What Do You Like?

[Mute]

So after realizing almost everything in this section is super old, I decided I should try reviving it a little. What do you guys like in terms of art?

For example if I were to open up for requests would people be more interested in show style, realistic, or stylized in some other form? Would they be content with just some sketches? Maybe people prefer chibis? Pixel art? Maybe they want their OC to be anthro or completely humanized! (I've personally never tried drawing in the equestria girls style and I don't think I ever will). There's a looott to choose from and I know if I were doing requests I'd want to stick to one or two things so I don't get overwhelmed!

Maybe I'll rephrase the question to "What do you look for when you want your character to be drawn?"

When I get home I might be able to draw up some more pony art for examples, but at the moment the only pony art I have is my OC's reference sheet. Until now I've drawn nothing but humans and anthros.

 

[Eventide]

What do you call the style that you drew your OC in? Is that more on the realistic side? I thought that looked fantastic.

[Zeig]

Yeah, someone told me that the Art Discussion forum doesn't get too much traffic nowadays. I think it's because there's not a whole lot of artists active on the site at the moment, so interest in the forum wanes. 

In any case though, I know personally, I like getting art from other artists because I like their style, not because I'm looking for a particular style of pony. I love seeing my characters drawn in different artists' styles, whether it's show-style, chibi, humanized, whatever, because it tickles me pink to see how they interpret what I've conceptualized, and seeing how it differs from my own drawings.

That being said, I think you'll find on this particular forum people will be ecstatic over any art they get, no matter what style. Like I said, not too many are artists themselves, so having any sort of visual representation of their characters makes them really appreciative. You could pump out a ten minute chibi sketch doodle and people will probably be beside themselves in thanks. I know I am, no matter what sort of quality art I get!

(Also, do you have any examples of your human drawings you wouldn't mind sharing? It's kind of unique to meet a pony fan who also draws humans. I've drawn a couple of my characters humanized as well, though humans are a lot more difficult for me to draw than ponies).

[moonshineTheleocat]

I like western comic styles, painterly images, paintings, Expressive anatomy, and fantasy landscapes.

 

I honestly don't care too much for anime-esque looking things for some reason. It's something about the blocky, hard edges, or expressive shapes with the western comics that gets me to love it so much. I guess that's why I loved Jojo's Bizarre adventure's art style.

[Mute]

I'm not sure what I would call my OC's drawing, I guess that's my way of drawing show style ponies, (thick lines with slightly more realistic/defined bodies and hair) but depending on the character my style can easily swing over to more cartoony or more realistic. When it comes to 'my style', I think what I'm drawing has the biggest influence.

Mute is a character that is older and much less cartoony both in how she looks and acts, so naturally I adapt my art of her to be more realistic. She's mellow and quiet so I gave her softer colors as well as a very fluffy hairstyle. She's scientific, so I went for greys, blues, and greens because I associate those colors with science for whatever reason.

I also have another character that's a bubbly and young mule. Sure she's more limited in appearance and colors, but in comparison to Mute she's a lot rounder, brighter, and has more saturate colors.Her hairstyle even reflects her personality because it's childish and almost defies gravity (a lot like Pinkie). Even though donkeys and mules are generally more dull than ponies, she'd still be brighter than Mute. The tone of her reference sheet would be entirely different from Mute's.

With all of that said I think it's both interesting and actually quite a relief to hear that someone is fond of a person's style more than any specific style. Rather than trying to conform someone's OC to photo-realism (like those neon green and black ponies, oh lord, how would I ever manage?) I could draw something that actually matches their tone, or rather, the character's style.

12 minutes ago, moonshineTheleocat said:

painterly images

I wish I knew what you meant by this.

13 minutes ago, moonshineTheleocat said:

I honestly don't care too much for anime-esque looking things for some reason. It's something about the blocky, hard edges, or expressive shapes with the western comics that gets me to love it so much.

It sounds like you prefer angular and bold drawings to softer, rounder drawings. I can understand the appeal but I never cared much for the look of western comics. I feel like the colors are too flat and in your face. I would describe superman's colors as the "base" red, blue, and yellow, or MS Paint red, blue, and yellow. In other words they're boring. I do like that they veer closer to reality in terms of anatomy and can be really grungy or sketchy, but I mostly admire anime for the unusual colors, eyes, and hairstyles.

