Prompt Library

OC Drawing Prompts to Develop Your Original Characters

30 copy-paste prompts

30 prompts for OC artists building deeper original characters. Design challenges, scenarios, fashion variants, OC-on-OC interactions, and exercises that turn your OCs into actual people.

In short: This page contains 30 copy-paste ready prompts, organized into 5 categories with a description and pro tip for each. The first 15 prompts are free instantly — no signup needed. Hand-curated and tested by the AI Academy team.

By Louis Corneloup · Founder, Techpresso
Last updated ·Hand-curated & tested by the AI Academy team

OC Development

5 prompts

Your OC at 3 Different Ages

1/30

Pick one of your OCs. Draw them at 3 different ages: 10 years younger, current age, 10 years older. Maintain consistent features while showing how time has shifted them.

OC aging exercise.

💡

Pro tip: Aging your OCs makes them feel like real people. Save these — they reveal what stays consistent in your design and what shifts.

Your OC's Worst Day

2/30

Draw your OC having their worst day. What does worst-day OC look like? Posture, expression, what they're holding, what's gone wrong. Build the bad day visually.

OC in difficulty exercise.

💡

Pro tip: Worst-day OC drawings build emotional range. Most OC art is heroic; the worst-day version is real.

Your OC in Their Childhood Bedroom

3/30

Draw your OC in the bedroom they had as a kid. Show the bedroom in detail — what posters? What books? What stuffed animals? What does it tell us about who they became?

OC childhood-environment exercise.

💡

Pro tip: Childhood bedroom = dense backstory delivery. The room reveals what the OC came from.

Your OC's Most Recent Scar/Mark

4/30

Draw your OC. Show their most recent scar, bruise, or physical mark. Where did it come from? What story does it carry?

OC physical history exercise.

💡

Pro tip: Physical history makes OCs real. Scars carry story; story develops character.

Your OC in 5 Different Outfits

5/30

Pick your OC. Design 5 outfits for them: casual, formal, combat/work, sleeping, costume/special-occasion. Same character, five wardrobes.

OC wardrobe series.

💡

Pro tip: Multi-outfit drawing builds character depth. Same OC in 5 outfits = the OC becomes a real person with a real life.

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OC Interactions

5 prompts

Your OC Meeting Another of Your OCs

6/30

Pick two of your OCs who haven't met. Draw their first meeting. Where? Why? What's their immediate read of each other? Render the exchange.

OC-on-OC first meeting.

💡

Pro tip: OC interactions reveal character. Watch what your OCs do when forced together.

Your OCs Doing a Group Activity

7/30

Pick 3+ of your OCs. Draw them all doing a group activity (cooking together, traveling, playing a game). Show their dynamic — who leads, who watches, who jokes, who annoys.

Group dynamic OC drawing.

💡

Pro tip: Group dynamics build ensemble cast. Each OC plays a role; the role becomes character.

Your OC with Someone Important

8/30

Draw your OC with one specific important person in their life — best friend, family member, rival, love interest. Show the relationship through how they stand together.

OC relationship moment drawing.

💡

Pro tip: Two-character drawings with relationship context = where character writers and artists develop deepest material.

Your OCs at a Party

9/30

Draw your OCs at a party. Different ones doing different things — center of attention, in the corner, trying to leave, having a deep conversation, being awkward. Render the party.

Multi-OC scene drawing.

💡

Pro tip: Party scenes show how OCs operate in social context. Reveals which OCs are which kind of social creature.

Your OC Comforting Someone

10/30

Draw your OC comforting another character (yours or someone else's). What's the situation? How does YOUR OC give comfort? Their style of caring.

OC-as-comforter scene.

💡

Pro tip: Comfort styles are character. Some OCs comfort with words, some with presence, some with practical action. Show the style.

OC in Scenarios

5 prompts

Your OC in the Wrong Genre

11/30

Pick your OC. Drop them into a genre they don't belong in — your fantasy hero in modern office, your sci-fi character in medieval times. Render the mismatch.

Genre-displacement OC drawing.

💡

Pro tip: Genre mismatch reveals which parts of your OC are universal vs setting-specific. Useful design audit.

Your OC at a Job They'd Hate

12/30

Draw your OC at a job they'd hate. Why would they hate it? Show them suffering through it. The misery is the design challenge.

OC in unpleasant scenario.

💡

Pro tip: Misery exposes character. How OCs handle hatred-of-situation = a real character dimension.

Your OC Shopping for Groceries

13/30

Draw your OC doing the most mundane thing — grocery shopping. What's in their cart? How do they navigate the store? What's their grocery style?

OC in mundane setting.

💡

Pro tip: Mundane scenes reveal character better than heroic ones. Grocery shopping IS character.

