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 KZfaq 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

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

“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.*

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

dude idk why but this video actually made me love myself a little bit more. i’m currently having a little struggle about finding who i am but this made me think about the fact that you can see little parts of myself on my appearance. i have holes in almost all my clothes from chewing, my hair is in an awkward state of long and short where it kinda looks like a mullet. My hair is also unkept and messy most of the time. none of my outfits are put together because i don’t have time in the morning to make myself look nice. my headphones are old and falling apart, the top part is taped with scotch tape to keep it together. I have bad posture from laying in bed all day. idk it made me feel kinda happy to look at myself as if i were a character 😓

Lavender helping young artists and writers! All my respect goes to her

I would not say I am an entomologist but I study genetics and work with insects, and the amount of people around me with novelty earrings, pins and even insect tattoos is quite impressive

This is honestly terrific advice. As a writer I pride myself in the ability to create developed, fleshed out characters that feel like real people with lives and problems and pasts, but as an artist I struggle incredibly with showing anything of that besides the surface level or immediately obvious. I have an OC I've been struggling to design a "look" for the past couple of years, and listening to your various tips and steps, I started to rearrange facts and tidbits I already knew about the character in my head into comprehensible categories. Now feel inspired to try and draw his various life stages, even though I usually shy away from drawing anyone but adults, simply because I want to try and emphasize his journey through life and see what that "redrawn current day" stage will take shape as.

For imperfections, it doesn’t exactly have to be ONLY physical imperfections, it can be mental as well, developing imperfections in their personality can REALLY add a lot to a character, and can even be the entire conflict in the story. It also adds a lot of depth into your oc’s, and makes them feel *human*, though of course this can be added to non-human oc’s, depending on what the oc is.

I'm a wildlife biologist with a lot of entomology friends and lemme just say I definitely met this OC on an entomology class trip lol

LavenderTowne is probably one of the least offensive or problematic channels out there and it saddens me, that people still manage to misunderstand her intention and be offended. Keep doing what you love, Hailey! ♡

Can’t believe the backlash over the original title… guys she wasn’t talking about anyone specifically, it was clearly a joke.

I am writing a comic about an oc I made, and I knew that he was going to massacre everyone in a tavern after his plans go wrong. For context, he always wears white gloves, so I think now that after that incident, there’ll be light bloodstains on one of his gloves like he tried to wash them but couldn’t get the stains out. Thank you for inspiring me, Lavender.

Not even gonna lie im still in that phase where i adore the "too much" OC HAHZNSHXH

“Also things like scars and injuries can really build out their stories!” My sadistic character designs: I see this as an absolute win!

If anyone is looking for realistic but oddly specific things for OCs take from my life. For the first 24 years of my life I couldn't fully smile, it looked like a smirk. I had a paralyzed muscle in my cheek on one side, and no matter how hard i smiled it was uneven. I had to learn to smile for photos with a smirk, or I had to purposely lower the other side into a small smile, or I had to smile with my teeth showing to make it less noticeable of a height difference. My point is, something seemingly small that doesn't affect my actual important functioning, it is a conscious thing I had bugging me and affecting an expression every day of my life

A motif is a good idea and it could either be a thing, abstract concept, trait or a symbol. Also historical influences help with shape, style and maybe even a part of their story.

Dang! Lavender is really becoming straightforward now 😂 "Make your oc not suck." Alrighty then!

a tip i like to remember is that for each strength your character has, add a weakness as well. however, make sure the weakness works well with the strength. for example, say a character is smart. thats a strength. if you make the character a bit narcissistic due to this, thats a weakness that fits.

When I’m making a character design I always feared making a character design look to basic. I don’t want my characters to look generic when I have a story that’s set in a fantasy world.

That title is SAVAGE, amazing job as always Lavender!! These tips are really gonna help me when it comes to the comic I’m trying to make!

Is it weird that I like the “too much” OC in the thumbnail? The hair so so pretty!