Anime like Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Pokemon (it counts) or older anime in general doesn't appeal to me for kind of the same reasons western comics don't appeal to me.

...Actually now that I think about it, I'm really picky about anime styles...

 

Oh! I almost forgot. Before I share examples of my work, what are the rules as far as clothing and what not? Can I show characters in a bikini or underwear, or characters without clothes but no 'details'?

[Bellosh]

1 hour ago, Mute said:

Oh! I almost forgot. Before I share examples of my work, what are the rules as far as clothing and what not? Can I show characters in a bikini or underwear, or characters without clothes but no 'details'?

1. That should be fine as long as the picture is rated PG-13 or otherwise SFW.
2. While not a formal requirement per say, we would prefer if if you uploaded images of your OCs in pony or MLP-style anthro first before showcasing fully-human variants in our Gallery. That way, we'll know that your OC has some sort of connection to MLP.
3. Rest of our Gallery Rules are here! ^_^

[moonshineTheleocat]

3 hours ago, Mute said:

I'm not sure what I would call my OC's drawing, I guess that's my way of drawing show style ponies, (thick lines with slightly more realistic/defined bodies and hair) but depending on the character my style can easily swing over to more cartoony or more realistic. When it comes to 'my style', I think what I'm drawing has the biggest influence.

Mute is a character that is older and much less cartoony both in how she looks and acts, so naturally I adapt my art of her to be more realistic. She's mellow and quiet so I gave her softer colors as well as a very fluffy hairstyle. She's scientific, so I went for greys, blues, and greens because I associate those colors with science for whatever reason.

I also have another character that's a bubbly and young mule. Sure she's more limited in appearance and colors, but in comparison to Mute she's a lot rounder, brighter, and has more saturate colors.Her hairstyle even reflects her personality because it's childish and almost defies gravity (a lot like Pinkie). Even though donkeys and mules are generally more dull than ponies, she'd still be brighter than Mute. The tone of her reference sheet would be entirely different from Mute's.

With all of that said I think it's both interesting and actually quite a relief to hear that someone is fond of a person's style more than any specific style. Rather than trying to conform someone's OC to photo-realism (like those neon green and black ponies, oh lord, how would I ever manage?) I could draw something that actually matches their tone, or rather, the character's style.

I wish I knew what you meant by this.

It sounds like you prefer angular and bold drawings to softer, rounder drawings. I can understand the appeal but I never cared much for the look of western comics. I feel like the colors are too flat and in your face. I would describe superman's colors as the "base" red, blue, and yellow, or MS Paint red, blue, and yellow. In other words they're boring. I do like that they veer closer to reality in terms of anatomy and can be really grungy or sketchy, but I mostly admire anime for the unusual colors, eyes, and hairstyles.

Anime like Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Pokemon (it counts) or older anime in general doesn't appeal to me for kind of the same reasons western comics don't appeal to me.

...Actually now that I think about it, I'm really picky about anime styles...

 

Oh! I almost forgot. Before I share examples of my work, what are the rules as far as clothing and what not? Can I show characters in a bikini or underwear, or characters without clothes but no 'details'?

 

Painterly is a style of digital painting. It's focus is mostly on color harmony, and it's blending technique is very similar to real world painting. Rather then using a blend tool to get smooth results, you constantly pick at your colors and then apply as much as needed. Brush strokes are also more visible. And really, most of it's details comes from the careful use of colors and brush strokes, rather than being drawn in.

 

 

One of the draw of western comics  for me is that the art styles are VASTLY different from one another. The figures are normally more dynamic, follow a sense of reason, and camera angles are normally more interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just really hate anime and manga because a large majority have an art style that's way too similar. And from most of what I have seen... they don't often play around with the dramatics... even for scenes that calls for them.

 

Actually... last I checked, Anime and manga tends to be a victim of the MSpainting thing. Also known as Cell Shading.

[Mute]

17 minutes ago, moonshineTheleocat said:

Actually... last I checked, Anime and manga tends to be a victim of the MSpainting thing. Also known as Cell Shading.

I don't mean cell shading. I mean more specifically the colors, such as the woman reading the scroll in the third image. I feel like many of the colors in that style are very to the point. That red is very obviously red, the blues are very obvious blues, and the green is a very obvious green. For a quick comparison, the flora in the painterly drawing you linked is mostly blue, grey, and really desaturated greens and browns. I definitely agree with you in liking images that mix colors that way, I loooove exotic lighting and colors that aren't so straight to the point.

 

 

The artists who did these images are easily among my favorite digital artists.

As much as I love these styles, I probably wouldn't choose them for character references because I don't feel like they give you a very solid grasp of design. Cell shading or even flat shading is better for getting the point across (and a little extra for texture is fine too!) but overall I love to sprinkle in some art that isn't just for reference.

[moonshineTheleocat]

You'd be surprised  Some of the colors are not actually the colors they appear to be. That red is usually a pinkish color, or a desaturated maroon. The greens are more teals, and as they get high lighted, they start using yellow. Only the most forground piece of the images actually use near black, the rest it grays out with either blue or red.

 

There's actually quite a few technical inputs that go into colors for western comics. They usually try to reduce blending as much as possible to save money. Or there are colors that are too heavy on the page, and will ruin it.

Also those comics were designed to be print under the CMYK (Cyan Manganese Yellow and Toner). Which doesn't allow a very large range of colors. Open up photoshop :P, and then run the color grading test for CMYK on any digital painting. It will show you what can and can not be reproduced.

[Mute]

What you're describing is color theory, things that are highlighted tend to be warmer colors (or slide more toward warm colors) while things that are shaded tend to be colder colors (slide more toward cold colors) but whether or not they are what they appear to be doesn't matter to me. They appear to be obvious blues and greens and whatnot. Just because it may be a purple or orange under the eye dropper doesn't mean I'm going to change my mind about the images. I do understand the need to limit colors though I'm just not a fan of the result...

Dynamic imagery and exposition is wonderful. I see it all the time in anime/manga so I'm not sure where you got the impression that they don't use it. The style is pretty limited as far as animations go, but there are a few out liars that are incredible. As inappropriate as it is, I love the style in the Prison School manga (don't look it up if you're under 18), Me Me Me! (Don't look that one up either), and Girl which is by the same people as Me Me Me!(Why are all of the examples I can think of highly inappropriate?) Girl is especially creative and makes me want to puke because they emphasize her girliness so much it looks like Lisa Frank's work at some parts, but that's the point! It uses the style to their advantage. I have a manga book called Me2, it's super weird, but the artist Sho Murase has an incredibly exotic style that plays with form and color. All of these have insane, exaggerated angles and lighting.

On the same token I can think of a lot of reasons people might hate these styles. I wish I kept all of the weird styles I've seen over the years, this topic has me rather excited about the idea.

[moonshineTheleocat]

Who let the crazy girl have a pair of scissors near waldo.

 

One thing I do like about manga is the use of screen tones. Good use of them always has a nice little effect on singling things out. Or they made really good textures. Something western comics was mixed on.

Some had textures, some didn't. It was mostly dependent on how close everything is to the camera.

 

But inking techniques were all in all similar to both comic styles.

[Mute]

On the subject of styles I decided to compare my style, the style of MLP, and real horses/ponies.

From right to left, average pony, Celestia, my pony, a random horse, and a shetland pony.

After looking over the differences between all of these I find myself wishing I threw in a comparison to a llama. It seems that the biggest changes are to muscle/form definition and the shape and positioning of the head. Real horses and ponies have outstretched necks and long faces, but the stylized versions all have more upright necks and short muzzles with a steep forehead. Frankly, they look more like llamas.

Another thing I found amusing was that after I resized everything to be the same height, the average mlp pony and the shetland pony are incredibly similar in proportions. Still, I'm pleased with how balanced my style is between the two extremes. I think I might make some small changes, especially to the neck and shape of the head.

I hope I haven't killed this topic with my rant about style, feel free to share your thoughts guys!

[moonshineTheleocat]

Well The show is called my little pony . Most ponies are of the same proportions as the real world ponies. Or a micro horse.