Drawing ponies is to hard

[Slice0Pie 815]

Seriously, its hard

But

I am using the show style until I get used to it, then using my other style when I do

Since someone said use a reference, and stick to the show style until I get better

1.Reference didn't help, only helped me with the muzzle

2.Still no improvement

I know you don't improve in 5 seconds like that, but, I cant improve.

DANG IT HAND

IMPROVE
AHHH

Anyways

first attempt at Daring Do...

it

sucks

 

[N.W. 3,619]

Keep trying, I felt the same way about mine, but with some practice you will see the difference, that is not a bad drawing to begin with either, mine were trash, I have no surviving examples to with which to  blind  show  you.

[Star-Gazer 202]

Honestly, that does NOT suck in the slightest. It just needs work.

It's dangerous to go alone, take this.

[Mr. Critical 434]

Well yeah. But you won't improve after the first try. It took me months to get to where I am. I learned by mimicry and referencing. I still kept some of them. But anyway. It will take time to bring up your skills in anything. And I'm not talking in about anfew days. Just keep going, and I gaurantee your drawongs will get much smoother.

[Slice0Pie 815]

@StarGazer588

OMG AHH

-explodes-

sorry about that, sorry if I sound rude, but people have shown me that over and over and I already saw it months and months ago.

It didn't help me

Edited December 10, 2013 by NightmareCadence

[Surface 115]

This video? It helped me make ponies really look like ponies.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Tromino

[Flight 11 89]

Trust me, I've just started drawing ponies. I have a faceless, legless one, one with no neck, one that's just legs, one that has no face, and one that has no body. Just hooves.

 

I have one pretty good one and an ok one. Yours are bucking epic.

[Shift 4,272]

After about 2 years, I've gotten the hang of ponies. You draw three circles, one big and two smaller ones, and just add the muzzle and the ears and eyes and mane. It looks hard, but after a while it becomes natural.

[Rinkitty 589]

They can be hard in certain circumstances such as complex poses, but generally, they're very simple to draw, for me anyway.

 

Some things give me trouble like the shape of the head, so I've just developed my own way of drawing heads. (Usually just a circle with eyes )

 

Anyways~, your drawing is fairly nice. The mane could use a bit of work, but other than that, it's pretty solid. 

[iceestarz 5,765]

Looking good. For more show accurate style, round out the head to a more circular shape. Just remember to keep practicing, don't discourage yourself. It's everyone's dream to improve on the spot, but that can take months possibly even years to get to a really good place. I've been drawing for like 8 or 9 years and i just recently got to a spot in my skills where I felt proud of what I produced. Don't ever stop making art, explore with different mediums whenever possible and practice, practice, practice. Remember, even the greatest of artists had to develop and have patience with art to produce what they can. Good luck!

[ShadOBabe 19,011]

You need to give yourself TIME.

I've only been on this site a month. Only in the last couple weeks have I seen your art.

You can't just expect to suddenly be able to draw it just right. Stop putting pressure on yourself, and have fun with it.

[Slice0Pie 815]

You need to give yourself TIME.

I've only been on this site a month. Only in the last couple weeks have I seen your art.

You can't just expect to suddenly be able to draw it just right. Stop putting pressure on yourself, and have fun with it.

Well that's the think. I don't even know how to take my own dang time! Every great picture takes time while my cruddy pictures take only 15 or 20 minutes

I'm the type of person that can't have fun with something if they don't like how it turns out.

[Surface 115]

Well that's the think. I don't even know how to take my own dang time! Every great picture takes time while my cruddy pictures take only 15 or 20 minutes

I'm the type of person that can't have fun with something if they don't like how it turns out.

Watch the video. It's good. But if you're bad at lining/shadowing a picture, I could show you how I do it, or you could look for a video on YouTube or something for how to do it in something like SAI (I use GIMP, but SAI is easier to know).

[Sn0wblind 78]

It's not bad at all. Like what other people have said, it takes time (a lot of time) to improve and polish your "drawing game". Like all skills in life, getting better in them is like playing a bad, generic MMORPG. Expect to spend countless hours "EXP grinding" to hone your skill. However, unlike an MMO, if you take a break, expect to lose some of that EXP, so always practice. 

