Hello new people! Sorry for the long absence, life gets in the way. If I don't make a new post by the end of February, please gather yourself in a circle around me and beat me to death with rocks.
People should create for the sake of creating but people post to engage with the community. However, posting can be intimidating and anxiety-inducing for a lot of people. It’s easy to say “do it scared” but much harder to put into practice. So, I’ve put together a few steps that lead up to doing it scared. These won’t work for everyone and this is meant more as general advice.
Step One: Why are you scared?
The first step is to figure out what about posting is scary for you. Oftentimes, it’s not as simple as “what if my post flops” or “what if people think I’m cringe”. Once you’ve figured out the surface-level reason, dig a little deeper. If your post flops, does that lead to you doubting the worth of what you’re creating? If you’re worried about what people think, is that because you’ve experienced judgement before or are worried your inbox will be flooded with criticism?
Identifying why you’re scared will not only help you understand yourself better (yippee!) but you can also then work on the source of your fears and anxieties at your own pace.
Step Two: Find ways to lessen your fears
One way of working through anxiety online is to find ways to mitigate the specific source of your fear.
Some fears have easier solutions than others. If you’re worried about people criticising your work, you can turn off anonymous asks (as most people are less likely to be haters when there’s a name attached to it) or turn asks off entirely, as well as limiting replies to those who have been following for a week. This way, if someone does want to be an unpleasant individual, it’s a little harder for them to do so.
A lack of engagement is a little harder to remedy. Here, the only real solution is to try and divorce the idea that engagement = worth. Remember why you’re creating an OC. Because it’s fun! It’s an act of creation! Because you want to find a community…? A community or OC friends will never just drop into your lap. You need to seek them out yourself. Look into discord servers, forums, tumblr networks (are they still a thing?), fandom events and exchanges, and most importantly: go out of your way to send asks/questions to others and build friendships with them! If you’ve got social anxiety like me, this is going to be a big challenge. Which leads to the next step…
Step Three: Start small
It doesn’t matter how small your first step is - so long as that step is forwards! If you’re nervous about OC posting, find the smallest thing about them and post it with the expectation of getting no notes. That’s right, I want you to go in and expect it to flop. Anything over one note is an automatic win. This first post isn’t about engagement - it’s about getting over the initial fear of posting.
It can be tempting to just go right out the gate with elaborate explanations of backstory, lore implications, power levels, everything. But the trick really is to start small. Most people scrolling tumblr aren’t going to read a few thousand words on something they’re not invested in yet. TL;DR is a curse that I’m sure we’ve all fallen victim to.
Instead, break up information about your OC into small pieces that can be posted one by one and have some kind of visual piece with it. People are usually more drawn to images than text. For example, which of these two things are more visually interesting?
What Perseus keeps in his bag:
Amulet
Tinderbox
A broken blade
50ft of hempen rope
25gp of silver powder
Waterskin
Rations (cheese, bread, sausage)
OR
Obviously this comes down to personal preference but a lot of people would find the illustrated version to be more interesting. You don’t need to be an artist to do this either! You could make a version of that example in photoshop or a similar program. Picrews, moodboards, edits, game screenshots and photography can all be used to add a visual element to your posts.
Step Four: Why am I still scared?
Fear is not easily stamped out. Anxiety is definitely the kind of thing that lingers. These steps aren’t meant to immediately make OC posting not-scary. That’s something that will only come with time as you get used to it. Again: Do it. Do it scared. Gradually, it’ll be less terrifying and in the meantime, you might be able to make a few friends who also want to talk about your blorbo.
Then it's a wonderful time to learn! However since that takes time here are some quicker methods:
Online character creators: picrew is a really easy way to get the basic features of a character down, although some might lack specific features or details that you want.
Video game character creators: not only are there a number of genres and settings to choose from but if the game has a modding community, you'll often have a lot of luck finding specific items outside of the base game!
Written descriptions: in the same way that you can draw a character and include a lot of details, you can also write a character with a lot of detail, such as learning to write a variety of writing techniques for a richly detailed description.
