RWBY OC GUIDELINES AND TIPS

(3) Physical Appearance

While RWBY is considered an American anime, it is still an anime. Meaning some things such as appearance can be really weird! Hair, eyes, magic, you name it. Of course, RWBY is based off of some realism so there are limits, but I'll show those boundaries.

Hair
Whoosh, the most representative part of someone. Well, I don't think it is the most representative, but you know what I mean. In RWBY, both natural and unnatural hair colours are shown. Honestly, the unnatural hair colours were more uncommon, so I just want to say, be wary of that! Don't make your OC just...half short have long, curly, braided pink and red hair. The only unnatural hair colours I can think of weren't just "BOOM, SO SPECIAL". They were relevant to the character and subtle. I recommend using more natural looking hair colours, but dyed unnatural hair is great too. Yes there is unnatural hair colours in RWBY but make it subtle and not super special if you do decide to use it.
Also, white hair is mainly a Schnee family thing so try to avoid it.

Eyes
Yang quite obviously has odd eyes. Lilac that turns red when she's angry. And Neo can change her eyes too. Ruby also has Silver Eyes. Eyes are known to be unnatural in RWBY and said to be the window to the soul in common culture, so have fun with it but again, keep it subtle. Your OC's eyes shouldn't be "speciallllll" just because you can make them as such. Again, everything in RWBY has a purpose and meaning, and it's subtle! Despite Yang's weird eyes, they aren't flamboyant. Neither are Ruby's! Calm down with the eyes, and don't make them a "pOW OH SO SPECIAL".
Silver Eyes - No. This is incredibly rare, so I do not recommend it. It can be pulled off, possibly, but for now not much about these eyes are known so it is discouraged to use for OCs.
Red Eyes - Sure. Just don't make it edgy.
Purple Eyes - Again, it's fine if it's not supposed to be super special or something.
Black Eyes - Same with red eyes.
Colour Changing Eyes - One word. No.
Heterochromia - Heterochromia is 2 differently coloured eyes. I mean...sure? It is ridiculously and painfully cliché, not allowing you to show any originality. If you want someone to automatically think your OC is a Mary Sue/Gary Stu, which it likely will be, then don't do this either. If you do, at least don't make it like one green eye and one yellow eye. At least make them normal, non-clashing shades of just one dark brown eye and one light brown eye. Differing shades and natural colours are recommended if you must use heterochromia. And know the name for it. Maybe do some research too.
Other Eyes - Natural eyes are highly recommended, they're almost rare in OCs now. Go ahead! Other eyes are fine too if other advice form above is followed.

Height
Stop with the short girls and overly tall and muscular males. It's cliché. Not everyone is short, okay?!?! It's tiring to see OCs constantly being "special" and short, like 5"3 to even 4"10. Just stop. It's fine to have short characters, I do, but it's kinda overused. Use it well if you choose to. And makes aren't always tall. They can be short too, or average!

Skin
There's hardly any diversity among OCs anymore. If someone tries to use diversity, it's usually just still a white person. Yes, any diversity is amazing but try switching up the skin tone from just...
Pale. Fair. Tan.
What about coffee brown? How about uneven complexions? Acne???? C'mon I know it's anime but skin should be diverse. If everyone in the world had one to three types of skin, it'd be boring. Mix it up, don't be afraid of the fact that other skin colours and types exist.

Thanks for reading, sorry it's been a while. I'm going to be doing reviews now, so check the next chapter out and feel free to send in forms! I've done reviews for different fandoms before so I have experience, so I'll try to put you in a good spot.