 

If you're drawing with a computer, use the tools in your program to your advantage. For instance, you can use a polygon tool to help you create a base sketch for your pony. It helps me a lot because I can't draw a circle or a straight line to save my life x_x

 

If you're sketching with a pencil first, there's no shame in using something to help you, like a straight edge or graphing paper. I use coins to help me draw a circle without killing myself in the process. 

 

Good luck and always remember, don't quit! Now I just need to abide by what I just said...lol

[ShadOBabe 19,011]

Well that's the think. I don't even know how to take my own dang time! Every great picture takes time while my cruddy pictures take only 15 or 20 minutes

I'm the type of person that can't have fun with something if they don't like how it turns out.

 

Well that's just a balance you're going to have to find.

You either give yourself time to work on a piece of art to make it look good.

Or work quickly and just accept how it turns out.

 

I drew this on Saturday. http://shadobabe.deviantart.com/art/Fortune-Filled-Birthday-418480901

It's not that complicated, but it took me all day just casually working on and off.

And it's still not perfect. But there is absolutely no way in HAY I could have drawn it in 15-20 minutes. Unless you're doing a 30 minute sketch challenge or something, it's crazy to expect you can churn out something perfect in that teeny bit of time.

[Felrora 55]

Hi there NightmareCadence.
Your drawing is actually good, you just need to use the tools you got

I guess your tools (in Paint Tool SAI) are quite similar to mine (Photoshop), so here is a quick example on how to make a picture looking better by simply using 1-2 tools.

I took your picture and used the Pen Tool. With this tool you can draw clear lines and curves by just using your mouse (I only used my mouse in those pictures). Then you just fill up the outlines using the Fill Tool and voila. It just takes 5min and it will look something like that:

 

 

 

After that you might wanna create another layer and add some base shadows. Just chose a lightdirection and think which parts of the body might be darker than others. Use the Blur Tool to smooth it.

 

When you are finished, it might look smth like that:

 

And thats it.

I didnt put much effort in this one, cause I gotta go sleep (It's 4:11am right now here).

 

I hope you don't mind me doing this ;P
You can keep the pictures if you like

Edited December 10, 2013 by Felrora

[Surface 115]

Hi there NightmareCadence.

Your drawing is actually good, you just need to use the tools you got

I guess your tools (in Paint Tool SAI) are quite similar to mine (Photoshop), so here is a quick example on how to make a picture better looking by simply using 1-2 tools.

I took your picture and used the Pen Tool. With this tool you can draw clear lines and curves by just using your mouse (I only used my mouse in those pictures). Then you just fill up the outlines using the Fill Tool and voila. It just takes 5min and it will look something like that:

 

daring2.jpg

 

 

After that you might wanna create another layer and add some base shadows. Just chose a lightdirection and think which parts of the body might be darker than others. Use the Blur Tool to smooth it.

 

When you are finished, it might look smth like that:

daring1.jpg

 

And thats it.

I didnt put much effort in this one, cause I gotta go sleep (It's 4:11am right now here).

 

I hope you don't mind me doing this ;P

You can keep the pictures if you like

In SAI you make a line layer, it has different tools than normal layers. One of those is the curve tool, use that.

[Frith is Magick 1,471]

I've seen some of the stuff you have posted in non-pony artwork, it is pretty good. I would also like to say that your hand-drawn is usually better than the digital. I have never used SAI, so I don't know what your options are,but I would advise starting by vectoring hand-drawn stuff before you start on the computer.

 

Time is important. I usually spend around an hour on every drawing, and they are still nowhere near what I would like. You need to find time and have an idea that you can dedicate yourself to. You need to both find and make a guide. I rarely draw without one (the same one posted by StarGazer588, in fact). This is another good one that was shared with me. I recommend making a guide. Copying the information in a way that works best for you will help you understand the dimensions and shapes better.

 

It won't come easy. Patience is the key.

[SasQ 1,379]

Hey, I have an idea. That's how I learned how to draw Donald Duck when I was young, and I can draw him to this day. (Thumbnails attached; sorry for the jaggies, I don't have a tablet here; and I've left the purple guidelines for you to see how I used them as framework to draw the head)

 

 

Take a picture of a pony and print it. You need to have it on paper for this technique to work.

Then look for a piece of glass. I, for one, use my glass table. But you can also use windows or glass doors etc.

