What do you do with old art of your OCs?

[anuchi]

Hey everyone!

Right now I'm doing a deep clean of my room and found really old drawings of my OCs I drew all the way back in middle school.

I am torn on what to do. On one hand, I want to get rid of all the clutter that's actively making me sick (mold), and on the other hand I have a big time emotional attachment to my OCs (they're like my children lol).

The main issue I have is that there's just. Too. Many. They're currently filling like two drawers and three boxes. All paper that's slowly going moldy.

Should I keep these drawings or let them go?

If you have any similar experiences I'd be happy to read them if you'd like to share!

TL;DR: Hoarder artist wants to get rid of old drawings but unsure

 

[MasterEn]

i redraw old drawings if the character design is interesting or if i can improve upon the character or story idea that i had.

 

[anuchi]

i redraw old drawings if the character design is interesting or if i can improve upon the character or story idea that i had.

Oh yeah, definitely. I love those OCs, so I never stopped iterating on their story and design, so in that regard I'd say the drawings are actually quite outdated lol

 

[DragonMals]

Repurpouse them as NPCs in my Indie game.

 

[anuchi]

Repurpouse them as NPCs in my Indie game.

That actually wouldn't be a bad idea since some of my OCs are pretty much abandoned lol
(I've got like an ongoing saga in my head but they got "written out", so to speak)

 

[DragonMals]

That actually wouldn't be a bad idea since some of my OCs are pretty much abandoned lol
(I've got like an ongoing saga in my head but they got "written out", so to speak)

I see! I'm glad that we can sorta relate to each other to something like this. Especially since I was a creative boy and had a bunch of OCs that I have no idea on how to repurpouse them.

 

[MasterEn]

Oh yeah, definitely. I love those OCs, so I never stopped iterating on their story and design, so in that regard I'd say the drawings are actually quite outdated lol

i wouldn't say that any old drawings of original characters are outdated; i would say that they are similar in nature to writing a story; the first draft is you telling the story to yourself. your first sketch of a character is you seeing the character for the first time, like watching a tv show for the first time and seeing the main character's first appearance.
hopefully your characters are turning out like you want them to.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

locked into the "drawing folder" on my counter. Until someone walks in and see's all the titties i drew.
in honest, it's on a folder with the rest of my doodles.

 

[DunkeyKong]

Not sure, made one quite recently, and my guy is probably one of the first OC I've made. Still trying to figure out what he could do

 

[ciro64]

I have this unfinished drawing of my character that has been unfinished for months. Maybe today is a good day to get back to it.

 

[Yankee]

I'm an old man and I regret getting rid of my comics and stuff that I drew decades ago. The ones that I do have, like a sketchbook I've been drawing in for years, I plan to keep for sure.

However, if the paper is rotting or something then it's garbage and should be thrown out.

 

[Faust03]

I threw out everything I drew when I was a kid because it was all terrible, I'm keeping everything I draw on my computer now though

 

[LightningmanEXE]

I remember the days I was orange and yellow, and had lightbulbs on my shoulders... and a huge spiked helmet... goodness gracious I looked bad.

 

[wilddogsdivorce]

if you cant keep em, definitely digitize and store them somewhere. it's not that it's art of ocs that matters, its your old art. looking at my old art is one of my most major inspirations, because seeing the progress i make is a major motivator and without old examples of your work you can't really gauge how far you've come.

 

[ciro64]

I got back into it! Too tired to finish fixing it now, but fuck it.

I hope the colors aren't too bright in your monitor.

 

[Nebulon_Galaxy]

I got back into it! Too tired to finish fixing it now, but fuck it.

View attachment 55576

I hope the colors aren't too bright in your monitor.

i love this! its really pretty and the colors are warm!

 

[anuchi]

I got back into it! Too tired to finish fixing it now, but fuck it.

View attachment 55576

I hope the colors aren't too bright in your monitor.

Really digging the color palette!

 

[Jambhala]

I don't have any OCs but I used to do graffiti so I have a bunch of old stickers I'd put up on signs and shit. I just put them in a shoebox, I don't really want to throw them out.

 

[NobodyHere]

I try to keep all my art, I get nostalgia fuzzy feeling looking at my old stuff; helps when I feel like I’m not improving at all. Reminds me why I make art to begin with

Random old piece from when I was around 10 years old (I believe)

Post automatically merged: Apr 8, 2025

One of my more recent characters - all of his designs are already on my device so here yall go

2022

2023

2025

If interested I can find the original drawings for some of my other characters (their og designs were done traditionally)

Tragically my very first character has been lost to time; she was a wolf girl dressed in purple I made when I was around 5 years old - I had made a comic in a lined paper notebook, the premise was a shameless rip off of legend of Zelda. I remember why I made these decisions too, my favourite colour had been purple, I really liked wolfs, and I had been watching my sister play legend of Zelda (one of the 3D ones).

 

[rematche]

Hey everyone!

Right now I'm doing a deep clean of my room and found really old drawings of my OCs I drew all the way back in middle school.

I am torn on what to do. On one hand, I want to get rid of all the clutter that's actively making me sick (mold), and on the other hand I have a big time emotional attachment to my OCs (they're like my children lol).

The main issue I have is that there's just. Too. Many. They're currently filling like two drawers and three boxes. All paper that's slowly going moldy.

Should I keep these drawings or let them go?

If you have any similar experiences I'd be happy to read them if you'd like to share!

TL;DR: Hoarder artist wants to get rid of old drawings but unsure

make a person website and upload them to it.

 

[Antilocal123]

Throw that shit in the trash and never recall it.

 

[mistymermaid]

May as well preserve what I can. Very little has been drawn, much less scanned. Try to find a flatbed scanner in stores these days...