Commission an artist: if you're able to afford it, many artists are willing to draw a character based off of a written description.
Photobashing: photobashing is a technique where you combine photographs and 3D assets to create a finished piece. There are many tutorials online on how to get started.
Love your blog! Do you think you could do a post on coming up with ideas to do with your OCs? I would love to post art of my characters more often, but I'm lacking ideas.
Absolutely I can! I'll add it to the list although I might not get around to making a post until February-ish c:
First and foremost, a good character reference is one that clearly and concisely tells you about an OC. Not only are they helpful to keep your art or descriptions of them consistent but if someone else will be drawing or writing about them, then a reference is typically a necessity so they can draw the character accurately. I’ll be going into how to make both a good visual and written reference, as well as tips that apply to both of them.
Special thanks to Lotus and Calico for giving some additional perspectives for me to think about, as well as anon for suggesting this topic!
Good Visual References
A reference sheet is a way for artists to easily see a character’s design for drawing them. At its simplest, this can be a simple, full-body illustration with little embellishment but some people will do full turnarounds (front, side and back views) or additional outfits for a character with props and other illustrations for a more artistic reference sheet. Regardless of your approach, your reference should clearly show a character’s basic features and, typically, the clothes they most often wear (whether that is a single outfit or multiple).
Adding notes to the sheet can be very helpful, such as a character’s height, specific facial features or a description of the kind of clothes they wear (like colours, aesthetics, fashion style and clothing preferences). If a character is often seen with a prop or item (such as weapons or mobility aids), then it’s important to also include those in your reference and make a note on the frequency of their use. Finally, if your design has pieces of clothing or props that have specific terminology, it can be helpful to include that terminology so it’s easier for others to search for more references.
Flat Colours vs Shaded/Rendered: I’ve seen some people complain about references that are shaded or rendered as it can often make it hard to colour pick from the reference. This can easily be remedied with a colour palette that is clearly labelled for what colour is used for what part. Using two of my own references as an example, you can see that my reference sheet for Eren doesn’t have any shading, making colour-picking easy. Comparing that to my reference sheet for Vex, the art for him is shaded but this is remedied with a clear colour palette on the left with labels saying what that colour is primarily used for. As a final comparison to a reference sheet that I feel fails in this regard, my sheet for Eris (nudity warning) has several outfits that are fully shaded but do not have a full colour palette outside of their basic features. However, since this character would be drawn in many other different outfits and the sheet was for personal use only, this doesn’t bother me too much.
Complicated designs: For designs with complex elements such as lots of accessories or intricate tattoos, it can be helpful to draw a larger version of these on the reference. This makes it a lot easier to draw them consistently in future as they’ll be clear and you won’t need to spend time zooming in or around your design. Additionally, if you character has a tattoo or very specific fur markings then it can also be helpful to create a transparent version of them. This way, anyone drawing your character can use that transparent version rather than drawing it by hand or, for those that do want to draw it by hand, they again have a very clear design to reference. Also, it can be helpful to have a simplified design for people with art styles that work better with less detail or for animating purposes.
Mannerisms: This is more so for references that will be sent to other artists for commissions, requests, gifts, etc. It can be helpful to have a small section on what a character’s mannerisms or way of holding themselves is like. This gives artists a jumping off point for ideas on poses or character interactions as a blank slate can be hard to come up with ideas for. It’ll also mean that if, for example, you have a shy character then they won’t be mischaracterised in art by being drawn with an overconfident posture. It’s best to use simpler words (such as annoying vs vexatious) as it can become confusing for people for who English is not their first language.
Good Written References
A good written reference can be split into two types.
The first is for describing their appearance, typically used for sending to artists when you don’t have an existing visual reference. For this, it can be helpful to go over the points of what I wrote for a visual reference and just translate that to a written description. Bullet points are the easiest way to do this as it gives artists something quick and easy to reference but it can also be helpful to link to images to give a better idea of what you want.
Pale skin with light freckles.