I want to add the nationality for the characters because it's quite fun to see them experience their cultures and traditions. I know their race and ethnicity doesn't always have to apply to the plot or their backstory but it helps designing the character based on their race much easier and it's also easy to name them.

twitter users dont take a title seriously and personally challenge (IMPOSSIBLE 2022)

I really needed this video! My friend and I are planning to make a short series, and we are in the “making the characters and their backstory” phase, so this will be a great video to watch :]

i like the concept of adding a history to characters, because when you think about it, we all go through many, many stages in life, some we may not even like too much when we're through with them. But we take pieces of each stage, a token, perhaps, something meaningful we got from that stage that meant something to us. Your character, for example, isn't super emo, or super extreme for dinosaurs anymore, but she appreciates that she still likes certain aspects of those stages, and keeps them as tokens on her person. I find that really cool, and it just makes it really real.

Because I'm familiar with LavenderTowne I knew the title was intentionally dramatic to draw attention but she would just give genuine advice for designing characters lol that note about "don't make them basically perfect unless that's a character trait" is very good!!! be intentional wherever you can! that trial at the end was really neat. the way you reasoned your way through the answers, especially in the imperfections part, made a huge difference in how solid they started to feel

Who saw this video and was like “ hey that wasn’t in the title before “

The history affecting the character in subtle ways really resonates with me--especially since you used ballet as an example. I used to do ballet as a kid, but hadn't been in yeeaaaaars, but when I was teaching a group (counseling), one of the clients asked if I ever did ballet. I was shocked but said yes, and she said she knew it because of how my feet are positioned, a slightly looser 3rd position stance, which was my favorite position as a kid since it was used to teach 5th position lol

I’d love to see your take on the four horsemen of the apocalypse as character designs!

Idc why everyone hates this video I think it’s pretty helpful cuz I’ve been having sooo much trouble fleshing out my ocs

3:49 its something that i did with my fork oc and its really mind blowing how i turned a fork into the victim of some witchcraft !

I love how she makes a sketch in 3 minutes and it looks like the most beautiful thing I've seen

I needed this for my my hero oc. My friends keep hyping it up because it’s unique and I’m writing her story but I’m stuck because I want to develop her before I continue writing her story. This will help so much!!

Was just on Twitter and ppl were being nasty about this video and Hailey in general and I don’t get why. One was mad she personified the 10 amendments. Is there something I’m supposed to mad about with this video or are people just being a**holes?

I'm glad I watched this video. At first I was a bit skeptical due to the title and thumbnail, but I gave in and I'm glad I did! This video was very helpful, way more helpful than I thought! Next time I design a character, instead of going straight to the design phase, I'll sit down to write about them. Thank you for your awesome tutorials/too videos, they are very, very helpful for artists like me!

honestly at first when i saw the title and thumbnail i thought it was gonna be like one of those videos saying ' if you do this your character is bad you have to do it this way blah blah blah' but like, these tips are genuinely helpful i was so worried 😭😭

