How often do you change your characters clothes?

[Vanesalisa]

all the time because it's fun because I get to research what clothes would they wear next

[Rhombik]

That's a super interesting question. I have thought about it but not too much until now.

do you change their clothes?
The main character is a robot from another planet so he is naked for the most part. So are all the animals that come and go.

But there are four kids... I guess I do change them a little but mostly just the colour.

(yes) how often do you do it and why?

Off the top of my head, they all have about two outfits (not counting times when they are in their pajamas or school uniform or something) which I swap about. This has mostly got to do with the fact that the clothes might clash with the background.

I did used to get annoyed when I watched Cartoon Network and they never changed clothes though so maybe this has affected me on some level.

do you find hard to make clothes look fashionable?

I haven't been trying but... Now you mention it, one girl has an over-sized top and leggings and this is all my little students wear.

can you leave a link to your comic?

https://tapas.io/series/Gombik-Comics

Not all of them have made their way from my desktop computer to Tapas yet. I wanted a buffer for when work dumps an intensive course or a pile of paperwork in my lap. Updates are Wednesdays and Sundays.

do you think clothes make the character?

I think the clothes help to differentiate the characters and often tell you a little something about them. Even in a more realistically drawn comic, I'd try to keep either the colour scheme or the clothes themselves the same.

[nolongerusetheforum]

My character is a stick-man, they are practically naked lol.

[feuersichel]

My main character changes her clothes quite a lot. The others don't. It's kinda part of a "joke".

[Migue]

I guess it always depends on the context of the story.

If the story is set in a regular city or town and your characters are more or less normal folks whom doesn't wear an uniform everyday, it's good to change clothing like almost everyone does. You know, not wearing the same thing you wore yesterday, dressing acordingly to the occasion, wearing proper stuff for the climate, just to mention some examples.

But I think that when the story is set in a more fantastic realm it's fair if the characters don't change their clothes that often. I mean, I'm sure that Frodo only took three white shirts and two pants in his quest to destroy the ring.

[scarlet_wings_kaili]

I change their clothes every time it's a new day XD
What I do is I make a wardrobe for them. Something like this:

[thomasfallaeriksen]

Usually when a new chapter starts. The story jumps between different realities so it helps show that the characters are in a different realm.

[Wishjacked]

My characters usually change clothes whenever a real person would change clothes… so day-to-day, in and out of pajamas, etc. There are exceptions, of course…. one of my characters only owns two (almost identical) pairs of pants and one pair of shoes, for example, so those elements of his clothing never change. Sometimes I'll have a character wear the same shirt two days in a row, especially if they're a minor character and it's obvious from context that time has passed. But for the most part, I'll change their clothes whenever it makes sense from a time-passage standpoint!

I love fashion design and I think clothes help flesh out a character a lot… it can tell you about their hygiene, how they want to be perceived by others, their interests, their financial status, etc. etc. It's one of my very favorite parts of storytelling and design. (Too bad my comic is peopled almost entirely with goofy teenagers on summer vacation… I end up designing a lot of t-shirts when I'd rather be coming up with fancy dresses HAHA)

[popsiclestick]

these are a couple of old turnaround/outfit ideas that i did for my comic. I change my characters clothes from day to day, but they tend to stick to certain colour schemes which help reinforce the character, I guess? They tend to wear similar things most days - like with Archer, the first, usually in an off-white shirt with darker pantaloons, (which also says a lot about his character as he hasn't got a lot of cash for much else) but I like changing the cut subtly and just adding interesting details to make each outfit different.

[Louistrations]

I change the clothing and hairstyles a lot, probably more often than I should. Like a lot of people have already mentioned, each of my characters have a set colour palette so hopefully it doesn't throw people off too much.

[Aspie_Gamer]

Life of an Aspie has for the most part had my characters wear the same old clothes that is school uniforms given the high school setting. On weekends though or in Susan's case in the most recent chapter where she was still suspended for beating up the resident Alpha Bitch, I've drawn the appropriate characters in casual clothing that speaks to their personality or tastes. i.e Susan's a tomboy and therefore doesn't dress girly where Mizuki does because well...she's a girly girl.

