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Mmm, one issue seems to be that although your light source (the setting sun) is more or less directly behind the figure, the shading suggests light from the upper left of the picture. There probably should be some crest highlights, but you might need to move them around some, if that makes sense.
I think I know what you mean, but I'm not entirely what I need to do. Also, I was trying to factor in the lantern as a light source too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by the_druid_droid
Still seeing improvement in these; keep it up! A couple suggestions: 1.) Look for some higher-quality (and larger) images; if your photo is blurry, the finished drawing will be iffy too, because you're stuck making so much up to fill in the gaps. 2.) A whole lot of the face (and body forms as well) is defined not just by lines, but by light and shadow; try to find some references with a good, strong light source and then use shading to help tell the story the lines are working toward.
Alright, I'll give that a go soon. Thanks.
__________________
Just call me Diego. Mr. Havoc was my father.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiuiS
Diego Havoc, one of the hoopier froods I've met, up there with DeLancie.
Another note, Diego - and anyone else who's curious - is that linework looks incredibly flat all the time. You need shading to add curvature. I'll illustrate with a commission I had done by the lovely Kojiro:
Notice how flat the linework is compared to the sketch. I've found that extremely rough sketching with a 50% density pencil actually works well for getting things look natural and curved. And without shading, see how flat the colour work looks. Maybe seeing the stages of this will help you
When linework isn't done in uniform lines, it actually manages to look rather well. A sketch certainly has its share of "sketch-shading", but when linework properly emphasizes surface edges with different-thickness lines, it looks fine too.
I still prefer sketches though.
No new thing today yet, just finished the Kira Darkclaw pic. For a given value of "finished", since I'm still no good at large backgrounds. Oh well.
Notice how flat the linework is compared to the sketch. I've found that extremely rough sketching with a 50% density pencil actually works well for getting things look natural and curved. And without shading, see how flat the colour work looks. Maybe seeing the stages of this will help you
Yeah, I see what you mean. I'm not really used to drawing in that sketchy style though. That's something else I'll have to practice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Mirrsen
No new thing today yet, just finished the Kira Darkclaw pic. For a given value of "finished", since I'm still no good at large backgrounds. Oh well.
That's a great looking pic, Sean! (P.S. Have you ditched the heal/hurt game altogether now?)
Day 152. Took another crack at shading that picture.
Spoiler
And since I didn't feel that was enough, I also did a quick Apple Bloom.
Spoiler
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that doing my lineart directly on the sketch layer leaves me with lots of tedious erasing of lines later on.
Your loving admirer,
Diego Havoc
Ack! That belly. What did I do? D:
Also, flat snout is wrong, but kinda cute.
__________________
Just call me Diego. Mr. Havoc was my father.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SiuiS
Diego Havoc, one of the hoopier froods I've met, up there with DeLancie.
Yeah, I see what you mean. I'm not really used to drawing in that sketchy style though. That's something else I'll have to practice.
That's a great looking pic, Sean! (P.S. Have you ditched the heal/hurt game altogether now?)
Day 152. Took another crack at shading that picture.
Spoiler
And since I didn't feel that was enough, I also did a quick Apple Bloom.
Spoiler
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that doing my lineart directly on the sketch layer leaves me with lots of tedious erasing of lines later on.
Your loving admirer,
Diego Havoc
Ack! That belly. What did I do? D:
Also, flat snout is wrong, but kinda cute.
Hmm, I think the shading looks better, although my one issue is that because the flame in the lantern is so small, its light seems to have a disproportionate effect on the highlights compared to the bright setting sun which is right at our eye level.
__________________ I never saw an ugly thing in my life - John Constable
Hm. I've hit a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, I should post the thing I made today as proof that I made it. On the other hand, what I've made today isn't something I should be posting, let along making. The options seem to be to either post it anyway, or quickly cook up something innocent-looking and post that.
It's... not any worse than the Cherry Pop image I posted (speaking of, here's some more cherry pop), but I somehow don't think it's something I should be proud of doing.
Besides, I'd prefer not to post it until the whole series is done. :P
edit: @Diego Havoc: I think the picture looks pretty good right now. You should probably submit it already, the deadline's practically here.
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Last edited by Sean Mirrsen : 06-01-2012 at 01:20 PM.
Hmm, I think the shading looks better, although my one issue is that because the flame in the lantern is so small, its light seems to have a disproportionate effect on the highlights compared to the bright setting sun which is right at our eye level.
