Inspiration

[TheDragonflyArtShop 4]

Hey guys! I would absolutely love to hear how you got your inspiration for making your own characters and coming up with their backgrounds and personalities. As an artist, when I make random clay creations, I love to come up with some small little backstory to really bring them to life. 

[SharpWit 2,647]

I use History as my guide. I come up with a very basic idea for a character, make a design, then look up people from the past who may match that description, and blend that with ever growing traits or stories I can think of. The longest part is always the name because you want it to be fitting, unique, and sound good. I usually break down the real person's name for meanings, look at where they're from, the language of that place, their careers, and then pore over synonyms till I find something I like. How cutie marks are earned is still a work in progress because that concept is still of vague.

Edited June 19, 2018 by SharpWit

[MangoFoalix 24,953]

My OC never had a personality since I never bothered to give her one. All I have is art of her. If I wanted to give a personality I would probably make it somewhat like myself.

My OC if anyone is interested

https://derpibooru.org/search?q=oc%3Amango+foalix

[Vintjack Greasymane 3,460]

Well, to come up with my OC, I just based everything on my personality and style.
Just have a look at it in my pic and you'll notice he has a pompadour and wears what I consider a leather jacket; in real life, I have a passion for vintage stuff and style, especially for the Italo-American/ Italian/ American 1940's/1950's style (but mostly 50's!). Now, all I did was trying to make my OC represent this passion, by dressing in the same way I do in real life. I then added some brown color (I've got brown hair and eyes), gave him orange mashes ('cause orange's my favourite color) and colored his body in blue (I thought it was a pretty nice color and made a neat contrast with orange).  Speaking of bodies, I made him quite big, but not extremely tall. That again relates to the real life myself: I'm quiet muscular, but don't go over 170 cm height (maybe 173/5, or similar...I should check better!). 

EDIT: I forgot his personality!

He's kind hearted, sociable, relatable and empathetic, though he might have some ideas and opinions about life events and their meaning that not everypony shares.
He now has many goals, but the most important one to him is to find the right mare to love, cuddle and share every experience life can offer! 

Edited June 19, 2018 by Vintjack Greasymane

[TheDragonflyArtShop 4]

40 minutes ago, Califorum said:

Most of mine come from the elements or whatever magics they use, then I determine their personalties based on that.

What do you do for those that don't come from elements or magic(s)?

[TheDragonflyArtShop 4]

24 minutes ago, SharpWit said:

I use History as my guide. I come up with a very basic idea for a character, make a design, then look up people from the past who may match that description, and blend that with ever growing traits or stories I can think of. The longest part is always the name because you want it to be fitting, unique, and sound good. I usually break down the real person's name for meanings, look at where they're from, the language of that place, their careers, and then pore over synonyms till I find something I like. How cutie marks are earned is still a work in progress because that concept is still of vague.

That's really awesome! Have you come across some interesting non-famous people to base your characters around?

11 minutes ago, TheTaZe said:

My OC never had a personality since I never bothered to give her one. All I have is art of her. If I wanted to give a personality I would probably make it somewhat like myself.

My OC if anyone is interested

https://derpibooru.org/search?q=oc%3Amango+foalix

Awe, she is so cute! She looks like she would have a very sweet naive personality.

[A French Derpy full of Salt 404]

I come up to:

-What I am for the flaws of the character, his personality and his hobbies and job

-What I want to be for the skills and such

-My favorite characters for his personality and his voice lines.

and some random ideas... Here's the result with Blues

[TheDragonflyArtShop 4]

9 minutes ago, Vintjack Greasymane said:

Well, to come up with my OC, I just based everything on my personality and style.
Just have a look at it in my pic and you'll notice he has a pompadour and wears what I consider a leather jacket; in real life, I have a passion for vintage stuff and style, especially for the Italo-American/ Italian/ American 1940's/1950's style (but mostly 50's!). Now, all I did was trying to make my OC represent this passion, by dressing in the same way I do in real life. I then added some brown color (I've got brown hair and eyes), gave him orange mashes ('cause orange's my favourite color) and colored his body in blue (I thought it was a pretty nice color and made a neat contrast with orange).  Speaking of bodies, I made him quite big, but not extremely tall. That again relates to the real life myself: I'm quiet muscular, but don't go over 170 cm height (maybe 173/5, or similar...I should check better!). 

That's really cool! If you have rped with him, have you started to notice little things that you wouldn't have about yourself if you were to personally go over who you are?

[Vintjack Greasymane 3,460]

Just now, TheDragonflyArtShop said:

That's really cool! If you have rped with him, have you started to notice little things that you wouldn't have about yourself if you were to personally go over who you are?

I haven't rped, sorry. I can say, though, that I'm still trying to completely find out who I am, and how my personality is structured. I've been told I usually do things following my own philosophy, but I still need to figure out what my philosophy's all about, and I can do that by starting to build it through life experiences, step by step. There's not so much I'd like to change about myself, expect for the fact that I can sometimes be too easily influenced. It's no big deal, after all, I can get over it just fine: if the situations gets to the poin where my principles get violated or disrespected, then it's definetely a "no" for me. It's smaller things I need to work out for.

[Lord Valtasar 12,690]

i take the general feeling of characters i like in movies and series,i add some traits then, i try to imagine them in different situations and how they would react based on their personality and lastly i put many of them together and see how their chemistry develops

Edited June 19, 2018 by lordvaltasar

[HellsWriter 100]

I tend to actual create the background, personality and other things related to that first then go on to other details.

[Kevin Tang 2,426]

I'm suck at art and music.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Kevin_Tang

[SharpWit 2,647]

23 hours ago, TheDragonflyArtShop said:

That's really awesome! Have you come across some interesting non-famous people to base your characters around?

Well, I have one in particular that's based off a lesser known famous person. Dorothea Erxleben, the first German women to recieve an MD.

[EpicEnergy 23,218]

I've made some characters in my head, not artwork or written out, but my inspiration comes from good music and reading well-written books/fanfics.

[dead account 2,710]

Most characters are aspects of my own personality. Or things that appeal to me in general. I personally don't enjoy stories made by others (movies, series, books etc.), I have a very particular taste and it's hard to find elsewhere. So most of my inspirations come from within, I manifest my own feelings in characters or come up with unique ideas.

[ExplosionMare 18,062]

I get a lot of inspiration from music, events in my personal life, and things I enjoy researching.

[Sparklefan1234 170,479]

I get inspiration for my banners etc. from the TV shows and movies that I like to watch. I also get ideas from My Friends on MLPF and DeviantArt.