This is my first submission for the Artist Training Grounds’ week 9 theme: draw and athletic pony. Technically speaking, Applejack qualifies on her own, but eh.

Anyway, I really need to stop doing this to myself. And by that, I mean letting my mind get all contrary on me. I was going to do something simpler (for like the 10th time). So I started out randomly sketching out Applejack. And my mind was like “Hey, she should be jumping. And at a weird angle.” Then after that, it was like “You should also shade this. And have two light sources.”

Anyway, I finally broke out my new tin today and used my 2B pencil to do the shading. I think the 2B is going to be what I’ll be using from now because it can easily get the darkness that I end up struggling a bit with the HB to get and it’s far more controllable than the 4B. Overall I’m quite happy with how this turned out, although I’m not entirely sure about her left hind leg and the positioning of some of the shading on her body.

EDIT: I’m an idiot and forgot the tail. One OCD splurge later and now there is tail! Yay.