Ponythread Learns to Draw II

[Madcrafter]

Sorry for leaving you to man the thread on your own again, Madcrafter. I've hit one of those "your brain is incompatible with the chosen activity" periods in regards to art. Just haven't drawn anything mentionable.

And I must say, I really like the way you're doing shading, and drawing with color. Plus your human faces are a lot more believably human than mine. I can never get anything resembling a face unless it's outright cartoonish or simplified to all heck.

Well, I guess I am meant to make sketches after all. :P

I did make one, thanks to a Let's Play of Iji that got me past the block with a very funny line that I just had to draw an alternate-universe followup to.

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So far, nobody I showed it to managed to identify what line the reference was to. :)

Bah, it's fine. Everyone gets them (as this thread can attest ).

That face, you should have seen some of the earlier versions based off the sketch... It took some references before it was morphed into something human looking (shock for some reason had a hard time with the google images, probably should have looked somewhere more specific). Definitely took the longest of the parts of the image, even more than the dress jewels I think. The genie's face is reference free though, but I figured since he's magic and supernatural and all that would be ok. I'm a little curious what Thanqol thinks of their faces since they are his NPCs, and they aren't really what I imagine them to be either.

As always, your robots are pretty cool. What are the crossing arc lines in the sketch supposed to be, or are they just leftovers from an earlier stage?

I would have no idea on the reference either, not terribly surprised there.

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Day 638-41:

Everything in the top half came out good I think. Everything in the bottom half is a mess. Grew tired of it, so it's not getting fixed.

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[Madcrafter]

Day 642:

Bad sketches.

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Day 643:

Beginnings of another picture, based a bit on Forgotten Cities. Though I think it might have been an actual petrified pony, not a statue.

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Day 644-650:

Came out alright I think. Horns could probably use some extra, and the background, maybe the shoulder too. Colours are a little off too, since I forgot to disable the colour change a few times.

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[Artman77]

I think horns and colors are fine. I probably would have gone a little heavier on the shadows under the tail and mane.

[Madcrafter]

Oh, fancy seeing you here. What made you poke your head in? This isn't the most happening of places.

I think horns and colors are fine. I probably would have gone a little heavier on the shadows under the tail and mane.

Oh well, nice of you to say so. The second sentence is about the picture before right? I have a bit of an aversion to more directional light which I should break out of, so it's not particularly surprising. If I ever continue that picture I'll keep that in mind.

[Madcrafter]

Day 651-7:

Another one that was stretching out. After a few days of clouds without too much progress though I think I need to give it a hold and go do some other things, though I do intend to come back to this one and finish it, maybe make it presentable enough to give to the Tea Party. The kind of monolithic colouring I think could be fixed when more a background is added and some more colour comes in, though I'm by no means an expert in that.

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[Thanqol]

Day 651-7:

Another one that was stretching out. After a few days of clouds without too much progress though I think I need to give it a hold and go do some other things, though I do intend to come back to this one and finish it, maybe make it presentable enough to give to the Tea Party. The kind of monolithic colouring I think could be fixed when more a background is added and some more colour comes in, though I'm by no means an expert in that.

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Oh that's looking really cool. I really like the vents. I think that you want to use some really dark magenta, or even red highlights for the clouds for contrast. Make it look a little bit diseased, you know?

[Madcrafter]

Oh that's looking really cool. I really like the vents. I think that you want to use some really dark magenta, or even red highlights for the clouds for contrast. Make it look a little bit diseased, you know?

Diseased eh? Interesting. Could maybe add some holes and little strand-y bits (like in the demons ear in the previous pic) to break up the structure a little more too. I'll keep that suggestion in mind for when I get back to it.

I was thinking of having it strongly back-lit by the sun rising over a mountain range, to add in some yellows, blues and whites as well. The front side should really be a bit darker and less clear, but I have never really been one to put such strong shadows in.

[Madcrafter]

Day 658:

Coke and Rust. Based on a thing I found on DeviantArt. Looking to do more of these to get more comfortable with different materials. I actually really like how I could do more "messy" stuff with this. Generally my drawings are super edited and refined at a very fine level, which is very time consuming and unnecessary, but a bit of a side effect of my own personality. I really want to be able to work a bit more freely and this will hopefully help with that too, as well as texture/more hue variation.