Your OC at Their Best Moment

14/30

Draw your OC at the best moment of their life so far. What's happening? What does winning look like for them? Render the triumph.

OC peak moment drawing.

💡

Pro tip: Peak-moment OC drawings build positive identity. What constitutes "winning" reveals values.

Your OC Caught Off Guard

15/30

Draw your OC caught off guard — surprised, embarrassed, exposed. What gets past their defenses? Show the moment they're most themselves.

OC vulnerable moment.

💡

Pro tip: Off-guard moments are when characters are most themselves. The defenses-down version = real OC.

OC Design Challenges

5 prompts

Redesign Your OC From Silhouette Up

16/30

Take your existing OC. Start from silhouette. Redesign them. Maintain the essence of who they are while changing every visual choice. The exercise is the cleanse.

OC redesign from scratch.

💡

Pro tip: Periodic OC redesigns clarify what's essential vs what's habit. Strong design exercise.

Your OC's Outfit Revealed Through Storytelling

17/30

Don't draw your OC. Instead, draw 5 specific items from their bedroom — their nightstand, their closet, their shelf. The viewer should be able to guess your OC from the items alone.

OC through environment design.

💡

Pro tip: Environment storytelling is harder than character drawing but more sophisticated. Tells the character through stuff.

Your OC In a Color Palette You Hate

18/30

Pick 4 colors you find ugly together. Now design your OC using only those colors. Force yourself to make ugly colors work for the character.

Bad-palette OC design challenge.

💡

Pro tip: Forcing yourself into uncomfortable color territory builds palette flexibility. Most OCs stick to comfortable palettes.

Your OC in Black and White Only

19/30

Draw your OC using only black and white (no gray, no color). The constraint is the challenge. The character should still feel like THEM through pure value contrast.

Two-tone OC design.

💡

Pro tip: Black-and-white OC design teaches that value carries more than color. Strong OCs work in any color treatment.

Your OC at 1/4 Their Usual Size

20/30

Draw your OC tiny — 1/4 the size you usually draw them. The smallness forces simplification. Which features survive at small scale? Those are the essential ones.

Scale-test OC drawing.

💡

Pro tip: Tiny OC drawings teach what's essential. Features that don't survive at small scale = decorative; features that do = core design.

OC Crossovers + Mash-Ups

5 prompts

Your OC Meeting a Canon Character

21/30

Pick a canon character from a fandom you love. Draw them meeting one of your OCs. How do they interact? Who's drawn to whom? Who's wary?

OC + canon character crossover.

💡

Pro tip: OC-meets-canon scenes reveal OC voice. How they react to a known character = a character revelation.

Your OC In Another Universe's Aesthetic

22/30

Pick a fictional universe (Studio Ghibli, Adventure Time, Warhammer, Bridgerton). Redraw your OC in that universe's visual language. Maintain their identity while adopting the style.

OC in foreign style.

💡

Pro tip: Style-adapted OC art teaches style observation. Each universe has visual rules; learning to apply them = real skill.

Your OC + Their Inspiration Side by Side

23/30

Be honest about who or what inspired your OC. Draw them next to that inspiration. Then identify three things that make YOUR OC distinct — not just a copy.

OC vs inspiration comparison.

💡

Pro tip: Acknowledging inspirations openly = healthier than hiding. Articulating distinction = stronger original characters.

Three of Your OCs in the Same Style

24/30

Pick three of your OCs. Redraw them all in the same simplified style (chibi, line art only, geometric). The unified style reveals their commonalities and differences clearly.

Multi-OC unified style.

💡

Pro tip: Same-style multi-OC art shows your design preferences across characters. Often reveals patterns you didn't notice.

Your OC As Their Own Pet

25/30

Draw the pet your OC would have. Now draw your OC and the pet together. How does the pet reflect the owner? What does owner-pet interaction reveal?

OC + pet pair drawing.

💡

Pro tip: Pets reflect owners. The pet you give your OC reveals dimensions you might not have articulated about them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Draw them in mundane scenarios, not just heroic ones. Grocery shopping, laundry, being tired at work. Heroic moments make characters look impressive; mundane moments make them feel real.
No — OCs are how concept artists, animators, and game designers think. Building strong OCs is real character design practice. Industry pros do this constantly.
If you want feedback or community, yes. Tag #originalcharacter, #ocart on Instagram/Twitter. Tumblr still has strong OC communities. Build slowly; engage authentically.
Acknowledge inspirations openly. Then push your designs toward what's YOURS. Three rounds of design iteration usually moves a design far from its inspiration. Hiding inspiration is what creates accidental copying.
Quality over quantity. 3-5 well-developed OCs you draw repeatedly beat 30 surface OCs. Deep OCs accumulate dimensions; surface OCs stay flat.

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