Yeah, true, but I think it's good enough now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Mirrsen
Hm. I've hit a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, I should post the thing I made today as proof that I made it. On the other hand, what I've made today isn't something I should be posting, let along making. The options seem to be to either post it anyway, or quickly cook up something innocent-looking and post that.
Ah, don't feel like you have to proove it that you made it. We'll believe you. You can post it whenever your series is done (whatever that is).
Hmm, I don't really get a feeling that you have a defined light source in the picture. First thing to do is work that out, then try and decide how that light will fall on the shapes of the face.
In that regard, I found this tutorial somewhat enlightening.
Thanks for the link! Well, the light's (just one light) supposedly roughly coming from around above the viewer, I guess, with the very little shading put in, idk, but yeah it's not really definitive. It's scrapped now though :O
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diego Havoc
You're saying I should shorten the far legs, right?
Well, not just that because if you do just that it'll look wonky weird with wrong proportions!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diego Havoc
Day 151. Didn't feel like working on the Flicker pic, so I did another human face.
Spoiler
I think I made him look a little too fat and a little too sad. Sorry random guy whose picture I found somewhere on the internet!
The things the_druid_droid said, except for the seeing improvement part (because I didn't read through entire thread, not because I think you haven't improved)! Myself, I've been trying without success to sketch people from photographs myself and I am such a terrible failure at it though; at least you're making an effort, and that puts you many steps ahead of me!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diego Havoc
Day 152. Took another crack at shading that picture.
Spoiler
I think at this point it'll be easier to readjust the background than the figure though! With a little redrawing of the road and some contour-implying shadows, then angle that lantern pony's standing in won't be so weird!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diego Havoc
And since I didn't feel that was enough, I also did a quick Apple Bloom.
Spoiler
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that doing my lineart directly on the sketch layer leaves me with lots of tedious erasing of lines later on.
Your loving admirer,
Diego Havoc
Ack! That belly. What did I do? D:
Also, flat snout is wrong, but kinda cute.
While the ponies have huge eyes, I don't think they're ever drawn quite as bug-eyed; usually it's just front view, one eye at an angle, or just side-viewed (and only one eye is visible).
---
and much later, started on another:
Spoiler
still WIP ofc. sketched out the general pose I want, but it's obviously quite a bit wrong atm. I'd have to put angel bunny "higher" up decrease the angle between the torse and floor, so that she's supporting her torso with her elbow, and adjust the legs accordingly
the shading with pinkie pie was experimental (who am I kidding, it's almost entirely experimental) and I don't think I'll replicate it entirely with fluttershy
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and later still, did... some things to the pinkie pie one, for someone who wanted it as an avatar on another forum; accidentally exported at a higher ppi but whatevsss
Spoiler
this was just a demo of against black, actual thing was smaller and black area's transparent, though the final one I gave was without the white bordering thing: link
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and today, I tried a quick thing with pressure-for-lineweight off:
it's definitely a bit iffy, but I was more concerned with getting the colors to play nice, though even that's a bit iffy, but I can't get better without making horrid crap first :O it was too ugly, I had to delete it
heh, I'd be quintupleposting at least by now if there weren't an edit button!
Last edited by flyingchicken : 06-03-2012 at 07:37 AM.
Yesterday was busy as all heck, so my new thing for the day had to be reduced to a half-hour sketch. Didn't even have time to post it. Touched it up a little today, here it is:
Spoiler
New thing for today still undecided. Maybe another one of Southern Sky, or maybe Thanqol's Mask in a compromising position of some sort... I don't know yet.
edit: and yes, the edit button is useful. It'd be more useful if editing at least lit up the topic as unread though.
That "nonpressurized" sketch is cute. Something I'd expect to see in a good children's book of some sort, I think. The watercolor face, slightly less so.
edit2: I guess I can post that image I made after all. Who knows if the series is even going to get done.
It's still a colored sketch, so I'm posting a resized version where all the phase one crosshatch isn't quite as visible. I might give it a detail pass later, but don't hold me to that.
(if you want a version without the bows... no such luck for you. :P)
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Last edited by Sean Mirrsen : 06-03-2012 at 02:55 AM.
It's still a colored sketch, so I'm posting a resized version where all the phase one crosshatch isn't quite as visible. I might give it a detail pass later, but don't hold me to that.
(if you want a version without the bows... no such luck for you. :P)
Well, I don't think there'll be more science like that, exactly, but this was supposed to be a part of a series, so there might be more things like that later on.
---------
New (postable) thing for today, prompted by the Ponythread Skype group:
Spoiler
No, I've no idea what Napoleon actually looks like.
