Horses and Stuff

This actually didn't take long to color, it just took me forever to get around to doing it. Her coat is inspired by this lovely piece on Modcloth.

I also had a taker on my $10 Colored Commission Christmas Sale, and this is the cleaned up and slightly filled in line art of her character Oscar:

Week 24 Horses Around

It's going to be a personal goal to find all the dumb horse phrases I can for this week's titles.

Anyway, for style variation practice (and for fun) I decided to try myself as a pony again. This time I'm going with a design that's more my own, as opposed to last time using the adorable design that a friend did of me. She still has her guinea pig name Squeak though, and I decided to name the pony Amethyst Glow, because all the art-related names I came up with were really dumb.

And yes, there will be a background on this one. I've been too lazy with those of late.

Week 20 Puts Its Hoof Down (Finally)

The reason that this was not finished on time was that last Friday the cord to the laptop that I can use my tablet with fried. The new one came in today so this could finally be finished!

It could use more polish, I'm sure, but really it just needed to reach a reasonable level of completion.

So I present Pony Me, using magic to work with clay and form some sort of miniature... thing. The mark on her flank is a pencil and mini cupcake, inspired by a drawing that a friend did of me as a pony.

Week 20: Galloping Along

Fiddled around today during lunch. Shortened the front legs since they were way too long before.

That's all for now, trying to recover from a cold.

Week 20 Waddles Along

Hid the blue sketch lines so it's easier to see what's going on. Coming along nicely, though I have to keep resisting the urge to "paint" rather than draw.

The critter under the table is a guinea pig. His name is Squeaky in honor of the first guinea pig I owned when I was ten.

Week 20: Hoof-A-Riffic

Because I am arguably insane, I decided on June 1st to do "Camp National Novel Writer's Month", which is the name as the normal National Novel Writer's Month, but it's not in November. I won't be doing it in November because I will be a senior trying to finish up earning a Bachelor's degree in studio art and won't have time.

So, to keep myself sane, the weekly arts for June will be fairly simple. For this week, because ponies are relatively easy, I'll be turning myself into a pony. A unicorn. Because I can.

Again, digital drawing, since I'll be staring at the computer a lot anyway.

Week Nineteen's a One-Shot

That I did in about one sitting, no less. It's a sort of thank you/commission for a friend who helped me out. It's his character, a dragon, getting a hug from his favorite pony, Rainbow Dash.

This was a lot of fun! Everyone needs to hug a pony.

Week Nine: All Together

They're all finished! Going to start commissions and Week 10 tonight!

Week Nine: Closing In...

With Spring Break under way and no rush on my homework, there was plenty of time and motivation for drawing yesterday. All that remains is to color three more drawings and finish sketching/inking one.

Unabashed favoritism was a big factor here, since Duke is my favorite Duck and Rarity is my favorite Pony. There's other reasons, but again, they can wait until all the drawings are finished and put on DeviantArt together.

Commissions will be started tomorrow!

Week Nine: Catch-Up

Inked two today! Again, giving myself until Monday to finish which should be no sweat. Still undecided on how to color them, but slapping some pigment on with GIMP is tempting.

Also have four commissions to do! Good thing next week is Spring Break!

Week Nine: Three's Company

Tired of the number puns yet? Too bad.

This is actually going better than anticipated. Since both ducks and ponies are simple and familiar to me and there won't be any backgrounds to fuss with, it's actually quite relaxing. They can be churned out rather quickly with still decent results.

Anyway, Mallory and Rainbow Dash are inked and Nose Dive and Pinkie Pie are started. Not posting Wildwing and Apple Jack again since nothing further has been done to them, so there's no need to waste the space.

Week Nine: For Two

These are going to be numbered in my sketchbook so it's obvious that there's a reason for six drawings in a row to have the same theme. A lot had to be fixed before inking Wildwing and Applejack, but the end result looks nice. Hopefully that will continue with the coloring step.

The next two are Mallory and Rainbow Dash. Mallory's polishing a helmet that's in serious need of being re-drawn along with her hand. All of the ducks will be in casual clothes that I make up as I go because the idea is for these to be simple. Drawing their battle gear would be too time-consuming.

Week Nine: The Nostalgic 2x4

Last Friday as the work day was winding down and two cups of coffee were pumping through my system, a project for this week came to me. One of my favorite shows to watch after school with my brother and father (not long before he was killed) was the Mighty Ducks cartoon series. My Little Ponies were among my favorite toys at the time, too. With the new Pony series out featuring six main characters and an important show from my childhood having the same, the idea came to me to combine the two.

So the idea this week is do complete six easy drawings featuring a Duck and the Pony I think suits them best. Some are going to be biased (my two favorites will definitely be in the same drawing), but over-all I'll have reasons for matching them up. Those not familiar with either or both will be totally lost and for that I apologize. Hopefully you'll enjoy this week anyway.

Also, I consider today Day One. The first one is team captain Wild Wing with farm girl Apple Jack. Reasons to come when they're all finished.

Also, a quick, inexpensive commission that I did for a friend. Two of his characters as ponies. My favorite pony Rarity is in the background because she's responsible for the male looking so dressed up.

Week 8: In the Manner of... #2 (Artistic Nudity)

The image above is one of the most well-known by Mexican female painter Frida Kahlo (July 6 1907 - July 13 1954). Though I admire the works of many historic artists, this woman is my favorite not only as a painter but as a strong determined person not afraid to express herself or depict life as the harsh, sometimes ugly reality that it was for her.

While there unfortunately won't be time for me to go about my week and do a painting on canvas to attempt mimicking her style, I'll still try it by digital means. For a bit I had no idea what I could do as a tribute to this woman, but yesterday it struck me to try a portrait of her with one of the three children that she was unable to carry to term due to a horrible accident when she was in her twenties. She wanted more than anything to have children with her husband Diego Rivera, but never could. So that will be my tribute to her. The thumbnail sketch in the top right of the page below is the concept for that.

And yes, more ponies.

There was also a non-cirricular figure drawing workshop that some cousins and I went to on Saturday. It wasn't my most successful round of drawing the figure, but it was still enjoyable and good practice.

Home-Stretch and a Pony

The painting is almost finished! Right now the plan is to add something to the sky to make it obvious that it's supposed to be s sky, add more shadowing to the face, and somehow put window-light into the buildings because what they are still isn't obvious enough. Thankfully she finally has hair. The bright red under-sketch was really throwing things off:


Also, while some may consider it shameful for a twenty-four-year-old woman to be into My Little Pony again fifteen years later, I am anyway. Lauren Faust's "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" is amazing, but no less can be expected for one of the major minds behind "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends". It's a great show; witty and fun but still a good influence on kids, plus doesn't look like it was animated within an hour using Flash. Also, this show has a huge internet following of people around my age.

That being said, I recently bought a figure of my favorite pony, Rarity, and messed with her hair a bit to try and give it the curl her character actually has. I didn't cut it at all because scissors + hair + me = disaster. But the curling worked nicely. Here's before and after:



I think she's cute. And I have every intention of buying and styling other characters as well. Hey, we all have hobbies. Some of mine just happens to include things I should have outgrown by now.