a steam punk OC of mine lost their legs at 5 years old because there was a war and their village got bombed, and their family thought they were dead but nah he survived because the heat from the explosive cauterized the wounds. he also lost his right forearm but that was only revealed later because he always wore gloves and long poofy sleeves. his barely alive body is found by Bertram, The robot who was designed to be a butler but deemed too intelligent and human like to be released. the bombing released him and he patched up Charlie (the OC) and Charlie grew up with Bertram, learning how to fix and make machines so he could repair Bertram, and ended up making his own legs and arm. going through the years as he grew more skilled and upgraded his legs and biomechanics/prostetics was very fun and refreshing, and he made the "Bun-Whale" which was basically a giant mechanical bunny with chest cavity for passengers (four plus a driver), and the drivers seat was specifically designed so Charlie could just get out of his legs and fit into the drivers seat where he could then with the help of Bertram (who he put into the Bun-Whale) drive the bunny to either run or hop large distances and heights, and when they needed to go underwater, the ears of the bunny twisted and turned to become fins and the legs melded to become a whale tail, as the head flipped upside down and the drivers seat was turned into a cockpit. Charlie built it because he met up with his brother (a friend of mine made an OC and we collabed) and wanted to travel the world with him. he ended up drowning when the Bun-whale malfunctioned while submerged and he refused to leave Bertram, and ejected his brother and their companion. the brother and companion lived and Charlie drowned. Bertram then switched his AI back to his robot form, and realized what happend. but what he didnt realize is that Charlie kind of expected his death and didnt want to leave bertram alone, so he built a Charlie-Bot. a bot programmed to act just like charlie. it even had a mini version of charlies legs, and was much smaller and younger looking because it was made a while ago. Charlie legs deactivate when they can no longer feel Charlies heart beat, and if both the legs, and arms sense he is dead, they send a signal to Charlie-Bot and it wakes up. also charlie was an innocent lil boi and wanted to fit in when he went to the pub so he drank apple juice in a beer bottle so it looked like he was actually drinking lmao. Charlie-Bot and Bertram lived peacfully together until Bertram shut down due to lack of maintenance, and Charlie-Bot followed suite. also Charlie had a little top hat and a mechanical eye because he lost it the first time he tried to fix bertram. this was long but if you read it I hope you enjoyed it. :)

I don't know why people were hating, this is a valid tutorial. I loved the character you designed at the end. She's so cute!

One thing so many people do when writing characters that really annoys me is what I like to call a “one trick pony.” They base their whole character around one or two personality traits, but what makes characters interesting is their inner struggles for example, if a character has two opposing traits, show their struggle with figuring out which side they lean toward. Like Anakin Skywalker, what makes his character interesting is his struggle between light and dark. If Anakin was strictly evil or good, he wouldn’t be nearly as relatable or interesting. Best advice I can give new character writers, give your characters traits and beliefs that oppose their other traits. That way, your character has a conflict to push their arc forward.

when I looked at Lavender's video title I was like: "Did she change personalities..?"

overall lovely video!!! BUT feel the need to say that if you are making an oc without intention of using them in a story, go crazy!! no rules apply!! as long as you are having fun :)

I have my own tip and it's my favorite give them problems and struggles makes them feel a lot more human and relatable because we human struggles with many things in life!

I imagine the character from the video who likes dinosaurs would, as a teen, likely wear one of those shirts with the emo-style drawing of a dinosaur that says, "Rawr is dinosaur for I love you." especially considering she's still really into dinosaurs as an adult.

these tips are great! My story is abt a awkward teen making awful ocs, like mary sues, edgy wolf boisss, kawaii furrys, ect. Then they come to life and get mad at her for putting them thru hell and back

I think that my main rule of thumb when it comes to giving a character a certain trait, is to make it intentional. If the character doesn’t have many verbs, maybe they’re a robotic and emotionless seeming character, and you learn more about them as time goes on. As she said in the video, if they look perfect, maybe they were trained to be that way. If their past didn’t affect them, maybe they’ve been trying to pretty much erase and forget about their past. I think that all of these can make an interesting character, but only if they’re canonical facts about that character.

6:07 small details like this are good but ONLY if they are relevant. Example: in better call saul, jimmy is seen eating mint ice cream before an event that caused a major turning point in his character. after the event has been seemingly settled, jimmy has ice cream but debates what flavor to choose, eventually deciding against mint. His favorite ice cream flavor, while a small detail, shows change in his character. Its a prop used to show his change in character instead of having someone just outright say 'jimmy, you're different now' or whatever. Its not nessicary to have stuff like this, like i didnt even notice it until someone in a videoessay mentioned it lol but i still think its cool

feel kinda bad for lavender cause the people on twitter are blowing this way out of proportion without actually watching the video and then posting it and making other people who arent going to watch the video think lavender is a bad person... just know you aren't doing anything wrong and ill stand by this claim !