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[Madcrafter]

Day 659:

Ice.

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[Artman77]

Yeah I poke my head in from time to time. Haven't gotten it cut off yet, thankfully. Love what you're doing with the spheres.

[Madcrafter]

Thanks! I found more by different people, seems to be a decently common way of trying out different materials.

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Day 660-2:

Bronze and Bark. Bronze isn't really blue or pitted enough to be truly old, but maybe you can polish it without removing the oxide. I'll admit the time spent on these would not be particularly sustainable on a larger image, so speed is still something to work on.

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[Sean Mirrsen]

Bah, it's fine. Everyone gets them (as this thread can attest ).

That face, you should have seen some of the earlier versions based off the sketch... It took some references before it was morphed into something human looking (shock for some reason had a hard time with the google images, probably should have looked somewhere more specific). Definitely took the longest of the parts of the image, even more than the dress jewels I think. The genie's face is reference free though, but I figured since he's magic and supernatural and all that would be ok. I'm a little curious what Thanqol thinks of their faces since they are his NPCs, and they aren't really what I imagine them to be either.

As always, your robots are pretty cool. What are the crossing arc lines in the sketch supposed to be, or are they just leftovers from an earlier stage?

I would have no idea on the reference either, not terribly surprised there.

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Day 638-41:

Everything in the top half came out good I think. Everything in the bottom half is a mess. Grew tired of it, so it's not getting fixed.

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The various sketch lines are indeed just leftovers from a previous stage. Just me trying to throw together a skybox of sorts. The reference is to a rarely-seen line said by General Tor to Iji when meeting him on a pacifist run, while a secret bonus item called the "Scrambler" is activated.

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The pony's an R-2, btw. NATO reporting name "Sibling". Seemed fitting. :)


And that is some very picturesque scenery partially obstructed by a rather unpicturesque boat. You're right, the top half is very good.

Day 651-7:

Another one that was stretching out. After a few days of clouds without too much progress though I think I need to give it a hold and go do some other things, though I do intend to come back to this one and finish it, maybe make it presentable enough to give to the Tea Party. The kind of monolithic colouring I think could be fixed when more a background is added and some more colour comes in, though I'm by no means an expert in that.

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This, however, I am entirely incapable of identifying. It looks like an electric rock guitar mid-explosion, embedded in and held together by a mass of either chewing gum or cotton candy. :P I can guess it's an airship of some sort, but I can barely tell its bow from its stern, such as it is. It's a little poorly defined.

The various material spheres though, are awesome. Being someone who works almost exclusively with outlines and shapes, I can only marvel at texture work like that. :)


In the meantime, I've been sketching various things. Some changelings, for instance.

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That there is Princess Maxilla, from a game I'm reading. Intended to be a species of changeling one rank lower than a Queen.

And the last three days, I've spent drawing this thing, which hopefully looks good so far. I'm becoming less and less certain that I will eventually color and shade it.

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So many fiddly little details... ._.

[Madcrafter]

The various sketch lines are indeed just leftovers from a previous stage. Just me trying to throw together a skybox of sorts. The reference is to a rarely-seen line said by General Tor to Iji when meeting him on a pacifist run, while a secret bonus item called the "Scrambler" is activated.

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The pony's an R-2, btw. NATO reporting name "Sibling". Seemed fitting. :)

Err, yes. I am completely not surprised that no one got that reference.

This, however, I am entirely incapable of identifying. It looks like an electric rock guitar mid-explosion, embedded in and held together by a mass of either chewing gum or cotton candy. :P I can guess it's an airship of some sort, but I can barely tell its bow from its stern, such as it is. It's a little poorly defined.

A flying pegasus military base actually, the clouds of which have been "infected" by necromantic pink cloud, from Thanqol's Tea Party PbP game. My references for this:

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The shield impacted against the wind, and everypony hurried to shelter behind it.

