What does it take to create original characters people love?
In June of 2019, after 5 years of drawing, I made my third OC. Megane-chan (or Em-chan) would go on to become my mascot and most popular OC. I had no idea she’d rack up a following, with thirty-plus fanart works to her name.
Though I do think Em is cute, there’s surely more to her success than just a cute design. What differentiated her from my other OCs?
Let’s go Beyond the Visuals. Here are strategies you can use to make original characters people will love.
Give Your OC a Motive
What does your OC want, and what’s stopping them from getting it? Why do they want it?
A character with a motive becomes much more relatable, forging a connection between your OC and the audience. It gives your character’s actions meaning, and the audience a reason to stick around.
Beyond the Visuals
Even if you have no plans to create a world for your character, you need motive to inform their personality and future artworks. How would they react to being asked for their number? Does your OC desire wholesome love, or string-less sex? How does their motivation influence the things they buy? The places they frequent?
If you go through my Em-chan artworks, you’ll notice none of them feature her having sex. As a shy but lewd gal, Em’s motive is comfort and acceptance, which she can’t seem to find. It wouldn’t be aligned with her character to draw her having sex, then.
It’s unsaid, but consistent. Em’s shy side informs her reaction to different scenarios, creating connection between her and the audience.
E.M. Welsh wrote about uncovering your character’s motivation. Highly recommended.
Create a Narrative
I see a lot of artists upload mostly pin-up works of their OCs. Other than cute art, you’re not really giving the audience much to resonate or connect with.
Instead, think of your narrative, or story.
How does the artwork expose your character’s motive, personality, and backstory? Are you using the description to complete the story the artwork wants to tell?
In this illustration, the narrative is Em’s solitude. She’s alone and lost in her thoughts. Considering she’s the epitome of the ‘cute girl’ trope, we’re left wondering why she’s still single.
Your narrative can extend beyond a single illustration or character. For example, I inserted Em into an overall story where cute girls can’t seem to find love.
Who are these other girls to Em? Why are they ‘loveless’? Suddenly, there’s so much more for the audience to be interested in.
Beyond the Visuals
Each decision you make can be used strategically to tell your narrative:
– What’s the content of the artwork? What does it depict your OC doing?
– What does the mood and lighting suggest? Is it lonesome or bright? Why?
– How are the background details relevant to your character, and their story?
– What other media will you use to tell your story?
In one of my 3D design projects, we chose a mystery then sculpted a creature that explained the mystery. Mine was “why do we die in our sleep?”
Notice how we started with the story, before making design choices. That’s visual storytelling at work.
Foster Familiarity
It doesn’t matter how great a character you have, if you only draw them once. Consistently showing your OC will build your audience’s connection to them.
It doesn’t have to be polished artworks either. Consider:
- Discord Emojis
- Templates or promotional posts
- Commission art
- Stickers and Merch
- Short stories like Amagato Café with their OCs
Should you info dump?
Dumping chunks of information on your audience through text is another problem many artist storytellers tend to do.
If your OC isn’t quite popular yet, avoid info dumps. It’s better to show than tell. Tawawa on Mondays is a masterful example of how you don’t need text to build a connection with the audience.
You can share more about your OC once their backstory is established, like what other IPs do with Wikipedia posts. At that point, the audience knows about your character and definitely wants to know more.
Involve your community
As more people show interest in your OCs, you can encourage interaction.
Handpicked for you: Learn how to grow your NSFW Art Twitter faster, with five tips I’ve used over the years
The goal is to incorporate your audience’s perception of your character into your content, further building that connection between them.
Letting people ask your OCs stuff is a great one. You can use curious cat to answer questions your audience leaves.
This strategy is as much persistence as it is luck. Sometimes you’ll get a lot of asks, other times none. Just keep promoting and asking followers to leave their questions.
Art Jams are great for involving other artists. This one’s a bit harder to pull off but can be incredibly fulfilling to see your OC in other art styles.
Hosting the Em-chan Art Jam was a bit of a whim, since I had no idea if other people would commit to drawing her. It came out well though, and its proof that other people can come to love your OCs.
Conclusion
Creating OCs people love is a long and involved process. To recap:
- Give your OC a motive, so people have a reason to connect with them
- Create a narrative so you’re always sharing something to reinforce your OC’s motive
- Foster familiarity with constant posts featuring your OC
- Involve your community in experiencing (and building) your OC’s story
Do you have any OCs you’re planning to give life to? What was your key take-away from the article?
Creating OCs people love is a long and involved process. Here are some tips to create a connection between your audience and your OC. Click To TweetI’d love to hear more about your characters on Discord or Twitter.
Cheers, Beats and Em.
