This is my third submission for the Artist Training Grounds’ week 24 theme: draw a pony helping someone in need. This is kind of a mutual one (although Spike isn’t a pony) where Spike is helping Rarity find gems again and Rarity is helping Spike get some good eats in the form of his share of the haul.

Anyway, this is my first time drawing Spike, despite my rather large amount of Twi drawings and scenes. Today’s episode really made me want to draw Spike and Rarity together, although I don’t usually do spoiler drawings until after Sunday ends. So I went with this idea.

I’m a little annoyed with some of the blending on Spike, especially the belly. It didn’t look as good on the drawing itself as when I was doing sample blending and the scanner only makes it worse than it is. Other than that, I think things worked out fairly well.

This took roughly 4 hours. Still experimenting with the no graphite/inked outlines style from last night. Sketched out in my 2H, then coloured with Prismacolor.