Another Pony 100x100

[Dessa]

I made this one in part as a surprise gift to a friend, who designed, pencil sketched, and provided the colors for this pony, and in part to work on improving my line work.



Rough-Draft Line sketch

This is what I colored over, and I moved the lines around a bit when I did so.  Looking back, the lines I thought cleanest were roughest, and the lines I thought roughest were cleanest.


Almost-Final:
Final:

Reference sketch:


I'm already seeing a few places I goofed, (I always notice the mistakes more easily when I'm about to show people something I'm proud of), and one or two confusing elements that could use something extra to distinguish them, but I'll see what you guys find before I go at myself...

This one uses 10 colors.

[edu1337]

the thing that is bothering me the most is the tangency formed by the legs in the middle. that right back leg should be nudged one pixel or two upwards, imho. this tangency was already in the pencil sketch

[Dessa]

I'm not familiar with the terminology, but I'm guessing you're talking about where the lines meet between the right rear hoof and the front left hoof and things get all blendy looking?  Yeah, that's the most problematic element in this, IMO.  I know my friend will be happy with this and totally not even see that, but I'd kinda like to see what fixes it.

Move it UP, you say?  I suspect it will make the middle more cluttered, but I'll give it a shot and see how it looks.  I'll take a looking at nudging it rightward or downward as well, and maybe connect that island of whitespace there.

Shading the back leg might improve it as well.

I'll post a revision after I grab some grub.

Original --------->Leg moved Right > Moved up ---->  Shaded


It wouldn't have occurred to me to move it up, but it looks the best of that batch (or perhaps shaded does), at least without heavier editing.  Rightward throws the anatomy off a little, and it'd need editing to make it work, but in theory, it'd solve the problem.  Shaded gives it the most pop, and it ought to have occurred to me eariler.  It would have saved a lot of time fidgeting at the borders.

I extended the knee line into the body for all of these, and it gives it just a bit more shape.

[StaticSails]

Just smoothed out some lines. Quickly (and poorly!) tossed on a highlight to see how it would look.

Just try rendering this out a bit more.

[Dessa]

Just smoothed out some lines. Quickly (and poorly!) tossed on a highlight to see how it would look.

Just try rendering this out a bit more.

Ooh, now we're talking.  I was probably going to work on my shading next (since I haven't done much of it, and it's a weak point).  I left it out of the original because the show it's based on is so flat shaded, but I'm not against making this look better than the show

I guess the eyelashes in mine looked like an eyebrow, since that's what it became it your edit, so I probably need to make it more obvious that they're lashes if possible.  Looks great though.

I'm looking at your line smoothing and seeing quite a few things you did differently.  The most obvious was to change the outlines that overlap the figure to a lighter shade.  Why?  This would seem to remove some of the dimension.  Shouldn't nearer objects be bolder?  Or is there a more important principle I'm forgetting here?   I like what you did to the hair up top, and overall, it looks like you've thickened the major outlines, which really enhances the composition.

You also removed most AA from the outside, but isn't that only important when you have to deal with different backgrounds?  Against a white background, shouldn't the outsides be anti-aliased as anything else?

[edu1337]

I'm not familiar with the terminology, but I'm guessing you're talking about where the lines meet between the right rear hoof and the front left hoof and things get all blendy looking?  Yeah, that's the most problematic element in this, IMO.  I know my friend will be happy with this and totally not even see that, but I'd kinda like to see what fixes it.

Move it UP, you say?  I suspect it will make the middle more cluttered, but I'll give it a shot and see how it looks.  I'll take a looking at nudging it rightward or downward as well, and maybe connect that island of whitespace there.

Shading the back leg might improve it as well.

I'll post a revision after I grab some grub.

Original --------->Leg moved Right > Moved up ---->  Shaded


It wouldn't have occurred to me to move it up, but it looks the best of that batch (or perhaps shaded does), at least without heavier editing.  Rightward throws the anatomy off a little, and it'd need editing to make it work, but in theory, it'd solve the problem.  Shaded gives it the most pop, and it ought to have occurred to me eariler.  It would have saved a lot of time fidgeting at the borders.

I extended the knee line into the body for all of these, and it gives it just a bit more shape.

the one with the leg moved right looks best, as you initially guessed

[Dessa]

Made the background transparent.  She matches the decor here!  Happy coincidence.

For the sake of practice, I moved the lighting from where you had it to slightly behind where it was (so that I'd have to struggle with my own color blots rather than using yours, Static).

THe biggest problem area is the head, and I'm not sure what to do there.  Now that I'm posting it, maybe the highlight on her flank should be a smidge larger?

[schmohawk]

she looks great! only critique i can make is that the martini icon on her isn't really recognizable

[pistachio]

Interesting idea for a fan-character (?) I must say.

Gotta agree, she looks finished. Well, almost. I can see some banding on the shadow her left front leg casts on her right. On that note, that right leg seems rather thick in comparison to the other three. Maybe it's just me.

And the muzzle protrudes, not sinks in--it makes her nose look like that of a cat or some other non-equine creature. Instead of putting a highlight above it, try putting a highlight on it (see StaticSails' edit).

[Dessa]

And the muzzle protrudes, not sinks in--it makes her nose look like that of a cat or some other non-equine creature. Instead of putting a highlight above it, try putting a highlight on it (see StaticSails' edit).

Take a second look at the source.  The nostrils in particular.  If I add a highlight where Static put it, it's casting light under the nose.

*scrolls down*

 Then again, maybe I'm flip-flopping the persective here.  I saw the line in the pencil at the top of the nose, as though we could see the jaw and nostrils and the flat surface atop the nose isn't visible.  You're seeing the line as the fold where the bridge of the nose goes forward, which would mean we're seeing a lot of the top surface of the nose.  Looking it the picture in the top right of the reference, you guys might indeed have the right idea -- I can't tell for sure.  Either way, it would definitely read better the way you guys are seeing it.

Huh, I wasn't familiar with the terminology of banding until now, and I think I was only halfway aware of the concept.  Yeah, that stretch is giving me trouble.  I feel like it's where the shadow should lie, but it doesn't look terribly good.  What to do?  I'll fidget with it some more.

The other leg seems too thick to me too, now that you point it out.  It was in the sketch too, it seems, but I guess that's the sort of thing that makes that a sketch and not a final.  I'll thin it out a bit.  The other anatomical problem here that's just started to bother me is that her mane only sprouts from the top of her head, and not along her neck, which is both unlike ponies RL AND unlike Hasbro's pony designs.

As for the martini on her flank, yeah, cutie marks are a major pain.  I'll see what I can do, but I spent a good while failing to make that recognizable.  The irritating part of these is that they're identifiers for ponies almost more so than the faces (which can look pretty similar), so to eliminate it here is to lose something of value.  Making it bigger is the only thing I can think of, and meh to that idea.  I'll try it anyway though.

Oh, and yeah, she's a fan character.  Can't see Hasbro being cool with a bartender pony encouraging debauchery and alcoholism.