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It's still a colored sketch, so I'm posting a resized version where all the phase one crosshatch isn't quite as visible. I might give it a detail pass later, but don't hold me to that.
(if you want a version without the bows... no such luck for you. :P)
I'm having a surprisingly difficult time making that choice; not sure what that says however you want to slice it...
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingchicken
mane6 linearts:
Spoiler
I've been curious - your line art reminds me style-wise of something I've seen before but can't really place. Do you have any big influences in that regard, or have you sort of found your way to the current style via trial and error?
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingchicken
drawing pony-ponies instead of playing d3:
Spoiler
The pony-ponies look solid! I'd be curious to see more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Mirrsen
Well, I don't think there'll be more science like that, exactly, but this was supposed to be a part of a series, so there might be more things like that later on.
---------
New (postable) thing for today, prompted by the Ponythread Skype group:
Spoiler
No, I've no idea what Napoleon actually looks like.
Hmm, is this the Skype group that grew out of the IRC channel? If it is, I really need to get on there sometime... Folks keep having shenanigan-ventures without me.
__________________ I never saw an ugly thing in my life - John Constable
I've been curious - your line art reminds me style-wise of something I've seen before but can't really place. Do you have any big influences in that regard, or have you sort of found your way to the current style via trial and error?
If "people whose styles I've tried to ape at least once" counts as a big influence, then my big influences would be, in chronological order: Bryan Lee O'Malley, specifically the latter three books of Scott Pilgrim; Winston Rowntree, viruscomix; Gabe of Penny Arcade, Penny Arcade strips c. 2010 onwards; Arthur de Pins, illustrations of cartoon orgies; Rob Laro, doodles of nude women; probably a few others. It's not quite artsy-fartsy but hey. I've been compared to Kate Beaton more than once by different people, maybe that's what's on your mind.
Mostly nowadays I just try to do simple figures with vibrant poses, with what I guess I can call my own style, but I don't think I have quite a solid grasp of technical basics yet to even have a proper style.
---
Quote:
Originally Posted by the_druid_droid
The pony-ponies look solid! I'd be curious to see more.
Welp, that's too bad, because I've just been working on coloring in Applejack (again?! :O):
Spoiler
Still a WIP, obviously.
Those colors are actually "artificial" in the sense that I adjusted the sliders a bit to get them (+20 contrast, -2 hue, +5 saturation, +10 lightness in Paint.NET) because I have a terrible eye for picking colors; here's the original. I meant it to be outdoors, and the colors I picked weren't right for it.
...hm, I'm unhappy with the shape of her hair. Oh well!
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and by "oh well" I mean "I should change it to something I like better":
Spoiler
again, still a WIP obvs
Last edited by flyingchicken : 06-05-2012 at 01:03 AM.
^All those drawings look stretched vertically (except for the one you traced). Snake's lower jaw and right side of the face is funked. Big Mac isn't that tiny; speaking of which, it looks like you're finally trying out some degree of line variation (either that or you were too lazy to "fix" it to that horrible single uniform line weight). Do you drink too much coffee or something? Try to do something about the smoothness of your lines.
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took a break from my WIP, did a short strip instead:
Spoiler
Last edited by flyingchicken : 06-06-2012 at 09:09 PM.
Ooh, she is pretty! And she looks a little bit sad too. She could use some belly rubbings to cheer her up :3
Her neck looks a little long to me.
Aye, that's an inevitable side effect. With the semi-realistic-ish proportions I try to go for, I just can't have a long-legged but short-necked pony. I mean, they are grazers originally, they have to be able to reach down a little. With the way their spine is located, their necks should be at least as long as their torso is thick to be in any way anatomically appropriate. That's how it seems to me, at least.
Quote:
---
I've still been drawing, but my heart's not really been in it lately. It'll be obvious from the quality of my art.
I've sort of been feeing that too lately. Maybe it's something in the planets' alignment? :P
Quote:
Day 153. Did some animation work, then scratched out some half-assed pony faces.
Spoiler
Day 154. Also animation, plus some wings.
Spoiler
Day 155. Snake! It's a snake! Oooooh it's a snake!
Spoiler
Yeah, I couldn't be bothered to finish the scales. So sue me.
Day 156. Twilight Sparkle. Had no enthusiasm for this at all.
Spoiler
Day 157. Big Macintosh. Made his head much too large at first, ended up having to scale it down. Male pony proportions still throw me off.
