As an artist you must be prolific. You must keep on creating new characters. That is the only way you could improve your skills. You could use someone else's idea and turn it into yours. For example: I draw characters that I see. Most characters that I drew are from TV shows. The thing is that I do not draw it exactly as it is. I change the hair style, the eyes, mouth etc... I do that only to be unique. I feel much more better when there is a piece of me. When your work has something unique in it, people appreciate it better. They will see something that they have not seen before. Some people can create characters by only thinking of them