making your oc not suck (this title is a joke do not panic)

also btw the title is just a goof, I'm trying to meme it up a little because this is my 10000th tutorial hehe

On the subject of history, PLEEEEASE give your OCs parents! Even if they’re dead, someone raised them

Damn, Lavender isn’t sugar coating anymore, “Making your oc not suck” OKAY LOL

For writers, something that helps for me is to give my characters habits. Maybe they say “uh” a lot, or they wrinkle their nose when they’re offended, or they laugh when they’re uncomfortable. It’s esp helpful in roleplays when I want to add more expression to the thing I’m writing.

At first I thought that maybe having splashes of paint on a character who likes to paint might seem a bit cliche, but then I remembered that every time I left art class, I'd be covered in it lol

The harsh title with Haley’s soft, beautiful voice is hilarious Edit: misspell

Dang Haley isn’t playing around, she just said our OCs suck and we’re just agreeing and watching her fix our mistakes lmao-

I have this theory that the era of art YouTube where grown men would bully children for their “marry sues” ruined how a whole generation of how people look at their oc’s for a while if not still. Like no, giving your character crazy hair and angle wings doesn’t mean it’s a marry sue, maybe they just like extremely extra fashion, or where they come from that’s normal. Oc’s are all about the story you give them through how you design them and how you draw them, and of course, how you write them. I wish I could go back in time and tell myself this 7 years ago. Making a fun interesting design doesn’t make the design bad, if anything it makes the design so much better.

Ngl in retrospective, the fact that people got SO heated about this video on twitter is kinda funny to me. Like, i get the feeling that those people wouldn't last 5 seconds in an actual art school lol

“Also things like scars and injuries can really build out their stories!” Half of my OCS missing a limb or more: Don’t give her ideas, please.

Another thing to consider, add imperfections with purpose! Don't just add them randomly, make them affect the character's self-esteem or have it say something about their personality or circumstances! It adds some great extra depth. Using LavenderTowne's character as an example, maybe she's self-conscious about her eyebrow scar, or she's clumsy! Or maybe the scar visualizes the permanent brain damage she has to deal with on her journey to become an entomologist

I have autism with sensory issues and I genuinely LOVE yours soft voice it’s so calming and just makes my brain buzz with the happy feeling

"Don't go into to much detail" that made me go into a whole thought process of what ice cream flavor each of my characters in my story would love

timestamps because this video is actually really helpful :D 0:24 - give them more verbs (what do they like to do besides their main thing? giving them 2-3 more hobbies makes them feel more like a real person!) 1:49 - give them a history (what were they like in the past? how does it affect them now?) 3:54 - give them imperfections (it makes them less generic and more real and specific) 5:46 - what do they like and dislike? (don't go too overboard!) 7:36 - putting the advice to the test!!

Poor girlie has gotten so used to getting criticized for everything that shy can't write a joke-y title without a disclaimer in the title itself

Adding more options to the "imperfections" categories, scars aren't only from injuries! they could be surgery scars, or illness scars, or even stretch marks! A character may have lots of freckles because they spend a lot of time outside, or have weird tan lines, or have faded hair dye and showing roots. Maybe they need glasses but don't like wearing them and are constantly running into things because they can't see. Maybe they have trouble reading and therefore listen to audiobooks, or have sensitive ears or eyes and wear noise-cancelling headphones or sunglasses. There's so many different options aside from the common 'scar across an eyebrow', just think about different people you know or think about yourself and the little quirks that come from particular habits or struggles, and how this can be shown visually/behaviourally

when i make my ocs, i usually base their personalities on the relationships they have with other characters. different people act and do different things with ppl they are more and less comfortable with.

LavenderTowne literally just like drew me i think- I am a student (not majoring Entomology even though I am interested in bugs) I dance ballet ( I often stand in a "soft" 1st position) and enjoy video gaming. I once fell down the stairs as a baby with my father and got a scar near my hairline. I have kind of strict parents and werent allowed to watch horror movies (but I still did) and I love plaid-

I have an OC that I used this template on and she turned out rather well! She's a ghost who's scared of the dark, desperately wants to be scary, but has a huge crush on the person she's haunting and is self conscious about her hair.

10:03 I love that Haley's version of college-rebellionism isn't smoking or doing dr^gs, but finally being aloud to watch horror movies