Choosing the shapes and silhouette of your OCs!

Shapes…they make up everything! Without shapes, there would be no art. But what if you could use shapes to your advantage? Well…You can! Shape language is an important part of character design. You can use shapes to subtly tell the audience something about your character! It’s also important for your OC’s overall silhouette. But what is shape language? And what’s a silhouette? Let’s talk about it!

Figuring out character silhouettes!

A silhouette is like a filled-in outline of an object or character! Think of a shadow. With a shadow, you can’t see any of the details of the object or figure, just the shape! That’s basically what a silhouette is. You might see a silhouette of a character in a darker room, or on your favorite piece of merch!

So why is it important? The silhouette of your OC helps the audience distinguish them from the other characters in your story. If your OCs’ all have a similar silhouette, it could get confusing for your audience. So, you want your characters to have silhouettes that are clear and recognizable! Something that if your audience could only see your OC’s shadow, they’d still be able to tell which character it is! Silhouettes are especially important when you have multiple characters of the same species, whether that be animal characters, humans, or fairies! 

An important part of silhouette for characters is negative space! Negative space is like the “empty” area around your character. Think of an arm next to the body. The area that’s between the two is negative space! Negative space can be used to give the illusion of things, or create certain shapes! Without it, there wouldn’t be a silhouette! Using negative space is important for creating a unique silhouette. You can use different shapes to create more negative space, or minimize it too! It all depends on what you want your OC’s silhouette to look like. 

Silhouette can also be used to give your OC a shape that resembles something else! Maybe a wizard’s hat and outfit give them a star-like shape, and maybe another OC’s wings give them a bird-like silhouette! Or you could give two OC’s a similar silhouette, and use that to purposely trick your audience!

So how do you make sure your OC’s have unique silhouettes? There’s lots of ways you can do so! You can give your OCs clothes that have different shapes! Maybe one OC wears big, baggy clothing, while another wears form-fitting clothing.

You can also give an OC unique features that separate them for the rest! One OC could have a tail that ends in fur, while another ends in a spike! Here are some ideas to get your creativity flowing:

• Horns with a fun shape
• An extravagant hairstyle
• A tail that ends in a specific shape
• Giant ears
• A tall crown or hat
• Large platform boots

Giving your character a recognizable silhouette is a cool part of character design! A good way to figure out silhouettes better is to look at your favorite media. Since a lot of cartoons are more stylized, the characters have distinct silhouettes! You can try looking at your favorite characters from shows or games, and see how the characters differ from one another! Think about the design features your favorite characters are known for, and use those for inspiration! You can also take a look at the characters of UV! There are plenty of good examples that can help you understand silhouette better.

A good example of giving OC’s unique silhouettes would be Zero’s OC Spark! Zero has a few different lizard characters, and so Zero uses the shape of Spark’s hair and tail to separate her from the others!

Another good example would be Lemon’s OC Maverick! There’s a lot of OC’s with horns and tails, and Maverick’s have distinctive shapes that makes him easy to recognize amongst other characters that also have horns and tails!

The meaning of shapes!

Now that we’ve talked about silhouettes, let’s get into shapes! How can you use shapes to tell the audience about your OC? Well, there are three main types of shapes for designing a character! These include squares, circles, and triangles. So what does that mean? The different types of shapes can tell the audience what kind of character your OC is. Certain ones can make your character seem more friendly, and some can make your OC seem more dangerous!

The Square Type

Squares include boxy shapes, like rectangles and obviously, squares! Square shapes often have a strong or sturdy feel. A character with lots of squares in their design might be steadfast or stubborn. They stand their ground, and are usually someone you can rely on! So how can you include squares in your OC’s design? The key is lots of straight lines! You can change other shapes too to fit! Try changing parts of the design that would normally be round, and make them straight instead! Think of a dress! Instead of ending it in ruffles, you could end it in pleats. Here’s some things you can think about adding to give your OC more square shapes:

• A straighter hairstyle with lots of flat lines
• A boxy T-Shirt or blocky armor
• A square face shape
• A more rectangular body type

Thinking about your OC and what you can add to their design will help you add more shape language! Do you have a strong knight character? You can give their armor an extra boxy look, with lots of rectangular pieces to it! Or maybe your character’s just a normal person. Trying giving them straight hair or a dress that has a straight hemline! Is your character a magician? Give them a square top hat!

A good example of square shape language would be Nerd’s OC Finn! Finn is built with lots of squares and rectangles, giving him a resilient and reliable look that also demonstrates his more robotic nature!

The Circle Type

What about circles? Circles include round shapes like ovals, and curves! Circle shapes often give characters a softer feel. A character with rounder shapes might be more friendly or innocent! They might be more merciful, and might be calmer than other OCs. So how can you include circles in your OC’s design? Think lots of curvy lines! You can take shapes that would normally end in a point, and make the end more curved instead of sharp! Here’s some things you can think of adding to create more circle shapes for your OC:

• A space bun hairstyle
• A blouse with puffy round sleeves
• A round face shape
• A body type with more curves

There’s plenty of ways to add some circle shape language to your OC! Maybe you have a more childish character. You could give them a cute bun, or curly hair! Do you have a friendly fae character? Give them wings with a rounder shape to them! Or perhaps you have an animal character. You could give their animal features more curved edges! 

A good example for circle shape language would be Bæst’s OC Telekia! Telekia design has lots of curved lines, with even the more pointed shapes having rounded edges! This gives her a more friendly, innocent look.

The Triangle Type

The next main shapes are triangles. Triangles include sharper edges and pointy shapes! Triangles can give characters a more dynamic, active, or even dangerous feel! While not always, you’ll often see villain characters with more triangle shapes built into their design! Characters with lots of triangles often have a more active role. Triangles aren’t always reserved for only villain OCs, but having them on a character can definitely make them feel more powerful! So how can you add triangles to your OC’s design? The key here is lots of angles and sharp edges or points! To add more triangle shapes, You can take normally curved areas, and make them more pointed instead! Here are some ideas to add more triangle shape language to your OC:

• Spiky hair
• Long sleeves that end in a point
• A face with a sharper chin
• A build that creates a more triangle shape

There are plenty of ways to create triangles in a design! Maybe you have a fantasy OC who often gets into fights! You could give them a cloak or cape that has a more triangular shape. Do you have a regal villain OC? Try giving them a crown of spikes instead of a normal crown! What about a more hot-headed character? You could give them spiky hair to show that off!

A good example of triangle shape language would be May’s OC Simon! Simon has lots of sharp shapes in his design, like his ragged cloak and sharp claws! It helps give him a dangerous and more brave look!

OCs aren’t limited to one shape either! You can use various shapes to show off the different aspects of your OC’s personality! Characters usually have multiple shapes, with a little more of one type. A character might have both triangles and circles in their design to show that they’re friendly, but that they can be deadly if they needed to be. Using more circles could show they’re only dangerous when absolutely necessary. On the other hand, using more triangles could give the impression that they’re usually mean, but that they can be nice sometimes.

You can also use shape language to give the audience an idea about your OC, when really it’s the opposite! Maybe a character has lots of triangles in their design, but really they’re the nicest person in the group! Or maybe an OC with lots of circles is the twist villain of the story, that nobody saw coming! Play around with the shape language of your OCs, and see what best suits your story!

Utilizing shape language and silhouette is a fun part of character design, that can help make your OC more memorable! It can tell the audience a lot about your OC, and you can use it as much or as little as you want! Experiment, play around, and see what fun design features you come up with!