MLP Sketch Rundown

Well, I asked if you guys wanted something like this, and there were a lot more yeses than I thought there would be. So, here it is. The really small... tutorial... even though it isn't really a tutorial. It's more of a rundown... tip thing. At least, it's how I go about doing a typical sketch.

I don't think I'm very good at explaining, so I'll try my best. o3o

So here we go:


1. This is where the sketch comes to life. It doesn't matter if you use references or not; I go half and half, but since this is for the purpose of how I go about it, I'm going to give you a reference I used for this drawing:
thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/grey-a…

I know they don't look exactly the same, but that's sort of the point. You don't have to follow your reference right down to the T; if you want to have the general pose but change up where the head's facing, the position of the hooves, ect, then go for it. If you don't want to use a reference, then go for it. But the most important part of this stage is to not stress over anything.

Seriously. DO NOT give a damn about how the sketch generally looks. This is the stage where you're getting the feel of the character and the overall pose and it's simply guidelines, not the anatomy and especially not the little details. Instead of precise lines, use long and gestural lines, and draw loosely. Use simplistic shapes, and don't stick with just one; use a variety of them. The guidelines of the pegasus mare here was first drawn as a literal stick imitation of a pony, and then drawn over with several simplistic shapes to "flesh" her out. In this stage, there is very little erasing unless I feel like I absolutely have to, and the lines I'm going to keep are darkened.


2. This is where I begin a good majority of my erasing. The lineart you see here are actually just the lines I wanted to keep without all that much tweaking. I only erased the lines I didn't want or need. You can, of course, keep the guidelines and stick-skeleton there if you want or need to, though. I do this sometimes because I love messy sketches. C:

This is also where I begin to add in some details, particularly to the areas I think need a little more attention than others, like the face and wings. Especially the face. I try my hardest to make each character different from one another, including facial features. So what I tend to do is study the character I'm drawing and try to see how "feel".

Does the character seem more angular? Sharper? Or are the softer and rounded out? What about the ears? Are they long, short, sharp, oval? The eyes? The expression?

I keep asking myself these things as I draw to remind myself that not every character, pony or no, are the same, so I really try to give them unique traits, no matter how subtle they are.

The mane is added here too, and like the first step, it's more gestural lines to get the general shape and "flow" of the hair instead of all the details to it. The hooves are cleaned up a bit and shaped to be a bit more natural. Make tweeks as you see fit, like for example, I changed the way the tail's hair was directed to give it a better feel of movement.


3. This one's pretty straight forward. I just erase the last of what I don't want or need and add the finishing tweaks to the sketch, such as add the detail to the mane and tail and such. You can add shadows if you'd like, although I usually don't except for in small areas, like the spot right beneath the jaw and inner legs.

Then viola! C:

This is actually how I go about any and all sorts of characters, no matter if it's pony or not. So, uh.... yeah. I hope you guys like it, and as usual, if you have any questions feel free to ask. C: