most of my decisions were based on principles.
Before I dive into the design itself, I’ll give a very brief background on the character Vephriel since an important part of my design decisions when it comes to designing for a specific character is to pay homage so I can make this outfit personal to her and her alone.
Screenshot of Vephriel and her Skorn, taken by Vephriel
Vephriel comes from the World of Warcraft universe. She is a Dark Ranger, a member of a group Of rangers whom followed Sylvanas Windrunner after they died in the Scourge invasion of Quel’thalas. That being said, Vephriel is a well-trained, seasoned hunter. In addition, her canon hunter pet is a loyal devilsaur by the name of Skorn.
These things are what Vephriel is well-known for, and are the basis to several details in the design.
Now onto the notes! I realize that my handwriting is not the most legible, so I will also type out what I have written in this diagram.
Behind the Colors
The mog is centered around three colors: The main color is purple with silver and turquoise acting as accent colors.
I applied the purple as the base color to a main piece of the outfit - the jacket. I also used the color on the jacket as opposed to the shirt because the jacket pulls together the outfit and encases it without it being obnoxious (of course, obnoxious as far as my taste in clothing goes).
Silver in the mog is used for fancy embellishments, so I used the silver color for detailing as well. The designs on the t-shirt, the buttons, the tears in the jeans were made silver based on that principle.
Turquoise in the mog is used used explicitly for the gems and glows, so I mostly reserved the turquoise for gems as well. I did include teal however to help pull the tiny amounts of bright turquoise into the outfit and so it does not pull away too much attention from Vephriel’s bright red eyes.
Special note: One of the biggest things for me when it came to designing this whole outfit is to make sure that Vephriel’s eyes stand out. I wanted her eyes to be bright and captivating and draw the viewer’s attention to them first before they look around to the rest of the outfit. That being said, it is the only red color in the whole image. Even with the rose details on the shirt, I avoided using red (which is why they ended up being teal).
Details, Details
There are plenty of lovely details and embellishments on Vephriel’s mog, and I wanted to have that level of detail in this outfit. Having a graphic t-shirt gave me a great opportunity to add in elaborate details. The graphics on the shirt are also finely lined in silver.
Using different fabrics and clothing textures is another way to add variety to outfits and keep every piece f an outfit interesting. I added textures to the pants and jacket to soften the contrast between the pattern-less pieces and the very detailed shirt. Plus, I love textures!
But despite me loving textures, I should not put it on everything. I forwent the textures on the shirt because it was already detailed. Adding more detail on top of a lot of detail would make the shirt way too busy and obnoxious in my eyes. When I design, I always try to maintain a tasteful balance of details and trying to find ways how to direct people’s attention to where I want it to go.
The faux fur! I wanted to add a little something-something to the jacket beyond texture, so my mind wandered back to the mog. I love the feathers on the shoulder plates, and I thought I can incorporate those to the jacket as well in some form. The jacket itself hangs off Vephriel’s shoulders, putting the top of it in a perfect position to add the fur in a similar place as the feathers on the mog. It seems odd to focus on where the collar of the jacket is on Vephriel’s body, but I would not have added the fur otherwise if I had drawn the jacket sitting fully about her shoulders. The fur would have looked haphazardly placed to me. The chest area already has a lot of attention, so adding bright furs would just make that region obnoxiously busy.
Jewelry is not necessary, but I love accessories. The jewelry Vephriel wears is delicate and adds another layer of detail to empty spaces on her skin Personally, I love rings and stacked rings, so I put those in there. The rings also gave me more space to spread out the bright, turquoise gems without them being too intrusive.
I normally do not draw nails, but this time I added them. The gauntlets on her hands have awesome claws, and there’s nothing like long, black, pointed nails for a fierce but elegant look. The jewelry, nails, and fur on the jacket all help give a grungy street look a level of class - which is exactly what I wanted for Vephriel.
Personal Touches
I tend to have a better time drawing outfits for a specific person because the part I have most fun with is taking bits and pieces of the character and incorporating them into the outfit I am making. Not everyone will pick up on them, but these additions are a delight to me anyways and create a meaningful theme I can use to subtly tie together a piece. Unlike the previous explanations from above where a good portion of it is subconscious decisions I am used to making, figuring out what personal details I want to add and how are explicitly deliberate choices.
This time around, I did not add as many Easter eggs as I would have liked. At the same time though, it does not hurt to keep things in moderation.
There are three characteristics about Vephriel I used to give her outfit direction:
Skorn. The graphic on Vephriel’s shirt depicts a devilsaur skull, an homage to Vephriel’s pet Skorn. The original shirt that both Veph and I wanted had an alligator on it, but I changed it to something more personal to Vephriel.
Shoulder feathers. One of my favorite parts of Vephriel’s mog are the feathers on the shoulder plates. I always thought they were neat and make that mog memorable to me. It’s that mog that I always associate with Vephriel too. So, I added a more explicit reference to them by adding feathers onto the shoulders of Vephriel’s shirt. It works out too since feathers are currently popular imagery in chic fashion.
Arrows. An homage to Vephriel’s identity as a Dark Ranger. It also works out since arrows are popular in chic design too. The arrows were a bit of an afterthought, which is why they don’t appear in the tshirt graphic. At the same time though, having them as pieces of jewelry is nice and subtle (if you can’t tell by now, I love subtle designs sksksk). The arrow choker certainly is better than the generic pendant I thought about adding.
And there you have it, folks! I didn’t expect I would be typing out a short essay on this design lol. If anything, I was glad to blab about what goes on in my brain when I design costumes. It’s so much fun and interesting for me, and I hope It’s interesting for y’all too. ;u;
I keep meaning to roll up on WrA (i think????) to try to make friends with @vephriel and join their “totally not dragons” dragon guild, but like.
I want to make a storm dragon. like in highmountain. because fuck it i’m allowed to be as cliche as i want.
but none of the models are RIGHT, y’know? The girls (because she’s gonna be a girl OBVS) are all skinny and slight and eh. Even the dwarven women are not ideal.
But they’re on ally.
ally is getting Kul Tirans
and that’s the story of how i’m really hoping that vephriel and whoever is playing their dragon’s friend/boyfriend don’t get bored of them before i get access to kul tirans (it’ll probably be a while) because i’m a picky bitch.
For @morbidmusing! Congrats on your Lucid Nightmare. :3
(Saw you post screenshots of it yesterday and wanted to draw something on a whim~ Hope you like it!)
