I REALLY Like This Character. He's My Favourite!

tips for getting people to like your ocs

*disclaimer: this is based on what’s worked for me, aka an artist that likes to make comics/storyboards. so this advice is directed at people who do that

you can do things like this:

but frankly, I don’t think most people engage with this (at least I personally don’t).

My main piece of advice is: get better at writing.

That might sound harsh, but let me explain what I mean!

What I tend to do is just throw characters into situations with as little handholding as I can. Give enough context that readers can follow along, but don’t feel like they’re being explained to.

what can you learn about the characters through their designs alone? (age, personality, economic status, occupation, etc)

what can you learn about the characters’ relationship though their interactions alone? (are they close? familial? romantic? is there hostility? are they tense/relaxed?)

what are the characters currently doing? what were they doing previously (how long have they been talking)? what are they going to do next? can you convey this without dialogue?

how do they feel about what they are doing? are they content? focused? over/understimulated? would they rather be doing something else?

where are they? does it matter? would establishing a setting in at least one panel clarify the scene? is there anything in the enviroment that could tell some of the story?

what time of day is it? what time of year is it? what is the weather like?

Now, with all this in mind, I'm going to give you another example. I'm going to use completely brand new characters for the sake of the experiment, so you won't have any bias.

Did this get more of an emotional response from you than the first example? Why do you think so? Who are these characters? How do they know each other? What else can you infer about them? What happened? Who is "she"?

Now, you don't have to actually answer all those questions. But think about them! You can tell people a whole lot about your characters without ever showing them a list of their likes and dislikes.

Obviously, comics aren't the only way to get people invested in your original characters! But regardless, easily digestible formats will grab people's attention faster than huge blocks of text, and comics are a lot less work than doing wholeass storyboards.

Now go and share your ocs with the world!!!

Hey, chat!! I've got a ton of Dandy's World sketches that I'm gonna try to complete over the month. Here's one of them!!! :D

I've also got an animatic in the works, but shhhh....

A formal human/puppet Bill Cipher reference for y’all 🤲

Jashtober day 20!!!! This is actually a redo of last year's Monarch drawing! I remember loving that one when I made it, so I decided to see how much I've improved since then with this. :)

vv Last year's drawing. vv

I don't care what your perception of the female body has been warped into by the media and advertising prevalent in culture. eat some goddamn carbs

Goretober! The drawing challenge specifically for gore! Yup!

Oh no! I've stopped the trend of putting lyrics in the art! 😥

(I couldn't think of any lyrics...)

RadenWA is honestly a hero for these

they're got even more than these, too!

A bit late, but whatever!!! Here's my 2024 Art Summary!! :D

Me when I wreck my ship.. 😔