The storm wall proper didn't start until a few feet above everypony's head, at the top of the ravine. If it was hitting them proper there'd be nothing to it - that was a wall of solid wind, fast enough to toss ponies miles in any direction. And it wasn't just wind - it was thick with a pink, treacly substance that made the air hang low and heavy, and soaked into the shield, clinging to it like cotton candy.

And then the whole, immense thing passed overhead.

Lightning shattered and roared. Light so bright burned after-images on the back of every retina. There was screeching from the burned, charred wreckage of the Tatzlwurms. Columns of razor-blue light lanced the stone pillars, melting them into slag and boiling the eggs inside.

Then, the onslaught ceased. The blue sky opened up spectacularly overhead. The howling of the wind ceased to nothing more than a murmur.

And an enormous thunderhead cloud blocked out the sun.

It was made of clouds and steel, and hung heavy with a thick, pink mist - like gaseous cotton candy. It was armed with huge cannons of coherent light and banks of heavy back stormclouds. Massive glowing projectors pushed out the enormous whirlwind in all directions, shielding the base from the outside world with walls of wind. Lines of nauseatingly pink mist oozed from the sky-castle and were sucked into the whirlwind, giving it its unnatural pink hue but preventing it from spreading any further.

It was a city of the sky - a pegasus military base, back from the time before the War. And it was run through with the Pink Cloud, the Alicorn Slaying Poison. Its flags still hung, violet and green, marked with lightning bolts as sharp as the day they were first struck.

It had just made the most grandiose entry possible, and anything less would have been an insult to the traditions of the Ministry of Awesome.

And the map

The various material spheres though, are awesome. Being someone who works almost exclusively with outlines and shapes, I can only marvel at texture work like that. :)

Thanks. You should give it a try sometime, it's pretty neat.

In the meantime, I've been sketching various things. Some changelings, for instance.

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That there is Princess Maxilla, from a game I'm reading. Intended to be a species of changeling one rank lower than a Queen.

These look very chitinous. Is that armour, or just skin for this species?

And the last three days, I've spent drawing this thing, which hopefully looks good so far. I'm becoming less and less certain that I will eventually color and shade it.

Do eet, it does look cool. The angle of the sword blade looks a little off perhaps though.

I'd be tempted to colour it myself if I wasn't already engaged in enough projects. And if I had any idea what colour the different parts were supposed to be.

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Day 663-4:

This one is not so hot, crystal isn't my forte obviously. Would probably look fine shrunk down a bit, but it wouldn't be the most efficient use of time.

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[Thanqol]

And the last three days, I've spent drawing this thing, which hopefully looks good so far. I'm becoming less and less certain that I will eventually color and shade it.

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So many fiddly little details... ._.

If you don't feel like colouring it I'd be happy to give it a shot. Send me a high resolution PNG when you're done the linework if you feel like.

[Sean Mirrsen]

If you don't feel like colouring it I'd be happy to give it a shot. Send me a high resolution PNG when you're done the linework if you feel like.

I would definitely be fine with you having a go at coloring it, you're certainly better than me at it. :P

However, I would like to give it the good ol' college try myself first. Or at the very least, I'd like to block in the flat colors so you don't have to guess which part of which machine is where. :P

In the meantime, I'd like some feedback, if at all possible.

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The longer I look at it, the less I am certain that the whip on the left arm is complementing the picture well enough. However the only two other things I can think of, a shield and a drill, (Rarity/White Ranger's mech has shapeshifting "hair") will probably fit even worse. Would anything else work, or should I just go with the whip?

And likewise, the longer I look at the sword, the more I am sure that it's hilariously undersized. And that it looks a little too bland. Any opinions on either? I'd like it to be something like a typical Power Rangers Megazord sword, which is most often something the size of a claymore.

Many thanks in advance. :)

[Thanqol]

I would definitely be fine with you having a go at coloring it, you're certainly better than me at it. :P

However, I would like to give it the good ol' college try myself first. Or at the very least, I'd like to block in the flat colors so you don't have to guess which part of which machine is where. :P

Sure thing, if it's just shading and detailing that's easy.

In the meantime, I'd like some feedback, if at all possible.

