D&D 5e: I mean the female dwarves also have beards, we promise, they only shave when around humans long enough and wanting to emulate thier fashion! Sure we'll never show you that in artwork, but all the dwarves we commission just happen to be raised by humans I guess! We PROMISE we break beauty norms!...off camera...when you aren't looking...
PF2e: We were wanting to go for something a bit more original where they were prideful of having longest head hair, braiding it into the most intricate patterns to represent your clan and such, weaving your history and culture onto yourself with something you actively maintain. But you're right, we should mention that they both also have beards. We've drawn some with beards since the start, just thought it went without saying.
Look. The left one is the start of the dwarf section, right next to the word "dwarf." They want you to see dwarf and think of her, she's before even the stereotypical bearded guy with a pickaxe. And they released art of a female dwarf with a beard shortly after with the "Anvil Dwarf" ancestry. 5e's looks like they would get Scarlett Johannson to play her in a movie.
I mean this in the kindest way possible, but if you want to draw OCs/do a lot of original work, you must accept that most people are not going to care about them. Like, at all. This is not a negative thing and is in fact the normal way of the world. If you want people to care about your stuff, you have to MAKE them care!
Like, you can have the coolest idea for a character, but the character that people see isn't the one in your head - it's the one you draw and show to them. People get more invested if you're able to "present" your ideas well. It's how most stories work, and in general, I think a lot of artists would benefit from thinking more like writers in this regard!
Yeah like as smn who has been posting original work for the last 7 going 8 years now, you'd be surprised how curious people can be if you present them with a glimpse into a story.
Art of characters interacting, pieces that capture a very specific moment, etc—give them a taste of something to chew on that makes them go "oh what's that about, is there more context to this?" as opposed to just simple isolated art of your characters not really doing anything, and people will be interested.
Even if you don't have much of a story! Vague and evocative works incredibly well.
I struggled with this for a long time before finally understanding this. I would post these posed images of my characters crying or looking mad and I wondered why no one seemed interested. I was showing the emotions and no one was aiding “who is this? Why are they upset?”
Now I know that there needs to be more to it than that. You can see someone crying or angry and think “that’s sad.” “well they seem angry.” but once you drop hints at an actual NARRATIVE then people start asking questions. “Who are these people?” “What do they mean to one another?” “What’s going on?” Because now as the artist you’ve told them there IS something deeper here to see.
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