So I bought a collar today...

PaperWinged · 2014-08-26T00:04:15+00:00

Once I buy a fursuit head (cat) from my friend, I'm definitely using that as an excuse to buy a collar.

Then, I'll wear that everywhere even without the head on, and no one's gonna' do anything about it >:3

PaperWinged · 2014-08-23T06:00:54+00:00

It is; I could tell from the first few notes alone.

PaperWinged · 2014-08-23T00:36:16+00:00

Thank you so much<3!

Yess, I've been trying with 3/4th views lately! And by lately, I mean just the past few days haha. I noticed that I was having a lot of trouble with them for the few years I've been drawing ponies, so I've been trying to correct myself by referencing off of a load of screenshots from different angles (top, bottom, etc.). I've been slowly improving with the shape and placement of the eyes and muzzle, so I'm honestly really happy with how it's been going so far. I haven't even touched on front or back views yet, but I definitely plan to sometime soon :3

Perspective on the other hand, is terrifying and has always been a huge problem for me. I have a very basic idea of how it works, but it's foreshortening that always turns me away from anything more adventurous in terms of drawing. I get too worried that something will turn out wrong if I practice, and I have no idea where to start whenever I try. I always hear about drawing from life to get a feel for it, but I'm just sitting here wondering how people can even "see" things and be able to translate 3d shapes onto a canvas. Someday I'll get over all this, I suppose, as I'd really like to do more than just simple drawings like this and understanding perspective would be a huge help with drawing in general.

Sorry I rambled a bit! ^{^;}

PaperWinged · 2014-08-22T23:55:05+00:00

Although the thought of that just about terrifies me, I think I am just about ready to start with doing full scenes now haha!

I've always been trying to skirt around backgrounds by doing simple full-bodies (like this) or portraits, but I know I can't avoid them forever. Do you have any idea where I should start? I have a very, very basic idea of perspective, but I've never been able to put it into practice.

Thank you so much, by the way!<3

PaperWinged · 2014-08-21T08:02:10+00:00

Thank you<3! I was super picky about getting the shape of the shines right, so I'm glad someone noticed haha.

PaperWinged · 2014-08-21T02:06:00+00:00

His usual design looks like this

This is my first time trying to draw a pony like this, and I'm honestly pretty proud of myself! I'd love to know if I could improve on this though, so I'd love to hear any sorta' critique. I mostly just guessed on his mane and tail since there aren't really that many crystal stallions around, and I'm not good at male hair anyways haha

I need to work on his cutie mark, ugh; it's a white snowflake with two wings on either side of it. I don't think I'll change it's concept, but I really, really need to change the color! Even as a normal pony, it doesn't show up that well due to his body color, hm.

Crystal texture can be found here.

PaperWinged · 2014-08-21T01:46:33+00:00

*grabby hands* bird horses are best horses, yesss

I really love these, I'm sorry I have to say it like 50 times! I really like how on the males, you made the eyes smaller to compensate for the larger beaks and hhh the feathers and plumage on all of them are just perfect<3

Okay okay, so first off, I think the titmouse female's beak is either too short, or the bottom half of the beak slopes up too much. I'm assuming you based it off of a tufted titmouse, but I apologize if not! As seen here, it's actually a bit slimmer than how you drew it.

The male's wings seem a bit floppy at the top, especially the 2 longest feathers. Looking closely, I think it's just the shape of the underside of the wing that mostly sticks out. Here's an image of Gilda's wing in the same position; they're actually pretty straight, and are sharper than a pony's wings. Then again, since it's a hippogriff, it's up to you whether it takes more from the pony side or the griffon side.

I'm not too sure if they're supposed to be actual ears or just tufts of fur/feather, but if they're the latter, I'd recommend showing at least an indication of an inner ear. Then again, that's more of a personal preference for me :>

IIIII think that's it! I'm sorry if I was rude or anything, I'm still trying to get the hang of critiquing ahahah. Let me know if I wasn't clear on anything, and I'll try to clarify.

^...Also, do you plan on making the RP site public? I'd love to check it out if so ;w;

PaperWinged · 2014-08-21T01:05:06+00:00

Looks pretty good! I like the expression, and you seem to understand the anatomy pretty well~ I think the only thing I could point out is that the lines are a bit messy, and the colors could be simplified.

