Oooohohohoho do I go through drafts. Not only drafts but overall designs over a steady period of time. I’ll have an idea and I’ll go with it for a while. then I experience more and find more inspiration then tweak what I have. A lot of my inspiration comes from flora and fauna. it isn’t uncommon for me to pick one or two animals (maybe a plant), break them down to their core elements, and make a character based off of that. Another huge inspiration for me is music. Songs can be powerful and are compact conglomerations of emotions. I almost always listen to music when I draw. 

For example, one of my very first and oldest OCs that I have (and still use) is Rabit. 

His character design has changed relatively subtle over the years. The biggest changes are that I was able to be more bold with his color palette after I got an art tablet. There are just some colors that you can’t get with colored pencils. The second change is his age. Rabit has aged with me. Not necessarily on purpose, but he has steadily aged up from 15yrs to 19yrs. I think this was mostly because I was able to experience and observe the extent for the abilities of people between those ages while going to high school. being closer to 19 in physique just fit better. Third major change in design people don’t always think of is personality. Over the course of 8 years, his personality has changed tremendously. (it’s funny how that happens) He has gone from that classic “I’m the crazy murderous punk that also deals with demons” > to >“I’m only sometimes crazy and overall am a bit kooky, but will also kill you” > to > “Eccentric, easily annoyed, punk that would happily rather get in an argument than a physical fight. but will also 110% fight to the death if need be”

Rabit is based off of the snowshoe hare and my intense need for chaos/violence in characters. (I wanted colors that contrasted well against blood)

Now my other main old character is Nev! Nev has changed the most physically in design. (can’t you tell?) Similar to Rabit he also aged with me. roughly age 15 to 21. Nev was originally caucasian but I knew I wanted to give him a different ethnicity and had thought about different skin tones before deciding that being native American fit him really well. therefore, I tweaked facial features and his age gave him a broader physique. When it comes to his personality, he’s stayed relatively the same. Instead of being tired and depressed he is now tired and only a little depressed, but overall moderately optimistic. 

Nev is based off of the common loon, watercolor paintings, and (somber) music.

One of the end goals was to also have Nev and Rabit visually complement each other. Rabit’s colors are mostly white and monochrome grey + Nev’s colors are blues and warm neutrals. Rabit is 5.5ft (165cm) and Nev is 6.1ft (186cm) 

BONUS:

The very very first initial designs that were the first drawing/concepts of them ever! Rabit was a very simply designed young man (20′s i think??) that was a serial killer. from what I can remember it had something to do with ghosts possessing people. Nev once again has changed the most. His original concept was the demon of a small black bird that would appear to people in the form of a young girl as a sign of impending misfortune. She would appear and disappear in the span of just a few moments. Before you message me, No she was not modeled after Xion from kh, I don’t even think that game was out yet. I just really liked black jackets and messy hair.