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The longer I look at it, the less I am certain that the whip on the left arm is complementing the picture well enough. However the only two other things I can think of, a shield and a drill, (Rarity/White Ranger's mech has shapeshifting "hair") will probably fit even worse. Would anything else work, or should I just go with the whip?

And likewise, the longer I look at the sword, the more I am sure that it's hilariously undersized. And that it looks a little too bland. Any opinions on either? I'd like it to be something like a typical Power Rangers Megazord sword, which is most often something the size of a claymore.

Many thanks in advance. :)

I don't have the brain to try to redline this right now so I'll just use my words.

The first thing I am thinking when looking at this is that you want to have a clear line of action. I'm thinking it's the horizontal line from the figure's left shoulder to the sword tip. I think the angle of the sword ruins that line due to its slight incline and that's the core of the issue with the sword. I'd advise changing the angle, maybe putting it more into perspective.

Alternately, put the sword in the left hand. Have the right hand out, palm open, in a blocking gesure or that palm-up come-closer gesture martial artists sometimes do in movies. I think that would do a better job of drawing the eye to the centre point of the picture, which in this case is the hand. The sword goes all the way to the left hand frame which means we're not looking at it's tip, we're looking at where the sword meets the hand. I think this would be the better move.

[Sean Mirrsen]

Alternately, put the sword in the left hand. Have the right hand out, palm open, in a blocking gesure or that palm-up come-closer gesture martial artists sometimes do in movies. I think that would do a better job of drawing the eye to the centre point of the picture, which in this case is the hand. The sword goes all the way to the left hand frame which means we're not looking at it's tip, we're looking at where the sword meets the hand. I think this would be the better move.

Hmm. That actually sounds like it would work. I think I'll try it out. Thanks! ^_^

As a secondary idea, the right arm is the AJ arm, and it could be aiming its twin cannons instead of doing any sort of gesture. I'm going to try it out as a variant as well.

[Madcrafter]

Day 665-9:

More orbs. First two are bleh, last one came out ok.

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[Madcrafter]

Day 670-8:

Gah, I hate feathers. I can also see how this business can get tiring, I'm itching to do something else that isn't a ball.

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[Madcrafter]

Day 679-80:

Last of these for now, they are tiring when I'm so slow at doing them. Soap bubble.

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The full set:

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Day 681:

Just a bad sketch, nothing to see here.

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And a WIP of what I'm working on now. Not set on colours yet, but blue and white is working for the moment. If anyone has a better idea I'm all ears.

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[Aotrs Commander]

If I might interject for a moment...?

After posting this on the main ponythread, I suddenly remembered we actually have, like, this thread and figured it might be an idea to post here, too, so forgive me for cross-posting. (It's not like I commit art very often (in the manner other people would commit a crime...) so I forget these things...

This is attempt two at cover at for my new story.

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(Also, for those of you who saw my prior attempt, notably Twilight now looks MUCH less like a duck...!)

Before I go and do much more (though I can start some of the tidying on Caddy and the alphyn, prior to adding some colour), does Twilight's head look reasonably the right sort of size compared to Cadance's head? (Doesn't have to be exact, but obviously it needs to look like Twilight is not standing miles away or had shrunk or something. I think seems about right, but a second (or third, or forth!) opinion would not hurt.)


Edit: Digo said it looked about right, so I figured that was close enough! Full version...

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[Madcrafter]

Unfortunately as you may have noticed, this thread isn't exactly a happening place. It's moved about two pages in the last year.

You'll probably be fine with that, especially since fimfic cover images are really tiny as far as I remember. Shrunk down, everything looks ok. For that reason, if I had to give one area to improve, it would probably be the background, those spray bottle splotches are still really noticeable.

[Derjuin]

Welcome Commander!

I think Digo is right, in that Twilight seems to be about the right size for where you want her.

