SFyr

@@Crystal Vision, lovely stuff, there. ♥ The group image is also really quite awesome, and shows a lot of character. Amazing work as usual, Crystal~♪

Hello @crazy_pony_20, I went ahead and moved this to the requests section, since you're asking if anyone is up for drawing stuff from the link you provided. Though, it may be in your interest to link a few pictures that are more accessible, if you can find a few.

@@Widdershins, as others have said, I think it's a pretty interesting question. Honestly... I think we would overestimate our ability to overlook physical appearances. It's kind of a visible pattern that we, overall, have an easier time trusting or opening up to things that are pleasing to the eye, or fits within our instinctual bias towards "safe" or relatable to ourselves. Meanwhile, we show a natural distrust or lack of empathy for things that are alien enough, or even visually unpleasant. Like I said, I think this is pretty evident in a lot of our behavior thus far, and people may underestimate how big a factor this bias can play. For a slight example, sketchy looking people tend to be overall judged to less trustworthy, or more worthwhile to avoid. Social experiments have been performed to illustrate this pretty well. Basically with just a bit of dirt or poor hygiene, maybe some iconic "look" of someone untrustworthy, you already have distrust and avoidance, and this is with a 100% human. Similarly, you can fake stereotypes, talk with certain accents/use poor vocabulary, and all of it heavily influences what people think about you--for good or for bad. Overall, people treat people differently depending on first impressions. Even nonhuman sources seem to only get higher levels of reverence and empathy after we find some human-like characteristics to latch onto. A humanoid robot that can perform simple tasks and walks around like a child is bound to be considered a lot more worthwhile/endearing than an algorithm on the computer that actually has a greater depth of complexity and "intelligence." I dunno. In my opinion, we're not good at being unbaised, is what I'm trying to say. I think we're good at aiming for it, but not the best in putting it into practice. I think we'd have a lot of issues befriending creatures that are difficult to humanize. It could be possible, but I think it'd be a very strained relationship even if it worked out, depending on exactly how different humans and the creatures in question would be.

Adjusted the tag for ya. I sadly don't have time to do requests these days, but I wish you luck with finding someone to help ya! Interesting design, by the way. Seems to go well with the current time of the year too, haha.

@@KiraTakahashi, nah, not that into Holloween I suppose. If I wasn't busy with school I'd throw my time fully into art or games. You?

Similar sentiments as above. Got homework to do, might play games a bit, but otherwise... yay school.

@@NCMares, just got a few more questions before I have to disappear to work on stuff. ♥ Hope you don't mind a small list. :-o Do you have a medium you've always wanted to one day be good at (like, oil painting or the like)? What core advice/lesson have you taken to heart with your work, and how impactful has it been? Do you enjoy random conversations and networking with strangers in the fandom, or do you prefer to keep relatively to yourself and your work? Like, do you enjoy being approached by people, or do you tend to shy away from such? :-P And, one open ended question for the fun of it, what's a question you've been expecting (or wanting) to get asked here, but no one has done so yet? Thanks so much for taking the time to participate in this QA session, by the way. Keep being awesome and inspiring people, eh?

@@NCMares, I actually didn't know you wrote fanfiction until now. ♥ Will have to read through it at some point. Are you planning on continuing writing fanfiction beyond Night Mares? Also, how does writing compare to drawing in terms of creative satisfaction (or just, fun in creating in general)? I've wanted to take up both, but only really found enough motivation/drive for one.

@@NCMares, definitely think you've nailed down a good bit of the gritty, badarse feel in your art, haha. Awesome stuff! More questions, if you don't mind: Do you have any major art projects on your "eventually get to it when I have the time to be ambitious" list? Also, do you have a fondness for any non-traditional species or races in the MLP universe? Like, batponies, deer, buffalo, breezies, seaponies, etc.

Hello @NCMares! I hope your welcome to our little forum was a warm one. ♥ Right, so, staff artist; gonna enjoy having an artist QA guest to pester ask things. First off, I love your style, and I have to say, it really is quite distinctive and lively~♪ How would you describe your development and inspiration behind your unique style? Like, did you actively pursue the Fallout-related motif even in terms of style, or was it from another source (or something else entirely)? Second, fairly vague, but what was the basic arc behind your rise to horse-fame and general recognition within the fandom? :-P Any moment that you would peg as your "turning point" in that regard?

Hello @Jimmy Page Fan~ I went ahead and moved this to written works, since it seems like a more fitting place.

@@Prophet, this is so adorable! ♥ Your style is honestly quite charming too; I do hope you'll post more in the future!

Hello @Izanagi! I'ma lock this topic since you're posting a friend's artwork rather than your own~ Though you're totally welcome to show off your friend's work in a status update or blog! Have a great day!

@@SoulSpeaking, love this~♥ Your style seems fairly soft and whimsical while still being cute.

Hello @Missqu! I'ma move this to the Resources subsection; hopefully you'll get some help and feedback there! --- Also, I'd love to help personally, but I have no talent or understanding of music, haha. It sounds like an awesome thing you're doing though, and I wish you luck!

