![That face when you find something hard and crunchy, in a food that should not be hard and crunchy.
What do you do when you have trouble with certain areas in art? Draw more of it! Heh… hopefully this turned out okay. Again, for those who are interested in my ramblings, more after the break!
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In this picture, I tried to tackle my biggest problem areas: Eyes, mouth, hair, ears, muzzle, teeth… maybe I should just say “the head in general.” Again, much thanks to the work of SBsMinifridge, where I got pretty much all references. I wasn’t able to dig through and find any of this expression, but the references really helped with the eyes and such… which I hope I got right.
Obviously, there’s a lot of difference between me, and artists who look like they had an Inkject Printer as one or both parents. Also, I think I’m going to start calling myself leadhand. Did you know that skin makes a very effective eraser? Ugh… I think I ended up with more lead on my hand than on the paper. However, all comments aside…
Some things I learned about drawing hair with this image.
First, don’t over-complicate it! If I’m struggling with hair, that may be part of the issue. I tend to see hair as a detailed, complex thing, and it is. But if I start out too detailed, I’ll probably get lost. Starting with large, basic shapes, then going back and adding details like locks and things, makes things much easier, and actually helps adding the details themselves easier. I’m sure someone could still do a much better job on hair than me but, this at least helped me get through the picture.
Second, always pay attention to where the hair is coming from on the skull/neck. While I might not be drawing hair roots, knowing where the hair is coming from on the head helps me draw much more realistic and natural-looking hair. Just drawing locks every which way doesn’t really work. At least not in the hairstyle I was attempting. The first time through he looked more like someone had shampooed his head and given him a terrible spike-job. That’s fun, when you’re alone in the bathroom with a mirror - not so much in art.
The eyes… well… I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what I learned about eyes. I spent a long, long time trying to get them right. I never realized how much harder eyes are to draw with irises rather than the blank circles. I just kept redrawing them over and over till I got to a point of “Well… it doesn’t look weird anymore…” However, one thing I did note was how the bridge of the muzzle cuts over the eye on the opposite side of the face. When drawing the eyes, it’s still helpful to remember that in “reality” both eyes are the same size, even though the perspective of one is skewed. Also, remembering there are cheek muscles/bones underneath the eyes can help add a little shape…
It probably doesn’t need to be said, but I really have no idea what I’m talking about, and I’m probably still getting things wrong. What I’m stating here are my own observations from drawing, methods and things I noticed that helped me get a picture that I didn’t feel was… horribly bad. So, please don’t take any of this as me thinking or saying “I’m all that! You gotta listen to me! I drew a picture!” In fact, if I’m getting stuff wrong, please correct me. I’d be more than happy to improve myself and learn. Consider these sketches just my personal journal as I draw to draw new things.
And yes, this picture was inspired by a recent event. Also, for the friend who wanted me to draw a stag… I’m sorry - I will try that, but I’m not sure how soon. I’m still learning, I’m not a professional, and the most extensive art class I’ve ever taken was drawing boxes and a lamp on a table, so please bear with me. I’m still learning, hoping to improve.
Closing notes: I really need to start pricing Cintiqs on ebay or something. Once I can afford one, I’m getting one. If anyone knows a good screen-tablet with pressure sensitivity that’s cheaper than a cintiq, feel free to let me know.
Oh, and yes, this picture did take me an inordinately long time. Actually, I think it took longer than any of my pony sketches so far. Don’t be fooled, I didn’t sketch this up in 15 minutes or anything. Actually, it took me about 4 hours.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4k90cTE511r6iybko1_500.png)
That face when you find something hard and crunchy, in a food that should not be hard and crunchy.
What do you do when you have trouble with certain areas in art? Draw more of it! Heh… hopefully this turned out okay. Again, for those who are interested in my ramblings, more after the break!
![Ooops… I Arted Again…
I’m sorry. The reference was just too easy.
Though, give me some credit. It isn’t easy to make a reference to a Britney Spears song and nefarious bodily functions in a single sentence. All jokes aside, my apologies to those who are following me for stories, and are getting amateur-sketches instead. I promise I do have stories in the works.
For those interested in my self-analysis ramblings, more below the break!
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Welcome to the rambling of a person trying to learn the art of drawing!
Yes, I drew a sheath. Honest-to-goodness truth is that it was in some of the horse photo references, and I’ve seen a few artists include it, so I figured, “Why not?” I won’t be doing it in all of my pictures, I just wanted to try it to see how it came out. I consider this the pony version of a “tasteful nude” image. Even though… you know… they’re already all naked. Anyway.