making ur oc not suck, straight to the point, we love truthful lav

I really hate the idea that a character can be too much or have to put much personality. It keeps young artists from experimenting or even just having fun with what they’re drawing for fear of judgment. Even their professional work should be allowed to be a bit chaotic as long as they’re happy with it. We also put so much emphasis on art needing to look more professional for it to be “good art”. Art is what reflects a person at the time, so it makes sense for young artists to have a lot packed into an OC because as people they’re still figuring out what they’re into. I just think it’s important for everyone to remember that every artist started somewhere and it’s not about where they get to artistically later on but what they currently can and want to do.

weirdly, the ninja turtles fit some of these guides lol. The part about giving them traits that when you see those traits elsewhere you think of them, like I'll see just the colors they wear and think of them lol. Or pizza, pizza has been... not really ruined but I can never not think of them whenever I get pizza

The fact that lavender had to change the yts title since poeple took the title to personally

I'm working on one of my OCs here I guess Name: Esther Verbs: Student (high school), loves to read, and also hike (she lives north of Yellowstone) History: Her family moved from some place in Norway to Chicago when she was a baby, when she was a kid her family moved to Montana where she got interested in wolves, when she was a younger teen she and her friends had a weird incident with some magic rocks that turn them into wolves, her friends either forgot about it or think it was some weird dream Imperfections: Scar on her neck and a scar on her face from that wolf thing, has a slight limp ALSO from that wolf thing Favs: Favorite animal is still wolves, favorite song is Runaway by Aurora, and likes winter hats and stuff This was actually sort of helpful

i'm in the process of writing a comic with my characters where they're interviewed about their lives, and i've found that it has helped me develop the characters greatly! not only do i get to explore their stories more, but i get to do so from their point of view and i get to see how they would behave with someone outside of their base stories who asks them so many personal questions, and how that ties into their story and characterization (for example; the murderer is defensive and irritable with the interviewer and his questions since she has so much to hide). plus, it gives me something to do with the characters and their stories aside from daydreaming about them 💀 in summary: even if you don't plan on making a comic about it, "interviewing" your characters is a fun exercise and can help build your character and how they would respond to their story :D

One thing i try to remember for my characters that exist in a story is what their character represents within the story and what their character arc is. I find this character arc approach really helps me discover their hobbies and job and history and really everything else!

BRO, YOU IMPROVED SO MUCH SINCE I LAST WATCHED YOU'RE CHANNEL-

i feel like another thing you should consider in a character are features that have a purpose !! for example, when i made characters in the past, i would make them have bunny or cat ears, and while that isn’t necessarily wrong, there was little to no difference in the storyline when i decided to remove them :’D

Character with nailpolish all over their fingers = literally me

i literally have never watched a single video but that fact that people kicked up enough fuss about the title that you had to clarify it was a joke is dumb as hell

I love how Lavendertowne is so sweet abt everything, even in the title making sure ppl knew it was a joke, then there’s Kooleen being the queen she is, just flat out pissing on artwork Then theres me enjoying both😭♥️

All my OCs are dragons but this should still apply… Btw that one video where you did a turnaround of planchette, there was a part about keeping your character consistent and not like a mood ring “unless you were going for that. That might be kind of cool.” And I laughed SO HARD! Didn’t have a channel yet but my sona is a hybrid dragon (NightWing/RainWing if that means anything to you). RainWings change their scale color like chameleons and it reflects their mood and I literally made her part RainWing for that! So yeah i totally got called out! She has a few “mood scales” on her snout and ear frill.

For my OC's favourite things, I actually list three or four of their favourite songs, but not exclusively as just random likes but to specifically give an idea of their personality/character arc. ie: Wholesome cinnamon bun OC: very upbeat and clean songs like Mr. Blue Sky, Walking on Sunshine, etc. Gloomy wallflower OC: To the Moon and Back, What's Up, Bittersweet Symphony

Here's an interesting way I've found to see if your character can fit into a story. If you're making an oc based off an existing pic of media like an anime, take into consideration how easy they would be to animate. I sounds weird but it actually helps them fit in more.

most of my OC's I just don't have the heart to change at all,sure their designs are simple,but that's cause I was a kid when I made them up back in the 90's sure I could redesign them these days but I just don't have the heart to do it,they're my first ever OC's they deserve to remain the way I wanted them to look

I laughed when towne went on about how dancers are usually graceful - i'm slouching on my chair so hard my back is a C

I get so happy when you post! This really does help with everything! I'm glad you spend your time helping artists learn!