Hello @creamshy666, I'ma go ahead and move this to the Resources subsection, since you're asking for general advice or perspective on learning to draw. --- To answer your question on a more non-business note, I had a background of picking random subjects and just studying references and creating a slew of drawings of my own. A good bit of gesture drawing in particular helped with my eventual transition into ponies. I looked a lot at how other people drew ponies, and how the show portrayed all kinds of poses, angles, and expressions. I used these for practice, and worked them into numerous study sessions where I picked a particular topic to focus on, and just studied it through sketching and referencing. Basically, the more I drew and analyzed references, the better I got at drawing ponies. I guess you could say, I learned to draw ponies by drawing them. Until my terrible ponies become cute and respectable.

@@Swinton, I think the core path to fixing your issues with these two is to practice on anatomic structure, and blocking out the body's form. I don't know if you want me to go into specifics, but areas like the first pony's head and limbs could be improved by studying how pony muzzles/skulls are structured (or just drawn) when down-turned, or by studying how equine limbs are jointed respectively~ The second image seems a good bit more solid, but the shading does seem a bit flat (the light source doesn't seem to flow around a 3D shape so much as hint at there 'being' a light source), and the perspective seems a little inconsistent for things like the stool, table, glass, and pony. If any of this is unclear, I'm so sorry, and feel free to ask for clarification. I tried to not nitpick and look at the overall whole or a few specific areas to focus on. Many points seem like you understand a good bit of how a pony looks, how to convey a good style, and how a pony is proportioned (which is awesome), but you might need some practice with anatomy and working with things with respect to the 3rd dimension. And, the simple fact that you're looking for critique and self-evaluating your drawings is extremely promising for your growth as an artist.

@@WanderingPony, all of these are just adorable~♥

@@Niniibear, okay, all of this is just adorable. I love how fluffy and elegant everything looks in your style; it's really quite impressive. Of the group, I think the first is easily my favorite. Her fluff and extra details all just come off so well, and it's a very pretty character piece. ♥

Honestly I don't think there's a ton of new sentiment I can contribute on all of this. ♥ I've said my piece a few times, lost my cool for a few, and basically kicked about feeling slightly miserable over the last several days. I haven't been involved heavily in what happened per say—I'm a sidelined staffer with a bias, who had front row seats to seeing his friends torn apart. During the peak of things, I was considering leaving this site entirely, if not swearing off a large portion of the MLP community. Not a fun time, and I know whatever I felt was fractional compared to some parties in this mess. But... Things cooled off a bit, and some of the heat-of-the-moment thinking passed. Frustration, sadness, disgust, optimism... it all has been kicking around in my head for days (which is amazing during a week full of tests, yay RL stuff). In the end, the last of those wins. I wanna do my part to build things back up, and maybe see if we can fix some of the issues we've had in the past and led up to this mess we have just went through. I don't count myself as a significant figure, but I think I have a hand and voice to toss into our little mixing pot. ♥ Relatedly, I've made a point to (now and in the future) spend a little more time seeing what's been going on around these parts; see what people are up to, what people are talking about, and see what new people are joining up with the site for the first time. I will say, between being busy with life, school, and whatever I can spare towards my role as staff (which has been very little lately, sorry Tumblr!)... I think I've spent far too little time just kicking about on the forums and talking with people outside of staff. I used to be a random, obscure member working in the background, while spending hours discussing ponies with random people; a good bit into that (several months?), I dragged Nervous Stitch into the community, she started liking and caring strongly about it, joined staff to give back to the community she enjoyed, and earned a place for herself on staff where she could legitimately help out. At some point, she inspired me a bit to start making ties with staff myself, and see if I could help out somehow too—I did end up doing so almost exclusively through art, though; I am a sectional, but if we're looking at time, I'm probably about 90% devoted to drawing Buffy's adorable mug. (Tumblr update is halfway done, btw!) Anyways, I didn't take on much responsibility by comparison to many, but it still got me to connect pretty heavily with others on staff~ As life got busier, it became easy to just open a staff skype chat when I felt like talking to people, and work on other stuff when I didn't. My actual activity on the forum gradually took a heavy drop meanwhile, and again, I don't even consider myself a staffer with much responsibility. I kinda wonder if this path held true for a few others on staff? I don't know. Regardless, I enjoy this community, and I want to remain a part of it. Not just my little corner, but the whole community. I'ma probably still be doing my art bit between tests/homework/class for quite awhile, while trying to hold down the fort in Octavia's Hall; but, after all this, I really do want to see if there's something I can do to help the recovery and growing process following all this. I believe we all joined up with this community to meet new people, discuss ponies, and just enjoy the company and thoughts of others. I don't see that changing, even with some (admittedly heavy) staff drama and pending reorganization and such. Anyways, I fully defer to @Yellow Diamond's statement on this. :awuh: Your eloquence and level-headedness in all this severely outpaces mine~

@@Crystal Vision, still just love that image. It's fun, your OC being so much more sizable than the others lurking around in this little pony town of ours. Also, didn't comment on your two previous ones, but they're just awesome as well~♪ Studies on things closer to life are a fun thing to play with, haha.