How to Make a Warrior Cat OC

Looks

Looks are the warriors way of telling each other apart, aside from name, and looks are where you have the most freedom to screw stuff up or to shine. Some people add "unique" and impossible markings to customize a character, but all they do really is drag a character down. Cat fur genetics are really complicated, but, they're working skimming over before making a character. Here's a really helpful image for making realistic cats: http://majnouna.deviantart.com/art/Guide-to-Cat-Colors-Patterns-91579716

Now, in the warriors series, they mess up with genetics a lot, such as how blue eyes are not possible without a 70+% white coat, and how male torties aren't feasible. Even though what's possible and what's not is complicated, there are a lot of cool patterns that still are realistic!

Okay, if you have a name already, or if you don't and just skipped here to make looks first, then that's fine, just go back and make a name once you finish. Or something. Anyway, if you made a name first, try to think of something that fits that name. For instance, my fursona Driftshade; I thought the "Drift" resembled brownish-gray, and the "shade" made that darker, so that was the basis for the looks. If you came here first, then really you have a lot of freedom!

The main color in a cat would be coat color, so let's start with that; first, what's possible? Well, as a solid color, oranges, grays, blacks, and most browns and mixes of those are fine, but white is tricky. For a cat to be fully white, it's really rare, they often are albino, a Russian (uncommon-ish), or have a high chance of deafness and ONLY amber or blue eyes. Albino cats either have light blue or pink eyes, and this may sound like a good OC idea! It's not. Albinos have a high risk of sunburn and weak immune systems, and are sometimes infertile (if they even make it too maturity). These cats wouldn't survive in a clan. If you want an all-white cat, I wouldn't recommend it, but, remember, ONLY blue or amber eyes!
There is a way for a cat to be white and very valid, though. This is if they have level 10 whitespotting, and even then a tiny patch of another color would show.

Tabbies are common and every one is different, making these a good pelt choice. If you have a color scheme/base color picked out, and want to tabby-ify it, any color but white is possible! The stripes of a tabby are darker than the base coat and come in a variety of patterns. Mackerel tabbies are the most common and have thin, fishbone-like stripes. If you want a tabby OC, these are good, as they can apply to any color and occur frequently. Classic, or Oyster tabbies, have thicker stripes that are generally swirlier and more loose. These are also a good choice. Spotted tabbies are less common but still acceptable, and are not really tabbies, but have spots in a tabby-like pattern. Ticked tabbies are fine too; again, they're not strictly tabbies, but instead have uniform flecks all over their bodies. Dashed tabbies are what my main OC is; they're basically mackerel tabbies but with broken apart stripes.

Anyway, enough about tabbies, I'm sorry! So, other VALID patterns include bicolors, tortoiseshells, calicos (tricolors), and many more. Bicolors are when a cat has two or more colors in its pelt, hence the name. Tortoiseshells are mostly female, like 98% of them, and they are generally a mottled orange and black, and they are typically infertile. Tricolors, or Calicos, are what they sound like; a mix of three colors.

By now you should have a base coat, pattern, and eye color. That means that it's time for whitespotting. If you don't want you character to have any white patches or stripes or spots, then you can skip ahead if you want. Whitespotting can affect any cat, and can really be anywhere on the cat. The most common areas are the chest, muzzle, and feet, and usually at least a few colored patches show if it covers the whole pelt.

In conclusion, all must be valid, coat, eye, pattern and whitespotting, and if so, a coat should work. But, before you make a cat, do your research!

A/N- I'm still taking requests for reviews and chapters. And, guess what? We're at almost 40 views! Wow!

-Drift