Spoiler
Day 158 (today). Human arm. Attempted some hatching for shading. Don't feel that I learnt much from this though. Ignore the hand.
Spoiler
There aren't many things I can advise you on, because my way of drawing is decidedly my own, and I'm not sure you could apply it even if I described it. Mostly it involves making use of basic knowledge of anatomy and mechanics. Also, thinking in heads for proportions. Some base structural components like the skull, the ribcage and the pelvic area can be defined as circles or near-circular objects of easily comparable size, and then the body outlines can be drawn between those.
If you want to learn how to set up your characters to look like the show designs, you could try starting with drawing character rigs over show screencaps, and then gradually moving from copying the character design over the rig you've drawn to manually replicating the rig elsewhere and redrawing the character then. Sort of tracing by proxy. Make note of how head size correlates to chest and pelvis size of different designs, make note of leg lengths for different designs as well. I did something like that at first too, so maybe it'll help you. Of course, then I moved on to my own designs...
----
So, I haven't been posting here for the last... two days, I think. Been busy, and not in the art-relevant sense either. Still, I did do a few things, even if not all were great.
The day before yesterday, I colored the Fluttershy sketch, and was decidedly unhappy with it.
Spoiler
Needs cleanup. Lots and lots of cleanup. And better shading. I really think I should stick to sketches for the really pretty pictures until I get the hang of the tricky lighting like this.
On that day I also drew the beginnings of RD's picture in the Pony Presents series, but was also rather unhappy with it. Which is why the next day (yesterday), I've redrawn it from scratch.
Spoiler
I tried to color it, but was once again unimpressed (I keep getting RD's color palette wrong if I go by memory..)
Spoiler
And that was that! I'm sort of slowing down, which is to be expected. New thing for today still pending. Let's see if I manage to pull off Rikki-Tikki-'Tavia...
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Yesterday was devoted to trying to do something about the Rainbow Dash pic in the Pony Presents series. A little redline experiment revealed a rather fundamental problem with the proportions, so I'll be abandoning the pic as it is, and redrawing it as something better.
Spoiler
Link
The proportions don't look bad, specifically, just not what I am aiming for. I separated the complete section I'll be redrawing so that it'll be available on its own.
Link
I tried to add a front view to the chart, but either something's fundamentally wrong here, or I am worse at drawing projections than I thought. I lean towards the latter.
Spoiler
Link
It's just nowhere near as pretty as it's supposed to be...
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Last edited by Sean Mirrsen : 06-10-2012 at 12:55 AM.
Sean (and everyone else in this thread) could you post links to your pictures rather than embeds? I don't have a 4000px monitor so every time I open one of your spoilers I stand a chance of having to scroll to the left to close it and then open it in a new tab where I can view it properly. The annoyance makes me less likely to check art here at all.
Sean (and everyone else in this thread) could you post links to your pictures rather than embeds? I don't have a 4000px monitor so every time I open one of your spoilers I stand a chance of having to scroll to the left to close it and then open it in a new tab where I can view it properly. The annoyance makes me less likely to check art here at all.
Thanks
Ah, right. I almost got posting link forms into habit, but got lazy again. :P
(you don't seem to visit here particularly often anyway though )
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(you don't seem to visit here particularly often anyway though )
Partly because of that (on my laptop, especially, I simply do not have the resolution to deal with mystery spoiler boxes), partly because everything I've got to say goes into my own drawthread, partly because my expertise is very limited, and partly because people don't commonly ask specific questions. I'm usually lurking though.
Kicks thread.
Well, work is over for me and the summer indulgence has begun. So I'll be drawing more often and participating in this here thread and trying to make useful comments. Once a day draw just like the old days just like I tried before.
Late responses are late, but I wanted to respond to some stuff anyway...
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diego Havoc
On your Tropius pic, everything looks very dark to me. I know it's a night time scene, but brightening the city lights, and maybe adding some highlights to the far side of the ponies/tropius would help make things stand out a bit more.
A doodle of a women with a tommy gun! And a Rattata head! Because, light up the city leads to the tommy gun and the noise leads to the Rattata and... Nevermind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Diego Havoc
I don't think it would be a problem to post it, as long as you label the spoiler. Canterlot mods are rather strict (overly so sometimes, if you ask me) because the site is open to all ages, and there are several younger users there. I recently got a warning for posting this comic, which I didn't think was suggestive at all, but contains mention of boobs. :/
It mentions boobs! Burn! Burn it with fire! Think of the children!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Mirrsen
Hm. I've hit a bit of a conundrum. On one hand, I should post the thing I made today as proof that I made it. On the other hand, what I've made today isn't something I should be posting, let along making. The options seem to be to either post it anyway, or quickly cook up something innocent-looking and post that.
