This is my first (and possibly only, given the theme) submission to the Artist Training Grounds’ week 29 theme: draw a guide on how to draw ponies.
My, um, “technique” is usually pretty chaotic, so it was a little bit of a challenge coming up with something coherent. I don’t always do the steps in this guide, but it’s the route I most often take, so I decided to go with it.
Anyway, there wasn’t enough room to write the legend onto the guide itself, so read it top to bottom, left to right and refer to the below for the numbered stuff:
1 – Head
2- Action Line
3, 4 – Body Circles (note the overlap)
5 – Neck and body
6 – I apparently can’t count, so it doesn’t exist
7 – Foreleg guidelines and joints
8 – Hind leg guidelines and joints
9 – Form the forelegs around the guides
10 – Form the hind legs around the guides
11 – Add ear
12 – Add nose
13 – Add eye*
13.5 – This is usually where I check proportions and stuff before cleaning and detailing. Note the eyeballed measurements I give.
14 – Clean by erasing all the guides (kneaded erasers work wonders)
15 – Detail*
Also remember that the guidelines are just guides. If something looks a bit off, some minor adjustments to the guidelines may need to be made on the fly.
*These features tends to be less clean cut, even among the main six. Basically, a reference or memorization will be required to get the details of your drawn pony to look proper. I’ll use Twi as an example:
-Her bangs are bowl shaped, which will also curve the way her streaks go
-The top of the mane will usually fall around her cheek and extends down close to her chest
-The start of her tail has a slightly larger volume than other ponies, so it’s going to look big
-The streak closest to her snout will be purple, followed by pink
-Her eyes have one almond shaped end: the end that stops near her snout
-She has six lashes per eye: 3 on top, curved in a somewhat girly way (I overdid it a bit in this guide) and 3 on the bottom
-The main star of her cutie mark sits pretty much dead center of her flank. With the smaller starbursts, there are 3 on the side closest to her head, 2 closer to her rump.
However, I’d like to mention that the biggest part about learning to draw is repetition. Draw ponies, ponies, ponies and more ponies. As they become more familiar, drawing them will be faster and feel more natural. Don’t believe me? Just look at my drawings from June and my drawings from now. That’s improvement almost entirely through sheer pony spam.
No Contest Creations 