Any advice or pointers about my OC pony art?

[Hazy Skies 1,010]

So i've gotten into drawing ponies, and have gotten better at it since my terrible first tries xD So i was just seeing if i can get some useful crticism from anypony else who's been doing this a long longer then i have..

 

I'll explain my current process from the beginning:

 

First i use Blender with a custom rig i made to creature what i like to call my "drawguide", which is like the guide lines or circles you see most artist draw prior to drawing a character.. with some constrains and rigging, i can pose it any way i like and with some circles parented to each bone and tracking the camera, i end up with something like this, which i then use as a guide in my next steps..

 

 

Then i use the drawguide underneath the main layer of either krita or Inkscape, or both (Whichever art style i want to use)

 

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For the sake of keeping the images accurate to how i do it, I will show how i made my OC pony profile picture:

 

First i posed and rendered my MLP drawguide:

 

 

Then I used that in Krita (Which i only downloaded yesterday xD) and did my first test using my drawguide, did the face how it was 'cause i thought it'd look funnier xD

 

 

In this instance i used the .png export of the Krita art and used Inkscape to made a vectored version of it and changed the face to look better.. the vectored version is a lot more accurate to the show but VERY time consuming.. -_- Still heppy with the result though..

 

 

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But yeah.. any pointers for the pony art pros?

 

~AURA

Edited July 29, 2015 by AURAequine

[SFyr 1,982]

This actually is a pretty interested idea for plotting out body positions and poses and such. I would call it a mix of pros and cons, but an interesting one I haven't really seen.  I think it's certainly help keep things in proportion and 'correct' when choosing harder to plan poses. But, of course construction lines and spheres I believe are meant to be quick, very rough guidelines drawn from understanding. In reality, you're still gonna need to do quite a bit of fleshing out on your own, which requires being able to 'see' it well in your head. If this helps, go for it, but you may also want to know where to put everything and how the structure is mentally, which may involve some separate study as well.

 

Anyways... my usual stand-by advice for pretty much everything is draw from reference, and experiment in your attempts to take it further. That's always been the process I learned the most from. For example, I could browse through episodes and draw characters, then try to redraw them in my own invented pose while keeping as close to the original as possible. Or, I could draw horses and horse anatomy, then to use my understanding of the structure to redraw it in a different pose and see if it still 'looks right.' I've found the circles and shapes (many people use boxes, ovals, and things of the like as well) often arise from this general simplification of the interior structure, like the rib cage or approximate skull shape before adding in other structural details like the curves of the jaw or the bridge of the nose.

I wouldn't bash this interesting method of yours if it works for you, but I'd also recommend not relying on it, if that makes sense.  And only move forward with it heavily if it doesn't hurt your ability to 'feel' where some of this stuff goes (heck, if it helps, that's awesome and I'm glad you have it). Right now, my major point for what you may want to work on is building that understanding of 3D form, though perhaps more focused on details and extra features that your frame doesn't account for, like the face/ears/clothing.

 

And of course, so long as you're not drawing the same image, pretty much any drawing is better than nothing, regardless of what it is.  :grin2: So, I hope you continue forward in whatever way you deem best, and keep growing you ability!

[Sectus 246]

The only advice I can offer is to never ever ever ever use shades of red in the creation of your OC. Please, don't do it.

[whillyumarie 6]

The only advice I can offer is to never ever ever ever use shades of red in the creation of your OC. Please, don't do it.

I would second the statement. There is a reason why ponies were colored in with shades of pastel. Well, not discouraging your design of your own OC AURAequine but pertaining to what colors you would use, "flashy" colors such as red or neon yellows should be used in minimal.

 

Nobody would like their OCs to be piercing other bronies' eyeballs now, wouldn't they?  

[SFyr 1,982]

Umm... In opposition to the red bit (no offense meant, of course, just in my own opinion!), I think red is a lovely hue to have as a listed option. I think people just misuse it.  For example, Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, Spitfire (orange-red), Cherry Jubilee, and Roseluck all have red in their character designs, and all look great. As with anything, Red is a tool of sorts that can be used well or poorly. Heck, it's an integral part of the warm grouping of color coordination. Even neon colors have their place where few others would work as well.  :grin2:

Edited July 29, 2015 by SFyr

[Hazy Skies 1,010]

The only advice I can offer is to never ever ever ever use shades of red in the creation of your OC. Please, don't do it.

 

I tend to not like red so much anyway.. as i prefer blue..

Though i agree with SFyr.. Red in the characters are fine, as long as they're not done poorly..

 

A likely reason as to why the characters with a red basis to their scheme still look good is because their colors use analogous or monochromatic color harmonies..

 

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Also I think I should put more thought into what shades my OC pony should have.. as i've found the B/W version is more visually pleasing than the colored one :/

 

Maybe that's due to the hair/mane being a similar shade or saturation as the coat.. maybe i'll make 'im a lighter blue instead and see how that goes..

Edited July 29, 2015 by AURAequine