Equine Palette

Brownie Bake Off, Part II

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Yeppers

1.) Don’t be boring.

While children in real life are often quite similar to their parents in terms of personality and worldview, I personally find it kind of boring if a nextgen is just a different-colored version of their parents. If I make a Twilight nextgen that’s a studious bookworm unicorn that needs to learn to make friends….welp, I’ve just made a carbon copy of Twilight. Kids aren’t exact copies of their parents. Personality contrasts can be very interesting, don’t be afraid of them! What if Twilight’s kid was a loud party animal, or a complete ditz? What if they were studious like Twilight, but only out of a gluttonous desire for power? What if they were a spoiled princess, or really sanctimonious about the gospel of friendship? Think about how the character’s personality could factor into conflict with the character’s parents and community. Now you’ve set the stage for a story.

In terms of designing, you want your character to look unique and interesting, but it’s also good for them to resemble their parents just enough, just for the sake of visual clarity. But don’t just mash up the parents’ colors and features and call it a day-remember your nextgen should stand on their own. Think about different body types-is your nextgen beefy, thin, fat? Hair can show lots of personality-does your character wear it messy, tied up tight, carefully styles? What is your character’s species? Aspects of their personality should always shine through their character design. Your design needs to compel people to click on it, and make them want to know more.

2.) Don’t rip off other people.

I see this a lot among the younger crowd. They really want the fun of making a nextgen cast, but don’t want to do any real designing/writing legwork. So they just rip off what they perceive as popular, or mold their characters too much off other characters. I can tell when somone’s design thought process was “okay so basically this character is lop’s princess iridescence, but with enough sliiiiight differences that I can say she’s my original oc”. It’s a rookie mistake, and always way more noticeable than they think it is.

(I made this handy reference for an artist that refused to acknowledge they were ripping other people’s designs, including mine)

Don’t do this, guys. You’re so much better than this. You have a unique vision locked up inside your head, don’t hide behind what you think is popular. If you wanna design, say, a Discord nextgen, don’t think about Pandora or Illusion or any of Earthsong’s or Vindhov’s or anyone else’s character designs. Think about what you want. What fresh idea can you bring to the table. You’re so much more creative than “derp this is Pandora but with differnt colorz and a tiger paw so totes a different character!! Du not steel!!!”

Study from other artists. Don’t copy.

3.) Simplify.

I see a lot of people writing painstaking descriptions to map out their character’s personality, backstory, favorite foods, likes and dislikes, favorite outfit from the Sear’s 1994 spring catalogue…..stop. Don’t get caught up in the details too early. When you’re first starting out, simplify. Describe your character in less than five words. Are they still interesting? If not, rework and go from there. Be a little mysterious about the character-it’ll get your audience invested! When I first made Skyla, she didn’t have an elaborate backstory, she was simply made to be a perfect pretty pink princess to contrast against Pandora.

Everything about Skyla grew from there, by asking myself questions like “Well, what if she’s not so perfect? What if she’s lonely? What if she’s a neurotic ball of anxiety, but just hides it better than Pandora?”

I’m rambling, but my point is, start with a simple concept, and let the character grow from there. It’s perfectly fine if the end result is nothing like the original concept. My first concept for Chakra Blossom was a nice hippie who turns out to be a sociopathic cult leader…..he mellowed out a lot since the beginning. Moondancer was a funny, ineffective villain (complete with PB and Jam as doofy minions) that eventually developed into a for-realzies villain.

Simplification is also a good rule for designing your character’s appearance. Don’t make it so cluttered and detailed you don’t want to draw it more than once. I once considered giving Stormy rainbow-colored irises, but it was a pain to color and looked bad from a distance. Bleh. Learn how to cut stuff that doesn’t work.

Also, learn you some color theory. Don’t smash up colors that don’t work together well. The color wheel is your friend.

4.) Have fun!

This is probably the most important one. Don’t worry so much about pleasing people and trying to get popular. Don’t exhaust yourself trying to make “the perfect character”. Make a character you like, one you want to draw over and over again. Draw them in serious situations, draw them in silly, random doodles. Make pointless, contrived AUs. Put them in crackships. Write melodrama. Write fluff. Write shameless smut if you want. Roleplay with other creators, swap headcanons! The point is to have fun! At the end of the day, you’re drawing made-up babies for fictional talking horses, so revel in the silliness of it all.I think the reason I’ve stayed with this fandom so long is because of how silly I’m allowed to get with subject matter. Good luck, young intrepid nextgen artists! I leave you with this bit of silliness: