Do you have any advice about how to design a TF2 OC clothes? I’ve always struggled with clothes but trying to match them to the style of a videogame is even worse! I’ve been trying for three days and it’s only tears at this point

tf2humbug:

Well, not specifically. There’s no special trick to it. You have to hone your powers of observation and just practice drawing clothes. With TF2, you at least have the advantage of being able to read design notes from the team at Valve to see what they were thinking and look at reams of concept art. Another thing you can try is looking at the artists that influenced the look of the thing you’re studying, so instead of just looking at TF2 art, also get a feel for classic American illustrators J.C. Leyendecker, Dean Cornwell, and Norman Rockwell.

Just looking at the line-up of the mercs, I could boil down their aesthetic to “streamlined cartoony mid-20th-century, relying on strong silhouettes and absurd stereotypes to instantly communicate each character’s function.” That right there gives you a few places to start.

Don’t try to design anything from the top-down until you have a really good understanding of your fundamentals. Instead, start from the bottom-up and build on what you know about the setting and your character’s needs. That way, things will fall into place much more naturally.