Haley’s angelic voice and offensive title 🥰

The fact she had to clarify that it was a joke just because some weirdo in Twitter got mad to the point they made an entire thread complaining without seeing the video will never be funny to me 🤣 Also kinda sad since it feels you can't even make jokes anymore without ppl getting angry at the smallest things, but, eh, I guess that's life ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (?)

thanks you for this!! I've really been struggling to make a certain character for my book so perfect timing :)

People take shit too serious nowadays lmaoo like the thumbnail isn’t that bad y’all just drag it 😭

Ik a lot of people say NOT to go overboared with every detail but sometimes it really helps me when wrting to think about the stuff that won't even matter as part of their story...it just helps me get a better idea on the person they are. Which then makes them easier to write. their fave ice cream flavour wont matter in the long run but it still helps me get to know the characters and think about those small things and what life is like for them OUTSIDE the main story

For people drawing manga or comics that take place over a medium to long amount of time, a cool idea is to make their hair slightly grow week by week. Its realistic and it makes it so those slice of life haircutting chapters makes sense instead of their hair suddenly growing in a day. Also means u can gradually change their hairstyle without ppl noticing

As a dancer watching her create the oc was interesting, especially when she was talking about the stance.

Mfs on twitter got mad about the click bait when literally everyone else does the same thing in the art community.

LavenderTowne, you‘ve ALWAYS been someone I absolutely look up to and adore, but this is beyond what I could have wished for. CHARACTER DESIGN?! Are you serious? This is EXACTLY what I need! I have ideas in how I want them to look like, but personality is what lacks with my characters… so this helps endlessly! I‘m serious, I‘ll definitely try your super helpful method and will absolutely love to do so!! Thank you so endlessly for all the aid you give all of us!💗🥰

i love how the joke character i made when i was bored as hell meets more of these than any of my other ones

So… I don’t actually really draw but I really like adult coloring books. Tbh this channel kinda helps me think of what colors to choose so they won’t look off, along with ideas on shading to give the colors more depth. I do a lot of writing so I would like to draw my own original characters. Anyway just wanted to say I love this channel. It’s pretty cozy 🥰

The way the ‘bad’ character in the thumbnail is a lot more fun and interesting then the final result.

As a person who used to be obsessed with ballet (but never took classes) I am still affected by that phase. I definitely stand with my feet in that ballerina style. I also still know how to do recognize specific ballets of of their music.

i know im a little late to this video, but I found that oc's became MUCH easier for me when I use dnd 5e character sheets to figure them out before!! ig any personality sheet works too but the reason I use dnd sheets bc it makes you pick so many things you wouldn't normally think of!!

Really good advices, especially the history one reminded me about giving some of my (written) characters a background. I also want to add: not every scar counts as imperfection when it comes to character design. There are a bunch of aesthetically pleasing scars: thin vertical cut on the eyebrow, side of the mouth or cheek and currently also horizontal one on the nose, which if included in character design don't add to imperfections, but rather to aesthetics, on par with different eye colors, freckles, earrings etc. So the character with their only imperfections being these thin cut scars would not gain this relatable and real look, it can even be the other way around.

Just remember that it’s okay to make bad ocs too! If you’re just making them for fun then who cares if they aren’t interesting to other people

Most instant help I’ve ever gotten. Most of the time when I watch tip videos it takes a while to implement suggestions and make sure they work for me, but the first two characters I designed with this in mind had much more dynamic and interesting designs without feeling too crowded. Thanks a lot, this one was really helpful

You can see how she gets louder and more confident the more she talks- you can see that she is louder at the end of one part (3:50) and when she starts the next part (3:55) she is quieter.