How to make a good OC

Part 2: Design

After choosing a species for your character, you must give it a design, with color(s) and pattern(s). Preferably one that is memorable, and stands out. But maybe avoid making them the only one with like, blue fur / hair, unless there's a reason, like being blessed by some mighty being.

There are many options when you're designing a creature with fur or scales. And humans can get quite diverse too. But first, decide if you want it to be realistic, or not. And for those who have a fantasy species, it's easy to think they have to be considered unrealistic, and that can be fun to design, but you can also give them a realistic coat for what enviroment they live in. They can be a predator with camoflauge, blending in with the trees, like tigers do! Or prey with a white coat to hide in the snow, like some hares.

Realistic design:

If you choose realistic design, are you afraid it'll look bland? I get your worry, but it'll be fine! If you've chosen a species that can have different colors or markings naturally, there are quite a few ways to make it look interesting. But timber wolves for example, they don't have stripes, spots and other stuff. They can have different shades in their fur however! It can be from dark to light gray, brown, black, white, they have different shades of yellow / brown in their eyes, some few have blue eyes. You could make it so they have a radio collar (that probably doesn't work for anthros, though, unless it's some societal racism thing), scars, more or less fluff, fat and muscles, or folded ears. Many have an unique "face mask" too.

Semi-realistic designs

You can make them have designs not truly possible in real life, but still be believable and passable, like giving a wolf green eyes or lots of pure white over a gray main coat. I have two examples. One, are the wolves from Alpha & Omega. The main and supporting characters look unique, with special face markings, I noticed. Yet they aren't out of place on Earth. The second example of such designs are the lions from the series My Pride, by TribbleofDoom on YouTube. They're extremely creative despite the limited look a real lion can have, so worry not if you have chosen a species with few actually possible markings and colors, you can simply blend a little mix of imagination into their designs.

Absolute realism

If you want to be absolutely realistic, even with a species that can't have that many markings and colors, then you might have to make up for it with their story and personality! My advice there would be to try to vary body shapes, so their silhouette isn't the exact same. Give them subtle unique traits, such as a notch in the ear, or an extra point on their antlers.

Realistic bold colors?

There are ways to have an animal be colored purple, blue or whatever but still be somewhat believable (I am not counting naturally colorful animals right now, such as birds). They could have gone through a weird experiment, mutated like in Kipo: Age of Wonderbeasts, been dyed, which works especially well with anthros, who could easily have simply dyed their fur like humans do to their hair. Maybe they fell into a can of paint, or something like that, if you want to.

Anthros can have clothes

Don't forget that if you've got an anthro character, you can also design their main outfits. Take references from pictures of clothes. If they even have clothes, of course, because some don't. Some may only have on the upper body but no pants, such as Donald Duck by Disney, or some just have pants, like Po from Kung Fu Panda by Dreamworks.

Fantasy design:

How do you make a character look good when you don't want it to be totally realistic? The only rules I know is to not completely copy a colorful design from someone else (be aware, coincidences happen, and inspiration is valid, but there is a limit), and don't use saturated colors so much they make your eyes hurt, or is just unsatisfying to look at. Especially if there's multiple different colors, shades or tones in the design. You can make a popping design without causing visual overload. It can be helpful if you have an idea of color theory and how to make color schemes that fit together well.

Inspiration from real life

There are many markings that you can give your characters, and all the colors in the world to choose from. You can come up with it yourself, or take inspiration from things you've seen, like watermelons, autumn leaves... Maybe a butterfly or flower. The swirl pattern on some tabby cats? Just have fun and go wild!

You might wanna draw the OC or get fanart

If you're an artist, just remember that you might wanna draw these designs too, so don't make it more complicated than your current skills and patience can handle. Trust me, if you have bad patience or forgetful memory, an OC with a complex design is not the way to go. And if you show your OC to the world, it might be fun to have people make art for your character! It'll be easier if the designs aren't messy. You can also solve this with a "true design" reference sheet and a "simplified design" reference sheet. But don't feel pressured to do that unless you really want to!