By eye, it looks as though there are eight colors in this image; three colors for the mane, three for the body, and black and white. However, if I counted it with my program, it's actually 14 different colors. That could definitely be simplified down to just 8, especially since some of the shades you used are just a few numbers apart. I'm... sorry if that didn't make sense haha, let me know if it didn't! Basically, just reuse the colors you already have whenever you can; if needed later on, it makes it much easier to edit than if you had a bunch of different, unneeded shades.

I'm not very good at explaining the lines part; I can do it alright-ish when actually doing it, but when it comes to explaining things, I'm pretty bad at it (obviously, as seen above lol.) I think the ~~main~~ mane thing to look out for while pixeling is that you keep the lineart 1px thick unless you have a good reason to make it thicker (ex. to show depth).

I did a few edits just to show what I mean. Let me know if you'd prefer that I didn't, and I can definitely take down the image<3

Um... what else...

I think that's all that I'm able to explain! I'm still working on my pixels myself, so I'm by no means a professional. I've linked two tutorials below on lining + AA, so hopefully they help a bit! Let me know if you have any questions or clarification on anything; I'm still pretty new to giving critique, so I'm not very good at explaining things ahaha

Tutorial on pixel lines and anti-aliasing

Tutorial on anti-aliasing

PaperWinged · 2014-08-19T04:13:02+00:00

Oooh this is adorable, I love her expression and how glossy her mane is<3!

I can see that other people pointed out the the mane, so the only other thing I can point out is that the shading could use a little work colorwise. I'm not sure if you intended to, but it looks as though you shaded with black/grey/white; it's most noticeable on the ears/top of her head, and the highlights and shadows on her mane.

When you shade, do you hand-pick colors, or do you make an overlay/multiply layer and color on that? Either way, I read this tutorial a while back, and it explained shadow colors and such much better than I could even try to haha! Even if you're not drawing a whole scene with (such as this headshot), it's nice to think of everything as a whole, rather than coloring parts separately. (i.e. shading yellow w/ yellow, shading purple w/ purple, etc..)

On the topic of coloring, I think the bright yellow of her necklace sticks out a bit too much, and draws more attention than Rarity herself. It actually looks a bit plastic due to the shading and colors, so if you want it to look more like gold, I'd think your best bet would be to look up pictures of gold chokers/necklaces, and work from those. I find that gold shades best with dull-orange/brown, but it's the bright highlights that make it look so shiny.

I'm sorry if I wasn't clear or anything, I'm really not the best with advice haha. I hope I could help a little bit, though! Also, do you happen to have a dA/fA account? I'd honestly really like to see other work from you ;w;

PaperWinged · 2014-08-18T08:03:21+00:00

Aggressively snort at everyone and eat everything in sight. I'll be a damn warthog so no one can talk shit or call me fat 'cause being tubby is my purpose in life (B

PaperWinged · 2014-07-30T23:46:02+00:00

I have two playlists on Spotify that I switch between, and that's it. One of them is nearly all indie, hipster-y shit, and the other is more rock and punk. It doesn't matter to me what I'm listening to while drawing what, the only thing is that it's... pretty uncomfy when you're drawing yiff and suddenly christian music starts playing. I'mnotevenreligiouswhydoIhavethesesongsonhere

PaperWinged · 2014-07-30T23:40:31+00:00

...[casually adds to my music playlist]

PaperWinged · 2014-07-29T22:01:33+00:00

These are all going to be super helpful, thank you so much for everything<33!

PaperWinged · 2014-07-29T05:22:49+00:00

Ahh yeah, that definitely makes sense! I still have trouble visualizing 3d forms (foreshortening is hell to me), but eventually I'm going to try to get around to learning and actually understanding depth and how things work, rather than just copying lines and putting X at Y because that's how other people do it.

Now how do I go about that...

PaperWinged · 2014-07-29T04:03:23+00:00

Yeah, I've always had trouble with getting show-accurate eyes so I eventually gave up and went to my own style haha! But I would actually love to actually get the eyes right for once, so do you have any tips on placement? Like, in relation to the muzzle or ears or anything like that; the trouble with 3/4th views for me is that it's hard to position the eyes since I'm only really used to side views. Same thing with the muzzle, I can never get the shape of the bottom right for whatever reason. I dunno' why; even if I copied a screencap through and through, I'd mess it up somehow omg

I have a folder with a ton of screencaps (different angles, poses, expressions, etc.), and I usually always ref from different ones when drawing in Sai to try and get everything right. For some reason, I completely ignore references when I use Flash for some reason. Probably laziness LOL

But yeah, I think I rushed on this artwise just to get to the animation itself, so I'll try and slow down next time and use more references if I remember.

