Alola All!
Welcome to my little corner of the internet! My name is Zuiri, and I’m here to share with you my love of OCs (Original characters) as well as all the tips and tricks about art, design and other random related topics that I’ve learnt over my many years of art!
Why do I love OCs?
Where do I even start? I’ve been an artist for over 10 years and started way back in 2012. Since I’ve started, I’ve always had personal enjoyment when it came to specifically character designing. I love being able to make a character through many bits of research, building a backstory for them and bringing them to life! Every character I’ve ever made is special to me. To this date I’ve probably designed over 100 characters with just over 60 of them I still regularly draw.
It’s also really fun to talk about OCs with people. I’ve probably talked to hundreds of people about their OCs, it’s always interesting to see what unique things people come up with. A lot of my inspiration of design also comes from other’s own works as well which also serves to further my interest in OC design.
Overall, I don’t just see OCs as just random characters that you have made. To me, they are also part of who you are, they are a representation of your influences and work as an artist over the years. Character designing in its own right is a talent which you can show off using the characters and the world you have built around it, which is why I put both passion and importance over OCs and their designs. I know OCs in general don’t have the best reputation in some communities (early DeviantArt comes to mind) but I truly feel it’s a fun topic to get into once you get over that stigma 🙂
What’s the point of this website?
This website serves as a place where I can share all the information about my characters and the world they live in, as well as be a place other OC creators can go to get resources or information to help further their passion as OC and world builders.
The OCs I’ve created over the years all belong to one universe which I’ve helped built up through art, role-plays, stories and many other mediums and I wanted to ensure that it was all kept in one place for people to read and look at if interested. I don’t mind if I don’t get too much interest over this however because I do it all as a hobby and mostly for me to nerd over.
I also do get a lot of questions regarding art and character design when sometimes doing my art, and I wanted to actually have a place to share that knowledge with people who are curious on how they can improve. Furthermore, I know some people can be a bit scared or embarrassed to ask for help, so I hope this place can act as a bit of a safe space and a comfortable hub to explore your desire of character design. It won’t be perfect as I’m no professional, but I still want to assist the best I can.
Some Final Words & Recommendations
If this is your first time character designing, then welcome! I hope you find something that interests you and stick to it!
If you’re just here to build up more knowledge I hope you find what you’re looking for, please reach out if you want to help 🙂
I’ll keep this brief and hope to go more into depth with this in a blog post but keep these words in mind whenever you’re designing a character:
- Don’t overcomplicate it, balance the features – Ensure that the character both can easily be drawn again but also has identifiable features (unique silhouettes, little quirks etc.) As well as a colour scheme that has a limited range (2-4 colours are my recommendation)
- Don’t let perfection be your main enemy – It’s impossible to make the perfect character. You’ll make mistakes and make adjustments as time goes on. Let that serve as a testament of how much you’ve learnt.
- Don’t obsess over making them unique – Making a unique character is great but keep in mind millions and millions of characters have existed before yours so it’s very likely there will be one that looks similar to yours. Don’t stress too hard on it, and just ensure they are unique amongst your cast of characters.
There are others, but these are the ones that come to mind first. Lastly, if you’re looking for tools/resources or just what software I use, please see below (Amazon affiliate link included):
- Software: Clip Studio Paint (https://www.clipstudio.net/en/)
- Graphics Tablet: Huion Kamvas 22 (https://amzn.to/4kGAi1b)
- Sites for references:
- https://attrade.selfy-is.fun/tags_item.php – GREAT site for hairstyles especially! Just translate it into English ^^
- https://pinterest.com/ – Also good! Though it does require an account.
Thank you and enjoy the site! <3