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*Cadance's left eye is showing a bit too much pupil and iris; they should probably be a little larger, to match the scale of her right eye (Note that all mentions of left and right eye are from the pony's perspective)
*Both ponies' ears are too small, they should be larger than their eyes while open (like this
*Twilight's eye lights are too small, and she should have 3 eyelashes on the top and bottom of her eye (for a squinty angry face, they can be positioned like this)
*Pony eyes always remain relatively round-ish, and the interior curve of Twilight's right eye should actually be the opposite, so that it remains looking like a circle

Some things about the monster (feel free to ignore these if you are going for more of a heraldic look, like a painting-come-to-life or something rather than a flesh and blood monster):

*The alphyn's other eye (the one away from us) looks like it is painted on, rather than being in a socket on its skull
*The teeth behind its fangs look a little awkward; for jagged teeth, you can use a curvy zig-zag line and a background to imply the presence of clenched teeth, or for flats, you can use the method Unicorn Twilight is sporting in the ear example

[Aotrs Commander]

Yes, that didn't work as well as it might. I was attempting to manage the wargaming painting/CAD model adage that untextured blank space is highly noticable. I was hoping that I might be ablt to just mist it (like I would a model with a can of spray paint) and just take the edge off, but it didn't quite work. (And PSP through a wobbly a couple of times in the undo for some reason.)

If I knew more what I was doing, I have done the background in some sort of clever masked layer or something, but that's beyond me. (I could have fixed it, but that would have taken way more time.)

Unlive and learn, as they say.

Welcome Commander!

I think Digo is right, in that Twilight seems to be about the right size for where you want her.

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*Cadance's left eye is showing a bit too much pupil and iris; they should probably be a little larger, to match the scale of her right eye (Note that all mentions of left and right eye are from the pony's perspective)
*Both ponies' ears are too small, they should be larger than their eyes while open (like this
*Twilight's eye lights are too small, and she should have 3 eyelashes on the top and bottom of her eye (for a squinty angry face, they can be positioned like this)
*Pony eyes always remain relatively round-ish, and the interior curve of Twilight's right eye should actually be the opposite, so that it remains looking like a circle

Some things about the monster (feel free to ignore these if you are going for more of a heraldic look, like a painting-come-to-life or something rather than a flesh and blood monster):

*The alphyn's other eye (the one away from us) looks like it is painted on, rather than being in a socket on its skull
*The teeth behind its fangs look a little awkward; for jagged teeth, you can use a curvy zig-zag line and a background to imply the presence of clenched teeth, or for flats, you can use the method Unicorn Twilight is sporting in the ear example

So noted, for future reference. (Story is now submitted and on way to publishing not anyway!)

On Twilight's eyelashes, that was me copying the image I was working from (damned if I can find that now), which didn't show all of them (angle maybe? I'm 98% sure it was a show screencap).

Considering alphyns are a heradlic animal, I think that's sort okay...!

[Madcrafter]

Oh, can you not edit the cover photo once it's up? That seems strange.

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Day 682-91:

Cadance in armour. It's a bit wonky in parts, attesting to it's show style origins in the original linework, like the head (also, that expression ). The armour on the left foreleg is also misshapen but eh. Thought about doing the wing outside the cloak, as I think it would be in reality, but as shown above, I don't like feathers, and it was already going a bit long. Learning to hair still on the todo.

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[DigoDragon]

Thought about doing the wing outside the cloak, as I think it would be in reality, but as shown above, I don't like feathers, and it was already going a bit long.

Could use a few bumps/folds under the cloak then, so that you can tell there are wings underneath.

[Madcrafter]

Could use a few bumps/folds under the cloak then, so that you can tell there are wings underneath.

There actually is, but the contrast is not high enough/picture shrunk too much for them to be very visible.

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Day 692:

Just hangin'.

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Day 693-5:

A squire on his vigil. Canned because it wan't really going anywhere, just look how stiff that poor dude is from kneeling all night.

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Day 696-7:

He's a mad, mad man. This one reveals quite a lot more unpleasant thing then I'd like about missing skills.

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[Madcrafter]

Day 698-9:

Just another head, this one came out a bit of a biker or something.

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Day 700-1:

Nothing special for 700, just a Combine soldier.

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[Bayar]

Unfortunately as you may have noticed, this thread isn't exactly a happening place. It's moved about two pages in the last year.

Aww boo, we should probably fix that.

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Will probably draw more once night shifts become a thing again.

[DigoDragon]

I can never get a "diving for cover" pose quite right with ponies.

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