Tips for Simplifying an OC Design!
We interrupt your regularly scheduled “tips for designing” series for some tips on an important aspect of character creation…simplifying a design! …What’s that? You haven’t seen the “tips for designing” articles? And you wanna check them out? Well, fret not! So far there’s one for…
Now, have you ever designed a character, only to realize they have way too much detail in their design? (I have…with several characters…I might have a problem.) How do you fix this problem? Simplify the design! But how do you do that? Let’s talk about it!
Before we get started, if you need help figuring out how to make a character to begin with, check out these articles by my cool co-writer!
Now that that’s out of the way…let’s get started!
Figure out if your OC’s design has too much detail!
First off you need to figure out if your character’s design needs to be simplified! If the character isn’t one you’ll be drawing often, you might not need to simplify them!
Simplifying designs is helpful for characters you’ll be drawing a bunch, like if you’re creating a comic or working on an animation! Some questions you can consider to see if you need to simplify a design are…
- Can I draw the character from memory, without forgetting any details?
- Is drawing them fun, or too tedious?
- Is it easy to turn them into a doodle?
- Can others draw them, and get the design right easily?
Questions like the ones above will help you figure out if you need to simplify your OC’s design! A simpler design should be easy and fun to draw, for both you and other artists who want to draw the character!
What’s most important to your OC?
Next you can decide what is most important to your OC’s design! Some details will have more significance than others, and you don’t want to get rid of those details!
Important aspects of a design might have sentimental value or story importance! Details that would be important could things such as:
- An accessory or tool from a loved one
- An accessory or tool with magic powers
- The character’s signature weapon
- Details that might hint at the character’s past
- The character’s favorite item
- A tattoo that shows off the character’s status
- Features important to the species, like wings or tails
Items with value like the ones above are ones you’d likely want to keep in a design! The design of your OC says a lot about them, so you’ll want to keep important details! (Pst…If your OC doesn’t have many accessories and you’re not sure how to go about adding some, check out this article here! If you’re looking to add more unique details, check out this other article here!)
Are there parts of your OC’s design that don’t quite fit?
Sometimes, it’s easy to add details just for the sake of adding details! Sometimes we want to do as much as possible to get our OCs to stand out, and that’s okay! But if you want a design that’s easier to remember, you might want to make sure all the details fit your character!
If there’s any details that seem unnecessary, or don’t entirely make sense for the character, it might be best to leave them out! Here’s some questions to get you thinking about what you could remove from a design:
- Does the detail make sense for the character’s personality?
- Does the detail make sense for the character’s species?
- Does the detail make sense for the character’s role in the story?
- Could the detail be simplified into something smaller?
- What does the detail say about the character?
- Do any details feel unnecessary or too much?
- Does the detail add anything to the character?
Questions like the ones above can help you figure out what you can remove to make your OC’s design a little more simple! By figuring out what each detail is for, you can decide whether it’s worth keeping, or if it would be better to leave it out!
A good example of details that fit a character would be Honovie’s OC Daria! Daria is a magical girl, and the details of her outfit fit that!
Another good example would be Ana’s OC Aqua! Aqua is a mermaid with design details that match that!
There’s nothing wrong with a complicated design! But, sometimes it’s better to have a design that’s simple to remember, it could make your life a lot easier!
Which details make your OC stand out most?
Another thing you can consider for simplifying a character design is by thinking about the details that make your OC stand out or help draw attention to them! When simplifying a design, you might want to keep aspects that’ll help the audience notice your OC amongst your other characters!
Some things will quickly catch the attention of the audience, and you’ll want to keep those parts of the design! Details that might make a character stand out could be things such as…
- A cute pin
- A large hat
- A unique hairstyle
- Hair with bright streaks
- A special pendant
- Cool tattoos
- Uncommon features
Some details don’t even have to be super crazy to make an OC stand out. Even using details that your other characters don’t have can help! For example, if a bunch of characters don’t have freckles but one does, the one with freckles might stand out a bit more! You can keep design aspects that will catch people’s attention, and take out ones that don’t!
A good example of details that make a character stand out would be Koji’s OC Shurami! Shurami has cool tattoos that give him a unique look!
Another good example would be Waffles OC Cedar! Cedar has cool horns with gold on them that makes her stand out!
The power of balancing an OC design!
Another thing to consider is keeping your OC’s design balanced when you simplify them. A balanced design can have a more appealing look, and could also help with simplifying details!
Balancing the details of your OC throughout the design is another way you can simplify their look! Knowing where you should put your focus can help you decide what details to keep, and which to remove! Here’s some questions you can think about for balancing a design!
- What aspects of the OC do I want to draw attention to?
- Can I remove details that take away from the main focus?
- Are there details that draw attention to the main focus?
- Are there details that directly add to the main focus?
- Are there too many details that make it hard to tell what the main focus is?
When balancing out a design, you’ll want to decide on what you want the main focus to be, and make sure other aspects of the designs elevate it! Too much detail can make it hard for the audience to know where they should look, and take away from the important details!
A good example of a balanced design would be Nik’s OC Princess Rain! In Princess Rain’s featured design, the details in her outfit help draw attention to her face!
Another good example would be V1ctory’s OC Pinsa! The details in Pinsa’s design help make her sparkly hair one of the main focuses!
Designs can be simple, and still have important details at the same time! You can make a character stand out with just a few extra details too!
If you need help figuring out how to simplify an OC, thinking about the importance of certain details, what fits the character, what makes the character stand out, and how you can keep a design balanced are all ways that can help you out!
It’s also important to remember that not every design needs to be simplified, and it’s totally okay to have a design that’s more complicated! (For me, I personally like giving character designs a decent amount of detail…even if it makes things a little harder in the long run!) At the end of the day, it’s up to you how you design your character, and what you feel might be too much for them or not! Just have fun with it!
If you’re not too sure how to go about picking certain design features for an OC, there’s also articles for choosing makeup, hairstyles, and outfits!