@Minus  
Another common trope of shitty OCs is video game related cutie marks.

I know the artist avoided the Dos and Don’ts as much has they could, but they really should have included “Don’t make a black and red OC who’s parents are dead, with a cutie-mark in the shape of any kind of weapon, with or without bones, skulls, or blood”. Oh and “Only make an alicorn OC if you’re a licensed professional OC maker”. These are important points that were missed.
 
My OC is original because he’s WHITE and red. His parents are dead to him, but not literally dead. And his cutie-mark is a wrench layed over a bone… Oh damnit!

how to make the ocpone everyone loves:
 

@Ferrotter  
Its an ‘oc’ but the character is not actually original, is what its saying.

So, what we can get from this is, the “oc:silverlay” tag is wrong because she’s not an OC, and Silverlay should just be tagged “silverlay.” Or “rc:silverlay” because she’s a recolor.

@Keith Mowz  
In non-visual media, it’s even simpler: Just put down what’s important and don’t focus on it too much. You can describe extra bits if they’re relevant (for instance, a character wears expensive clothes because they like showing off their wealth, or they have a scar from a dramatic event in their past), but those are entirely optional.
 
Basically, you don’t need to worry that much about getting an original appearance. You just get a look that works, as simple or complex as needed, and leave it at that. Whether your character is a generic-looking guard, a recolour or a pony with a creative design, what they actually do is what makes or breaks them.

@Heroine Addict  
Uh. I guess that’s a good point if you’re pretty much exclusively using them in non-visual mediums. No, wait, even then you still describe how they look, which can actually make it even worse when you have to verbalize an extra-gaudy design.

I can agree with the points about personality and backstory, but I don’t see how appearance is such a big deal. I mean, you don’t want your character to be a total eyesore or anything, but it’s their actual character that matters more if you want to do more than draw pretty pictures of them.

@Background Pony #CDF3  
Which is fine as long as you keep your character balanced and patterned properly. Even if you disagree with the “keep it simple, stupid” motto, its STILL a good rule of thumb to make sure your character’s design is something you can draw from memory. If even you have to look at a reference of your own character to remember how everything is arranged on them, you dun fucked up.

@Perteks  
Thank you for telling me this revolutionary information I have never known before.
 
For all seriousness, G1 is plenty popular, just not with the bronies as much, which is a bit disheartening, so many OCs look so boring, they could use a bit of spicing up, provided people don’t complain in mass about it.

@Background Pony #CDF3  
And remember that G1 is not popular as fim ?
 
 
@The Smiling Pony  
But that kind of people don’t even read tutorials

@Background Pony #CDF3  
 
for the last then.

I never understood why people want OCs to be so goddamned simple and boring, and plain, just cause most BG ponies are plain? Well, they’re in the background, if they were flashy, you would get distracted from the real story.  
Hundreds of ponies over the course of the franchise’s line (meaning, the toys) have regularly had 2-4+ different colors in their hair, and the way it is arranged in the mane.
 
In my opinion, as long as the design is consistent with at least one other pony in the entire series run (again, toys, in case you want to forget I said that) then it’s fine.
 
Remember, G1 had anywhere from  
 
To  

 
And g3 frequntly had  
 
and  
yME9s5qF2ZDBRl-iewr5w~~60_35.JPG!

@Perteks  
Some people do, yes. A browse through the larger DA groups OC folders or clicking on the profiles of commenters on popular images makes it painfully evident.

@Perteks  
Go google “sparkledogs”
 
Then remember that 90% of everything is shit. No exceptions.

People seriously need something like this? Common sense is on embargo ?