To respond to all your more suggestive work, I can't say that I'm personally that interested in seeing ponies in such position(s), but censuring something so light seems kind of a bit much. Regardless, they look nice.
And that was some nice Cherry Pop! The drink I mean! The drink!
But how often *do* you get these type of requests?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Mirrsen
Day-before-yesterday's Rikki Tikki 'Tavia sketch, if you haven't been around Ponythread to see it:
I luv that story! Nice one!
Could you be presuaded to revist it, but from a more dynamic angle?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sean Mirrsen
Today, I drew a pie chart.
Spoiler
Link
I tried to add a front view to the chart, but either something's fundamentally wrong here, or I am worse at drawing projections than I thought. I lean towards the latter.
Spoiler
Link
It's just nowhere near as pretty as it's supposed to be...
On proportions, the neck is too long. I know you said that ponies evolved from grazers, so the neck should be able to reach down and munch on those grasses. But it's still aesthetically too long, a long neck is just not as cute as a short one. A long neck and a large head, even less so.
Cartoon and cute aesthetics say that a shorter neck would look much better. And remember, ponies aren't designed just from horses, but foals (Google image examples,1, 2). Maximizing the cute. Which have shorter necks then they do have legs and have to spread their forelegs to eat very short grasses. And bodies which are not as long as mature horses. That's why even if the show proportions are cartoony and abstract, they still look nice and cute and somewhat correct.
On the mechanics side, the neck would have to be a lot more muscular to support the large head anyway. A shorter (foal proportions) neck would work better.
On the sci-fi evolutionary side, I do not see why the ancient proto-ponies have had to come from grassland grazers specifically. Perhaps unlike equestrians on earth, they are less specialized to survive in a grassland environment, eating leaves on both shrubs and grasses, thus removing the need for a neck which is as long as their legs (they can always spread the forelegs to chew on the grass), remember, deer and related grazers also have shorter neck to leg ratio, in matter of fact, perhaps Pinkie's prancing/bounce means that ancient proto-ponies were a mixture of horse/deer, jumping over fallen logs and uneven ground in a forest like environments as well as grassland, this would explain why a longer neck and longer body would be a bad idea. And overtime, instead of evolving toward modern earth horses or deers or some other specialized herbivore they instead started to evolve higher intelligence and magic. Their larger heads and brains making a long neck a impossible adaption, and their necks even shortening a bit to support the head.
Day 61-66, or "I'll post more! Don't go slow pony art thread!"!
Well, this one is far, far behind the deadline, but I cleaned it up a bit (But it needs some more cleaning) and I added the highlights today.
Things I learned:
I was having a lot of trouble with the highlights. Clean, or simple, highlights like I generally used just didn't work right. Then today it accorded to me that the characters were in a foggy bay and the light source was actually composed of multiple smaller lights. Naturally the reflective highlights on the characters had to be somewhat disjointed to take note of this effect. I'm not sure how good it looks, but it looks better then it did with the other highlights, so yay I guess. Still, I think I went a bit overboard on Citrus's leaf hair highlights, will have to play with it.
Also I learned that clean up is a pain, but useful and fun.
I want to finish this one by Friday so I can get back to my AJ pic. And then back to Samurai Equestria.
Also I was coloring faces! Historical-light faces!
Long live King UtherArthurWilliamAlfredRichard, actually never mind.
I'm somewhat pleased with this one as it was a coloring experiment, the very brownish red color scheme I seeded off a Byzantium fresco(?) especially for the face, so I can't claim I did it from memory. Still, it taught me a lot, so yay. Facial structure is off, but that's a work in progress. Same as the next one. They are not supposed to look realistic, still cartoony/abstract. But still, they aren't supposed to look like this off either! I need to work on that.
This other one of Alexander is more boo, but whatever, I'll post it anyway. This one I tried approaching it using more white like the background it is on, but I don't think it turned out too well. I'll try again later. And the expression is horrible, I need to work on more open mouth type facial expressions. As well as everything else.
Bluh, I've been terrible about posting here lately. Some of that is because I'm far away from my tablet and scanner, and most of the rest is because I'm still wrestling with huge and obvious flaws in the current project.
Once I hammer those out and have something worth progressing on, I'll be sure to post it for second opinions, along with some long overdue comments on other folks' work.