Lavender hair that gets slightly lighter at the tips and slightly darker at the roots. It is mostly-straight, shoulder-length and covers some of the face. Two small horns poke out of the top of his head.
Grey-blue eyes. Should look sleepy or lidded.
Thin-framed glasses with a simple, silver glasses chain (optional)
Black cassock with a black pellegrina and white collarino/tab collar.
For formal occasions, Vex may wear a purple ferraiolo with black, embroidered trim.
Purple stole with a symmetrical design.
At the bottom of the stole is the Leviathan cross.
Around the chest, there are the five alchemical symbols for fire, air, spirit, earth and water (in order from top to bottom).
Has a rosary with dark, wooden beads and small ivory beads in an alternating pattern that ends with an inverted cross (also known as the St. Peter’s cross).
Wears platform boots with metal toe caps.
Without the boots, Vex comes to 5’3”. The boots make him a lot taller, around 5’6”.
Sometimes wears half-palm gloves made of black leather.
This is the basic written reference that I had for Vex before I drew him a reference sheet. It makes it clear what they look like and any artist working with the description would be able to draw him semi-accurately from this alone. It can be hard to balance the necessary amount of detail with keeping things concise - large paragraphs can be overwhelming and even off-putting to others.
The second type of written reference is a reference specifically used when writing. While a lot of the same principles apply, you’ll often want to go into more detail regarding the character’s mannerisms, way of speech and dynamic with other characters. There are numerous great guides on how to write a good character reference or profile, all using different approaches. Personally, I like to use these five categories for writing a character’s reference.
Basic Details: This includes a basic description of a character, as well as their name and any other surface-level details about them such as age, date of birth, gender and sexuality, basic personality traits, etc. If the setting is fantasy or sci-fi, then I would also include anything that would fall under this category in-universe, such as species or magical alignment. This section is not for digging deep but more to give an overview on the character.
Personality: It can be really easy to boil down a character’s personality to a few simple traits like in the first section. However, characters will often act differently in different scenarios and have specific reasons as to why they act a certain way. How do they act when they’re alone vs when they’re around others, both those they trust and those they do not? Do they mask certain parts of their personality? What fears does the character have and how does that impact how they go through life? These are all things that can heavily influence how a character behaves and talks.
Mannerisms: Here, you’ll want to describe your character’s body language and demeanour such as how they walk and carry themselves, as well as first impressions from strangers. You can also go into any habits a character has, including whether they are aware of those habits and perhaps try to hide or overcome them.
History: A character’s past will usually define a lot of how they conduct themselves in the present. Here, you’ll want to include information on their upbringing, influential moments (or “canon-events”) in their life and their caregivers, if applicable. This can add context to certain behaviours or actions from the character.
Relationships: Finally, go into important relationships for the character. When I say important, I mean write about relationships to characters that are either contextually relevant (such as to the current scene or overall plot/story) or characters that have had a large impact on them. For example, the barista that you character always gets coffee from probably isn’t going to be relevant… unless you’re writing a coffee-shop romance where the barista is likely to be a recurring character. A character’s family that doesn’t appear in the story may not be relevant now… but the way that they influenced the character’s upbringing is relevant when it comes to establishing their backstory and foundational relationships.
General Tips
Non-human/original species: If your character is not human or is an original species, make sure to include any key features that are unique to that species and link to any relevant design documents for them. It’s a lot easier for someone to use your reference than it is to go searching for that information themselves.
What actually makes your reference good? This is hard to answer because what I think is good is probably contradicted by countless other people. Also, some advice for one kind of reference won’t necessarily be helpful for a different kind of reference. A good foundation for a reference will always be what you find helpful.
Keep it concise: Oftentimes, there’s so much information that we hold about an OC in our heads and it can be tempted to include absolutely everything into their reference. But remember that the key purpose of a reference is to make it easy to understand the main points about a character or design. Regardless of if you go further in-depth, always make sure to have a clear overview of them at the very beginning that can be easily referenced.
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