30-Day Character Design Challenge

This might be helpful if you’re stuck in a rut with your designs! You can do them in any order you want, as long as you do #30 last.

Put your iTunes library, favorite Spotify playlist, etc. on shuffle and design a character inspired by the first song that comes up. Bonus: do this with a playlist of music you’ve never listened to before. Extra bonus: use an instrumental-only song.

Design a character in a genre you don’t normally draw (example: if you normally high fantasy characters, you could do sci-fi, steampunk, etc.)

Draw five mouths, each of which reveal a unique character. Bonus: all are making the same expression.

Grab your oldest sketchbook that you can find and pick an old character to re-design. Bonus: pick the character by opening to a random page instead of hand-choosing.

Design ten unique hairstyles. Bonus: do a turnaround of each one.

Go to this random aesthetic generator and draw a character inspired by the result. Bonus: make the design 100% serious, even if you get “dad wave” or “soap flapper.”

Design seven pairs of shoes. Bonus: for some of the pairs, make the left and right shoes different, but still recognizable as a pair.

Draw a non-human character— the less human-looking, the better (so avoid things like elves, vampires, etc.). Bonus: Make up their species instead of using existing mythological creatures.

Design a character inspired by this poem.

Create a color palette based on the colors in your bedroom, then design a character from this palette. Bonus: don’t use the colors of your walls or floor in your palette.

Pick your favorite mythological figure and create two designs for them: one that’s as historically accurate to their time period and culture as possible, and another that takes as many artistic liberties as you want (this could a modern AU, something in your typical style, etc.).

Design a high fantasy character whose outfit is based on whatever you’re wearing right now.

Pick an order of angels and design a character based on/inspired by their description. The resulting character doesn’t necessarily have to be an angel. Bonus: pick Thrones, the giant wheels covered in eyes.

Go to this random name generator and design a character for whatever name you get. Tip: you can click each name to learn its origin and meaning.

Design ten weapons. Bonus: Base each one off a real weapon from various historical periods, but with your own twist on it.

Create as many rough thumbnail designs as you can in half an hour. Then pick your favorite and flesh them out into a more detailed character. Bonus: don’t erase anything during the timed portion.

Pick an animal and draw a human character based on it. The final design shouldn’t have the animal’s ears, tail, markings, etc.— convey it entirely though the character’s build, clothing, hair, etc. Bonus: pick the animal from the ones featured in this video series.

Design a character based on the weather wherever you are right now.

Create an outfit breakdown for a character from their underclothes to their outermost layers/armor/etc. This can be done either for one of your existing OCs or a new one. Bonus: do a turnaround for this breakdown.

Design ten unique sets of eyes. Bonus: include makeup and/or eyebrows as well.

Make up a god/goddess/deity for a nonexistent religion, then design them. Bonus: describe the symbolism of each aspect of their design.

Design a normal, modern-day character, then three genre AUs for them (e.g. cyberpunk, fantasy, Renaissance-era, etc.). They should be clearly recognizable as the same character in all four versions.

Create a character whose design combines the aesthetics of the last three movies/TV shows you watched.

Design five pieces of jewelry. Pick your favorite and create a full character design based around it. Bonus: incorporate a couple of the other pieces of jewelry into the design as well.

Pick a vehicle and design a character inspired by it. A human character, not a transformer. Bonus: use something other than a car or truck, like a plane, boat, tank, etc.

Create a character inspired by your favorite childhood stuffed animal.

Design four sets of hands. They don’t necessarily have to be human hands.

Design a historically accurate character for a decade between 1900 and 1990.

Design a haute couture-style dress based on one of your existing OC’s designs. Bonus: draw them in this dress.

Wildcard! Use everything you’ve practiced thus far to create any character design you want. The only requirement: fully flesh out their design, from sketching to line art to colors.



Go forth, have fun, and create some awesome characters! If you post what you create, feel free to tag them ‘characterdesigninspiration’