__________________ I never saw an ugly thing in my life - John Constable
Hi, drawing-branch-of-ponythread!
Following discussion in the main thread, this pony is intended to represent the thread in an 'ask ponythread' tumblr. Could I ask for any further advice on improving this pony? (I've had quite a lot of help already in the IRC channel, but I thought I should post it here in case there's anything I've missed.)
Bluh, I've been terrible about posting here lately. Some of that is because I'm far away from my tablet and scanner, and most of the rest is because I'm still wrestling with huge and obvious flaws in the current project.
Once I hammer those out and have something worth progressing on, I'll be sure to post it for second opinions, along with some long overdue comments on other folks' work.
Hope you come back soon!
Will keep the thread from becoming too stale, since I have more time for art these days.
Quote:
Originally Posted by flyingchicken
Anyone serious about learning should go read these books ASAP.
I was looking for a good anatomy book, will read them all, thanks for the references!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryn
Hi, drawing-branch-of-ponythread!
*snip*
Following discussion in the main thread, this pony is intended to represent the thread in an 'ask ponythread' tumblr. Could I ask for any further advice on improving this pony? (I've had quite a lot of help already in the IRC channel, but I thought I should post it here in case there's anything I've missed.)
The design is nice and the body's fine, but the main thing which could probably be improved is the head I would say.
The head seems a bit too wide, and the left eye should be smaller, since it's further away from the viewer. As it is now, both eyes are practically the same size. Compare it with Twilight's head in this.
I doodled over it to show you what I mean, it's rough and I messed up the size, but a picture is worth a thousand or something. Take all this with a bucket of salt. Eye, ear, and head size and so on would depend on your own personal pony style, it's just the lack of foreshortening with the eyes that is a bit jarring. If you fix the head I think the image would really improve a lot.
I hope this was helpful, rather then random blabbering.
It's all in the contrast(!), before in the picture I posted awhile back the colors were all dark and splotchy, there was light but it was subdued and closer to grayish. It made the whole picture look dirty and dangy. But by just following Diego Havoc's advice and lighting the city up, not only did the city look better, but the character's colors looked more distinctive, even if I did not change them that much at all, only playing around with the shadows. The base colors stayed the same. It's all in the contrast between the darkish characters and sky and the lit up city.
I lit up the city even more, by adding more lights on the water and I also added distant subdued lights to hint at distant buildings in the fog.
On the water I approached the waves like little mountains. Not sure if this is the correct way, but it is what it is.
Now all it needs is one last clean up round and that blasted fruit needs to be colored in some more.
Thank you for the advice, and especially for the drawing! You're definitely right about the head shape - even though it's there in every still I've been looking at, I somehow failed to give that eye proper foreshortening, and now I see it, it just looks weird
Here's a work in progress. I'm having trouble getting the pupil size and positions to not look terrible, and the shape of the left eye may well change again... probably best to leave that until morning by now. The head should be more proportionate, now, at least.
Spoiler
Thanks again to everyone who's looked at some version of this and given me advice.
The design is nice and the body's fine, but the main thing which could probably be improved is the head I would say.
The head seems a bit too wide, and the left eye should be smaller, since it's further away from the viewer. As it is now, both eyes are practically the same size. Compare it with Twilight's head in this.
I doodled over it to show you what I mean, it's rough and I messed up the size, but a picture is worth a thousand or something. Take all this with a bucket of salt. Eye, ear, and head size and so on would depend on your own personal pony style, it's just the lack of foreshortening with the eyes that is a bit jarring. If you fix the head I think the image would really improve a lot.
I hope this was helpful, rather then random blabbering.
It's all in the contrast(!), before in the picture I posted awhile back the colors were all dark and splotchy, there was light but it was subdued and closer to grayish. It made the whole picture look dirty and dangy. But by just following Diego Havoc's advice and lighting the city up, not only did the city look better, but the character's colors looked more distinctive, even if I did not change them that much at all, only playing around with the shadows. The base colors stayed the same. It's all in the contrast between the darkish characters and sky and the lit up city.
I lit up the city even more, by adding more lights on the water and I also added distant subdued lights to hint at distant buildings in the fog.
On the water I approached the waves like little mountains. Not sure if this is the correct way, but it is what it is.
Now all it needs is one last clean up round and that blasted fruit needs to be colored in some more.
That is actually shaping up to be a really nice looking drawing, great work
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Re: Ponythread Learns to Draw! Together!
Bleeeeh! Alfalfa Monster!
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