So, this is my third attempt at drawing in 3 days. I can’t begin to tell you how unusual this is for me. Normally, I draw literally… once a year or so. And I’ve been enjoying it, aside from the fact that my eraser is not really erasing anymore. In fact, I had to clean up all of the ghost-lines from mess-ups and corrections before I posted it. Before that, it looked like one big pencil-smudge with lines in it.
Problem areas: The eyes, the ears and the mouth especially. They were very difficult and I’m still not entirely convinced I got them right. Another problem area was the entire back-side. When I first drew this fellow, his body looked more like stretched taffy, so I basically had to erase the entire hindquarters and hind legs and do them all over again. Still, I’d like to think it didn’t turn out too badly.
Areas I suspect I may have gone wrong but I’m not sure are the joints in the forelegs. The back legs, for some reason, are actually fairly easy for me, though it could be I just don’t know enough to recognize what I did wrong. And of course, the hair. I am still bad at hair. I’m going to have to scour my reference folder - which I might as well rename “SB-Minifridge Sketches” - to see how hair can be done in different ways, properly, especially around the ears.
I’ve been getting some input from people who are far better at art than me, and in this picture, I’ve been trying to correct some problems in both of my previous pictures. One main area being the belly/chest. It’s a little less concave and a bit more true to life.
I’d like to think I did a passable job on the head perspective. I really didn’t want to settle for a simple profile view, even if I crash-landed in attempting to draw a turned horse head. I think I may have sat the head too far up on the neck, but maybe not - at least his head isn’t too over-sized like it was in my previous image.
Generally speaking, I think I’m still struggling with style - and I don’t mean I’m actively seeking a style yet, I just mean that I run into the trouble of trying to blend too many MLP elements with too many RL elements. I love show-style drawings, but what I see in my mind tends to be more realistic. I’ve had one or two people tell me I need to go one way or the other, so, if I do more drawing - which, well, going by trend, I’ll probably try to - then I’m going to shoot for cartoony realistic, as that’s really the style I enjoy most.
I don’t like to think that I’m “cheating” on joint structure by using MLP’s fairly straight-lined limb style. I do have a general idea of where everything goes because I remember the horse’s skeletal structure, and correlating it with the human skeletal structure helps with that some. Nonetheless, I want to become a lot more confident in it, so that I can draw something and not be constantly going by “Well, it looks okay…” as a gauge of correctness.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4iakl7man1r6iybko1_r1_500.png)
Ooops… I Arted Again…
I’m sorry. The reference was just too easy.
Though, give me some credit. It isn’t easy to make a reference to a Britney Spears song and nefarious bodily functions in a single sentence. All jokes aside, my apologies to those who are following me for stories, and are getting amateur-sketches instead. I promise I do have stories in the works.
For those interested in my self-analysis ramblings, more below the break!
![Excuse Me, I Arted
Alright, maybe that’s a little crass.
I actually call this sketch, “Mortil, the Ill-Conceived”
More Below the Break!
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And I’m sorry! I know I said I wouldn’t do this very often. However, I got hit with a little arting inspiration, thanks to some friends of mine. But, obviously, instead of using SAI this time, I went with my mechanical pencil and paper. You have no idea how much I want a cintiq right now.
Nevertheless! Points of interest: I did this without references! At all! I didn’t even peek! Granted, I was still inspired by memories of the sketches of SBMinifridge, and my right hand is now covered in pencil-lead from all the erasures, but I still managed to do this on my own! And… more expert and trained eyes than my own can probably tell, because I’m sure there are a dozen or so proportion problems.
This took me several hours to actually finish, and then scan, because apparently our wireless network scanner does not like my computer. So I had to go and ask my old scanner to do the job for me, which it did quite quickly.
Assegai suggested that I try for a more show-style look, which is actually what I was intending with my first picture but didn’t pull off very well. So, I tried harder for that look in this one. Also, I did manage to produce something that looks like hair… or, possibly fire, if you look at it the right way. I’m actually quite proud I was able to produce something that didn’t bear any resemblance to an ameoba.
I really wanted to make this guy a pegasus but… well, since it was paper, I didn’t have the luxury of working with layers, and I really, really, really didn’t want to mess up the lines I had worked so hard on with this guy. Still, my thanks to the friends (you know who you are) who pushed me to draw more. This was fun… even if kind of frustrating. Thank the heavens for those squishy gray erasers that double as play-dough and stress-balls.