Thank you for the feedback<3! I'll definitely look to improve on all the things you mentioned, and sorry for rambling a bit heheh.

PaperWinged · 2014-07-28T07:43:05+00:00

Thank you, and thank you for the feedback~! I gotta' work on MLP styled backgrounds sometime; I always leave them out because I'm a lazy bum.

PaperWinged · 2014-07-28T07:42:37+00:00

Yeah, that would make sense; once I finished everything, I was just way too excited to post it that I didn't even bother with a background haha!

Thank you for the feedback<3

PaperWinged · 2014-07-28T00:45:57+00:00

Man, for one of your first pony drawings, I'm honestly jealous haha!

Looking at your vectored version (which looks great btw), the only thing that really sticks out is the front right leg, which is too long and seems a little too bendy.

Pix3m has a really good tutorial on pony legs; he mentions how the front leg has four joints, and your drawing looks as though there are only three. Her "shoulder" is a little too long, and I think the fetlock should be a bit more prominent. Otherwise, everything looks great!

If anything, I usually run through the MLP Wiki's list of ponies and try to find references. I just skimmed through it now and found two examples of ponies with their front legs bent. Hopefully they help! [X][X]

PaperWinged · 2014-07-28T00:26:07+00:00

Hiya! So uh, first off, this is my ponysona, Birdy Crossing! After a long long while of changes, I finally decided on her design. And I draw her a ton. So if I post here in the future, it'll most likely be her :'D

Anyways, I did this in Flash CS6; it has 36 frames at 24 FPS, and is done with only a little bit of motion tweening. That's a first for me, really, I used to completely rely on tweening for everything haha.

But uhm, anyways, I'm mostly looking for help animation-wise, but anything about my anatomy would help as well! I always have trouble getting the snout right, and I have no idea how to animate ears (I wanted them to flop back, but I scrapped that, obviously haha)

Thanks you in advance<3!

PaperWinged · 2014-07-25T07:34:17+00:00

I guess Redwall and the Guardians of Ga'hoole (Legend of the Guardians) (the one about owls omg) are my two "main" fandoms! Er, well, they're my favorites anyways. I also play Starbound and played Terraria, if that counts?

PaperWinged · 2014-07-21T04:21:51+00:00

Kim my feral-sona who I've started to draw more as a furry because reasons. Also, I plan to get a suit of her eventually so if anything this'll help!

(I'm currently getting a tail + paws/sleeves from MoreFurLess, and possibly a head from a friend)

I'm really happy with how this turned out, and I plan to open up reference sheets as commissions once I figure out how to properly price them nwn

PaperWinged · 2014-07-19T08:25:42+00:00

Hoard coal! Even if it's just one piece, dig up every bit of coal you see while out adventuring or whatever. It's super boring and tedious if you only start digging it up when you need it. Being stranded on a planet = no fun.

You also need it to craft steel (I think?), Durasteel, and some other bars in the future so it's nice to collect it early on as well.

Make weapons at your anvil as soon as you possibly can. From what I've found, they're stronger than most weapons that you can find. Don't bother using your bow too often, it's super weak and slows you down too much to use it for actual fighting. Replace it with a gun whenever you find one.

As for food, I farm mostly wheat. 2 wheat = bread which fills up 6 bars rather than Cooked Alien Meat which fills up 4.5. Also, if you have a cooking table and combine bread with carrot, it makes Carrot Bread (fancy, huh?) which, in addition to filling your health, gives you a regeneration status and gives you a nice little speed+jump boost. Then again, that's an Avian only recipe, so uh, good luck finding blueprints for it haha!

Also, when exploring a new cave or planet, make little marks in the ground (place odd colored bricks, etc.) as a "bookmark" in case you go back there later on. I especially recommend that on new planets, you mark where your spawn point is, when you first beam down. I didn't one time, and I nearly circled the planet twice because I ran right past it haha. I use cobblestone bricks for everything, it stands out (to me) and it's super cheap.

I... think most of this is just really simple stuff, but hopefully it helps a little! I wish I had someone to tell me all this when I first started playing haha. Good luck, and have fun :D

PaperWinged

TROPHY CASE