How To Use Things In Your Daily Life For OC Inspiration
We all have a daily routine; you likely go to school every day, whether by walking, transit or riding a bike, and then you have classes, and then you go home. Maybe you also have daily chores too. Finding little spaces to be creative can be difficult, but this article aims to help you turn your boring routine into an OC development fest!
✨ Table of Contents ✨
- Turning Class Time into OC Time
- Using Playing Cards to Generate Concepts
- Go for a Walk!
- Closing Thoughts
Turning Class Time into OC Time
I'm not so bold as to suggest you daydream in class since I’m a big nerd who loves to learn, and part of that is because I use this secret technique.
If you have a school subject you don't find interesting or outright hate, the trick to making it fun is turning it into a chance to create an intelligent and talented OC in that subject. If you reframe learning into a chance to create a new OC or improve your writing on another OC, suddenly learning the subject has a purpose; OC development!
Along with that, if you ever find yourself curious about something, look it up and research it. The more you learn, the more you can use in your creations after all. These are some subjects that might be worth studying;
- Fashion (for OC designs, which my fellow blogger Whim specializes in)
- Biology (to get ideas for how your original species might work)
- Geology (gemstones and metals to create interesting accessories)
- History (for modern and historical OCs alike!)
Anything can become inspiration. Speaking of items becoming inspiration, check out these gijinkas made from every day items by our community members!
If you want to see more, go through the gijinka tag on Unvale!
Using Playing Cards to Generate Concepts
I bet you’re thinking, “Okay Solar, obviously you’re suggesting that we write things on the cards to shuffle, and pull them out randomly, right?” Well… yes and no! Of course, you can do that with any deck of cards you have on hand, but if you’ve read my previous articles, you might already know I have an ace up my sleeve…
What do you know about tarot cards? Let’s put aside all the superstitious ideas you might have and focus on what tarot cards were made for and actually are; fancy playing cards. The tarot deck and regular playing cards (known as French-suited playing cards) have four card suites: clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades; or for a tarot deck, wands, pentacles, cups and swords (a ‘pentacle’ in this case is a coin with a 5 pointed star drawn on it, which is a symbol of protection). These Tarot cards are called the Minor Arcana and have 56 cards, four more than a French-suited deck. This is all to say that you can use a regular French-suited deck for this exercise.
Besides the lovely symbolism laden artwork featured on tarot cards, the reason why I think you might find tarot useful is because each card has a meaning and something it represents. Let’s use one of the most iconic cards as an example: the Ace of Spades. The Minor Arcana version of this playing card is the Ace of Swords, which depicts a single crowned sword with plants symbolizing ‘mercy’ and ‘severity’. If you drew this card when thinking about your character’s backstory, what inspiration could come from it? Well, maybe:
- You can take it literally: your character is royalty!
- It’s not literal: with great power, comes great responsibility to be gentle but strong!
- Your character is the sword: used by someone else, who’s both merciful but harsh.
You can also use the meanings attached when it comes to divination decks, but if you’re uncomfortable with that aspect of tarot, coming up with your own meanings and your own inspiration is a great idea. If you enjoy the ideas of tarot though, I’d recommend you design your own tarot cards featuring your OCs! (And check out this link for lots of gorgeous OC illustrations!)
Go for a Walk!
No matter the season, getting your blood flowing and looking at the world around you is always the best bet for finding hidden inspiration. If you’re looking for fashion inspiration, walk down busy streets and see what people are wearing or visit a clothing shop you’ve never been to. Even window shopping at a mall can be fruitful.
Personally, my eye is always drawn to flowers and trees. Each season has its own scenery, and different plants bloom as well. If you can use the colours and shapes of plants in your art to inspire you, every walk will be useful.
Looking at houses and front yards can also be useful. Try to think about how your OCs would decorate their houses and yards. What sort of things would your OC prioritize? Maybe…
- Patio furniture
- Flower gardens
- Vegetable gardens
- A Zen Garden
- A tree (maybe a fruit, flower, or evergreen tree!)
Closing Thoughts
Ultimately, finding inspiration in your daily life is a matter of your mindset. Some people might struggle to transition between a working mindset and a creative one, and that’s okay. That’s why my final suggestion for this article is to keep a paper journal. I don't want you to be prim and proper with it though; sketch, write or doodle anything that comes to mind. If you find a cool plant, take a photo of it to look up later, and write down some info about it in your journal. Use lots of colours, let markers bleed across pages, and most importantly, have fun!
I have my own journal, which I use as a monthly planner, a sketch book, a diary, a wishlist, and more. Looking through it can spark new ideas, or reignite old ones for me, and I hope that a journal can be the same for you. (Just make sure to hide it if you have a bunch of nosy siblings!)