What is he? Well, we’ll say he’s a (single, coltcuddle-able, available and charming) guard named… Flare. He’s dancing, off-duty, at some fun pony club. Whatever music he’s listening to, he’s certainly getting into it. But hey, if you like the image, feel free to fill in the blanks! Who knows, I might even attempt vectoring and coloring this at some point. Though… I dunno, I wouldn’t want it to turn out looking like my previous attempts…
In drawing this, I learned that drawing itself is an extremely confusing experience. I can’t tell you how many times I flipflopped between being totally clueless as to what to do or how to draw some various aspect of the anatomy, and suddenly noticing where a line might look good. “I can draw! No I can’t. Yes I can! Wait… it’s gone again. There it is! What was I doing?” I even forgot how to draw eyes at one point, which ended up being a single line…
Have I mentioned my true special talent is being a windbag?](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4g6h5dTUd1r6iybko1_r2_500.png)
Excuse Me, I Arted
Alright, maybe that’s a little crass.
I actually call this sketch, “Mortil, the Ill-Conceived”
More Below the Break!
No Butterscotch! No! Why are you doing this to us? AUGH!
Don’t worry, I won’t be doing this too often. However, I decided to invest in SAI, and this is my first pony sketch attempt. Why is his hair and tail the cheapest, easiest design? Because I very quickly learned that I stink at drawing hair - more than I stink at drawing in general. Obviously, I’m an amateur when it comes to pony anatomy. Please forgive my proportions, I’m kinda new at this.
Anyway, this is done using references from SBMinifridge, who I think is wonderful. I see his art sketches all the time and am inspired to draw. I decided for once I would actually fulfill that desire, as hard as it is to do. Practice makes passable! I actually love drawing, but rarely do it, and generally I’m more comfortable with a pencil and paper but… ah well. It’s much easier to erase things in SAI.
Sadly though, I have no pressure sensitivity, so if the lines look bad, yeah, that’s why. I have one reason to be proud of his picture. I did not trace anything! This was all done by hand, only looking at references for where joints were and how muscles ought to be, etc.
And as a final l note for those of you who might think otherwise. That blue thing underneath him is his leg, it is not anything else.
On the roadside of some distant country, following the events of the wedding…
Just as a note, this is Not my art - The only thing I can take credit for is changing the text under the heart, which originally just said “anon~”.
Every time I saw this picture, I couldn’t help but hear the words “will work for food” in my head. So I gave into my photoshop temptations and changed the text to what you see.
With some searching, I discovered that the artist of the original is applesarcum! Many kudos for a great image!
(original image) http://fav.me/d4xe7p3
I mentioned the other day that I had just finished a very long story. Well, it’s done, and currently on FimFiction. It is, again, a different kind of story. It’s tagged [Dark] but don’t let that scare you. It contains some darker elements, but it isn’t grimdark. [Alternate Universe] is another tag, but unlike “A Love Letter,” you’ll find this world is very much Equestrian, aside from its more serious themes.
It also contains coltcuddlers, and while the main plot of the story doesn’t revolve around that, homosexual relationships are prominent. So, for those of you who aren’t into that, please take that into account when deciding whether or not to read.
It’s also an odd story in that it had a very strange genesis: A facetious comment from the Ask-A-Pre-Reader thread on ponychan/fic/. I read the comment about the scenario, and for some reason, my muses in their usual fickle, finicky manner, took an interest. For the next several days I found myself compulsively writing and rewriting. Here’s hoping that the story which came out of it is worth the time reading.
The image is the cover-art, which may change if I edit it/fix it up more. I couldn’t afford a commission this time around, so I decided to try my hand at making my own. It’s the result of 2 days worth of work just in itself. It’s not the best, but, it turned out better than I expected. My apologies to the more art-inclined of my followers if your eyes burn, hehe. I’m an amateur, and I’m sure there are a dozen and one things wrong with it.
Thank you all for being patient with me and watching my work. I really do appreciate each of you.
I am not under any delusions whatsoever of being an “artist.” This is rough, it’s incomplete (at best), and it took me forever. This was drawn on a Viliv S7, which is kind of like a miniature tablet computer. Sadly, it does not have pressure sensitivity (and it shows). Don’t look too close or you’ll see the plethora of errors I left in there. I’m still a beginner when it comes to lighting and shading and everything. That being said, I sat down tonight and thought, “I want to draw a pony.” And I did. Or at least I tried. This is the result - maybe someday I’ll get better! Now you have to ask yourself, what is he watching?
“…..do you see it?”