Then get a lamp and put it under the glass sheet, and turn it on, that it would shine through the glass and the printed pony reference.

Then cover it with another sheet of paper, a blank one.

You should see your reference picture shining through your clean sheet a bit.

Then just draw on it, following the lines of the original reference.

But repeat this several times again and again, until you'll get pretty much the idea of how this pony is constructed from all these lines, what are its proportions, where all the parts go, what are their shapes etc.

This takes time, but after a while you should have a clear picture of that pony in your mind, because you've followed its lines so many times that you already know where they are, even if you don't see your reference.

And that's it. You can then turn off the lamp in any moment to see if you can still follow the lines just from your imagination/memory. If you can't, then you can turn off the lamp again to make yourself remember, but then turn it off again. You can also add some more sheets of paper in between your clean sheet and the reference, which will make the light coming through it a bit dimmer and the reference will be less visible.

This might sound as mere ripping off someone else's artwork at first, and it is, but only to the point where you don't need the reference anymore, because you already have the picture clear in your mind.

 

At first you will be able to draw from memory only this one particular pony, exactly in that pose. But you can then try another references. I'd advice to use very similar pose as your next reference to learn, because then you'd see only one slight difference at a time, and not being overwhelmed by a whole lot of differences at the same time. So you could study these little bits one by one and see how they change when a pony stands in a different position or is seen from a different angle.

 

And don't worry if you suck at first, because this is the part of the process. No one borns with that. When you compare yourself with the masters of the trade, keep in mind that they aren't better than you, they just started earlier, so they are ahead. But they started once just like you, and they sucked too. They improved their skills with time and practice.

 

There are certain things which make your drawing suck and their drawings rock. Try to notice these differences and correct them. E.g., you may draw your muzzles too long, then try to draw them a bit shorter next time. They can draw more dynamic contour lines, and yours are shaky, so try to make yours less shaky. There's a way to practice it: you just draw one type of curve again and again, one under another, to make a fingerprint-like pattern, trying to draw it with one confident movement of your hand instead of part-by-part. The faster you draw it, the more sure-handed it will look.

 

Edit: OK, I had to try if it's really so hard to draw ponies. I don't have a tablet here, so I used just my mouse and The GIMP. I tried to draw my OC you can see in my avatar. First I sketched the overall pose & shape, then outlined, and then color-filled, and at the end I added some background, all of that on separate layers for easier manipulation. Some lines were jagged, but I corrected them with a rubber in greater magnification. Here's the effect (I left the sketches to show you my mockup I used before drawing it):

 

 

Not perfect,  but I guess it's not that bad as for the first time (I like it better than the Pony Generator's result). And it proves it's not so hard, just requires some effort and exercise.

Edited December 10, 2013 by SasQ

[Surface 115]

 

 

Hey, I have an idea. That's how I learned how to draw Donald Duck when I was young, and I can draw him to this day.

The video I posted looks like it would be faster, but you could do both. (Draw the circles over a picture.) Edited December 10, 2013 by Tromino

[Bohtty 1,775]

Umm, do you have a tablet? Or are you using a mouse?

[Onylex 2,837]

Seriously, its hard

But

I am using the show style until I get used to it, then using my other style when I do

Since someone said use a reference, and stick to the show style until I get better

1.Reference didn't help, only helped me with the muzzle

2.Still no improvement

I know you don't improve in 5 seconds like that, but, I cant improve.

DANG IT HAND

IMPROVE

AHHH

Anyways

first attempt at Daring Do...

it

sucks

 

You might be trying to hard. 

It takes time trust me, no artist becomes good within one day, week or, month.

 

Percents is key, don't force it because then you'll just get discouraged. 

 

I would also recommend practicing proportions and just drawing basic shapes I mean, most of the pony is really just a circle and a bean with a neck and legs.  

[Slice0Pie 815]

Umm, do you have a tablet? Or are you using a mouse?

I used to use my mouse but people suggested I started using my tablet since I never use it so I did

[Bohtty 1,775]

I used to use my mouse but people suggested I started using my tablet since I never use it so I did

On a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being that you'd like to make professional grade art someday even if it's just a hobby and 1 being lol w/e man, how much do you want to improve?

[Slice0Pie 815]

I would really want to improve

10/10

It would be amazing