[danrafter]

That's an interesting question. I usually have my characters change their clothes if a day passes. But I do have some characters wear the same clothing all the time because they are supposed to represent certain archetypes. That happens in my horror/comedy Slash in Love here. I haven't gotten to these characters yet in the first few pages I've posted, but there are some characters in my comic who represent the traditional stereotypes of '80s slasher movies: the brainy girl, the party girl, the punk girl. They always wear the same clothes because they are supposed to be stuck in their stereotypes.

So, it does depend on the characters and what their roles are in a comic.

Dan

[Merle]

how often do you do it and why?
Change them every day - so almost every new scenne. Because I try to make the story as realistic as possible

do you find hard to make clothes look fashionable?
Uhm...not really. It´s more like having a certain style of clothing. I sometimes look clothes up online ans figure out which would fit a certain characters....but then again, I honestly make more statement with the colour they are wearing (the boy, for example wears more red/purple than the girl, which actually stands for his confidience).

can you leave a link to your comic?
No. Haven´t figured out how to.
do you think clothes make the character?
NO! haha. The can suport certain characteristics and shurely are a very sublte way to give of a vibe. The certainly don´t make them. If I had a comic with only naked people in them, would they have no character?

Interesting topic tough...

[bear1]

My characters change clothes from arc to arc.
The reason behind it is simple...I love drawing different clothes (especially dresses and all that overly girly stuff XD)
And since I don't have the money to buy a new outfit every week (or don't look good in some clothing styles) I might as well enjoy those styles on my characters. Besides that I think it might be exciting for the audience to see a new outfit with every story

[T.S.Thorn]

H:3llo, I'm Ghost. Nice to meet you all. I noticed in some animes that people do change their clothes, unless it's a school uniform anime. I personally do half and half, basically when I feel like it I will change the clothes.

[JimJom]

My character doesn't have clothes except in the winter. So.....

[Alyssa]

I love this question! Clothes, clothes, clothes, my favourite thing!

In my current comic, the clothing of the two main characters are incorporated into part of the storyline. They time travel, and the one character makes a point of changing his clothes to suit the time period (but he's a hipster, so he always dresses a century or a two later, to be an 'early adopter'). My other character makes a strict point of only wearing his country suit (casual) and his Victorian tux (formal), as he sees these as the only two appropriate forms of dress, no matter what time period he is in.

In past comics, I frequently changed the outfits of my characters. I love fashion and clothing is one of my favourite things to draw <3 Comics also give me the freedom of making some truly unrealistic and impractical fashion choices. How I love beautiful, impractical things.

[jurinova]

The characters in my comic change clothes whenever it's realistic and what's realistic depends greatly on the character. For example I have military personnel in my comic, so it's realistic for them to always keep their uniform on when on duty. Civilian characters on the other hand change outfits quite often with the exception of a few characters, like an android who doesn't sweat, so the clothes stay cleaner for longer.

I think clothes are a great way to show passage of time and I try to use that to my advantage as often as I can. My comic is set in space most of the time with no visible signs of time passing, so the best way to show that it's a new day is to put some clean new clothes on people. I also really enjoy designing lots of different outfits, so it's not a problem for me to design a whole bunch of outfits every chapter.

I know changing outfits often can cause some trouble with character recognition but I think it's a great character design practise to make sure your characters stay recognizable even when they change clothes. Personally I've tried to give all my characters specific styles, which helps making them look similar from chapter to chapter. One character always has shoulder pads, one character likes baggy trousers, one wears only warm colours etc. When there's a style to aim for it's so much easier to design a whole wardrobe and it helps keep the characters look consistent.

[allenthomas]

I recently did a whole chapter of my comic with my two main characters wearing different clothes than their main ones do to a plot change. The problem I had was when I switched them back in my current chapter I've almost forgot little details about my characters clothes. However, I will say when I went back to drawing their old clothes, it almost seemed like I was drawing something new again. I personally don't think that clothes MAKE the character per se, but they can definitely add or take away from a potential strong character.

[shatterjure]

Only when it's neccessary. Like my character Garias changes from his armor to his formal uniform when attending summits or things like that, otherwise he's mostly in armor.