My customs are sort of all of a mixed bunch though, these days, a number of them are based on older characters of mine that I am finally bringing over to Evelon. Although, keep in mind, I DID just doodle, try colors together, and decide on their colors and markings on a whim, once upon a time, when I started developing the idea for the characters. I used to design characters AND their appearances at the same time, but that's not always the case now. Pets like those are
Sweka,
Rhosey,
Cheshire, and
War. My boy,
Iota, was created in the same way. I had an idea for the character when I was listening to a particular song, and decided that he would be primarily black and red at the time ideas started brewing. His markings were just me doodling and figuring out what I liked. (So, well, sometimes, songs inspire ideas for characters/customs.)
A number of other pets are "cosplay pets," to a certain extent. I don't usually follow an existing character
closely, I give them my own twist. Like
Kuroro is a demon cat that appears in one episode of the anime Inuyasha (and is similar to the cat that is one of the main characters, Kirara), but... I pretty much kept that aspect, and that she protected a small human village, and decided that she ended up banding together with my set of characters that are demon hunters, even while being part demon or demon themselves. Or one of my newest, this
Skwyrm based on the Blue Caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland. But, aside from being blue, I just did what I wanted. I gave her "eye shadow," markings because, well, my character is female, where-as the Blue Caterpillar seems to be more male in its media apperances. I haven't even quite decided what she's actually called yet, although it might just be, "Blue," or "Bleu." It's also shown in media forms that the Blue Caterpillar uses hookah, so I decided that mine is actually a total party girl that likes to drink, smoke, and go dancing.
Most of my Pokemon based customs that I have been getting lately, though, fall between these two categories. In a time before Evelon, I was a member of a few Pokemon-based roleplay forums, and I ran one for a little while more recently, bringing those old characters there. And, now, I am bringing them here. So, although some are Pokemon, while some are human/Pokemon combos and can transform back and forth, they mostly have decent characters.
It's a rarer occasion now, but I have just gone and thrown together colors that I liked, like with this
Suncheeka, and gave it a character afterwards. That's actually what happened with my my first
Lucain, too. I haven't ordered many random pets, but, I haven't had bad luck with those, either, and they usually amount to the same as me throwing together colors that I like. They usually work out for me, but there is always the risk of getting something you wont like.
I started basing customs on other things, too, like
Iris, whom is based on an anvil of darkness fragrant tall bearded iris. Aka, an iris that I just happened to think was pretty. Sometimes, I base things on real animals, too, but basing designs on other objects is just as well. If there wasn't already the Mouse Maus pet, I'd have based on a custom on my desktop's
mouse, for example.
When it comes to add-ons, those are usually decided once I've given a pet a character, but not
always. I ordered a Lucain with horns, fangs, a glowing aura, and a cross necklace before, just because I liked those things and thought it would be interesting. His character was decided later.