Recognisability of characters.

It helps in comics to make sure that your characters are recognisable, even when they are drawn small. A device I picked up some years ago from the work of (Corto Maltese creator) Hugo Pratt, is the use of hats. This might be implausible in a contemporary story, as hat wearing is less common, but in a renaissance story it seems natural, and indeed is a helpful signifier of period. There are six main characters in my story, plus a further six that only that appear in one or two panels each, and I've given them all distinctive headwear, based on either period images, or reproduction period hats. The exception to this is Cosimo Medici's assistants - I gave the two the same hat, a variant on their master's, which matches them being giving matching walks.

​Below are some examples of my characters' hats, and at bottom, some reference images of period replica hats.
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The hats above and below are seen on the witnesses on my first page, above.
Salimbini, the patron's hat was based on the top right, and his man Rocco's on the lower left - though I changed both to be clear in small drawings.

I've also tried to give the characters clothes that are distinguishably different, even before the colour, though I am also giving them distinctive palettes