Dressing a Ghost (Patreon)

'Greenbrier shares a name with the forest she was buried in, and like the forest she can only be seen at night among the glowing flora; a lucent phantom. During the day she hides in the thick fog, veiling the leafless, serpentining branches of tall trees that look dead in the sunlight.' 

I wanted to do this post so I could talk about how important it can be to know a character more before dressing them. I was way, way off the mark with Greenbrier and it took several tries before I figured her out.

 This is what I originally put her in, and while I personally love these kind of clothes, they didn't fit her personality at all.  She is a very old ghost, older than any of my other characters and so putting her in an outfit that looks like something another character would wear now just doesn't make a lot of sense. So I decided to start from scratch.There were several things I needed to remember if I wanted to go in the right direction this time, the biggest being that she literally glows in the dark. Putting those phantom orchids in that painting with Alex and Epoch actually helped me here, because I could get the exact color and brightness that I pictured for Greenbrier. 

She doesn't always want to be seen though, so how do you hide yourself at night when you glow? A cloak with a hood, dark fabrics and layers.  Here is the reference board I made once I knew what to look for:

And this is what I came up with.

This not the final design, I might change the details (like the belt) and colors later, but overall I love it. It's very inconspicuous and I think that was the exact contrast Greenbrier needed from the beginning.  I can picture her sneaking into the castle to save Freya, and them escaping through the forest together, leaving behind glowing trails as she runs. It just feels right.