#mlp tutorial

made an incoherent eye tutorial thing because somebody gave me the idea <3 the way i rendered the right one is slightly worse and different than how i usually render them but its good enough i thinj .. it was soooo late wen i made this

HOW TO: Sketch Ponies

First and foremost, I’d like to clear something up right now. This is not a sure-fire way to suddenly become a great artist. Even when using this guide to sketching, you will have anatomy issues, and you will still need practice to improve. However, this is a huge stepping stone to getting on the right path to improve dramatically. I say this because, well, if you’re here, I’m assuming it’s because you either want to learn how to draw… or you’re another artist curious to take a peek at how one artist may teach others how to sketch. Either way, welcome! I am not here to make you a pro, just give you the tools get on the right path. Let’s get onto the tutorial.

Step 1: Draft a Pose

Now, I normally just stick to 4 circles and 4 lines for the legs. All the circles should be the same size, and when straight, all lines should be the same length when place appropriately on the body. I usually connect the lines at the hip and shoulder for all legs, in order to ensure that all the legs are at the same length but resting at the appropriate distances on the ground. So, at a resting stand, normally the legs farthest from the viewer are going to be placed “higher”, unless I’m doing a more complex pose, due to distance. It gives the illusion that they are placed farther back.

Aside from the 4 circles and 4 lines, I also use a face grid. The vertical line helps me decide where the muzzle goes, and the horizontal line helps me decide where to place my eyes. As a general rule of thumb for my work, my eyes usually go slightly above the line for adult ponies, and my muzzle should connect between them and end just below the horizontal eye line. Fun fact, in anime works (human anyway), how high or low your eye placement is can help portray certain ages.

Step 2: Build the Shapes

Now, this is where you add your anatomical structure to your sketch. When you’re drafting a pose, you can get loose with your lines and circle placement to add fluidity to your image. Adding the anatomical structure should be the second step. Swapping the two can result in a extremely stiff image!

When it comes to adding shapes, it’s critical that you know WHAT shapes to add. Referencing a image to pull shapes from is the most sure fire way to do this. For this I mixed both organic and geometric shapes. So, take the hips for example. It’s a bit more of a organic shape versus the front legs, which are made up primarily of rectangles and triangles. Either way will work, whether you stick to more organic or more geometric shapes. However, beginners should stick to the shapes pulled directly from their references before playing with their preference of geometrical and organic shape mixes at the sketching stage. I tend to notice that the more comfortable I am with the shapes of what I’m drawing, the more organic the shapes become and thus, the more fluid they are. But for the sake of the tutorial, I forced geometric shapes in there. Which, admittedly, threw me off a bit when it came down to anatomy and fluidity. But, since it’s just a quick thing, I didn’t worry about it much. Honestly, with poses I’m entirely comfortable with I actually skip this step entirely and go straight to outlining.

Take note on how I drew out the entire shape set for each limb, rather than stopping at each intersection. This is to ensure that I have shape consistency throughout each limb, resulting in better anatomy and proportions later down the road.

Step 3: Clean Up The Shapes

Okay! Now that you’ve done all that shape work, it’s time to erase all the lines and shapes that won’t show in the sketch. I usually try to leave some sort of “connector” for the chest and neck anyway, however, as I have this chronic issue of drawing the neck way too long and I need to be sure when I adjust it, it’s not suddenly too short because I put the head too close to the neck and chest intersection. But, if you don’t have that problem, I wouldn’t worry about that too much.

From here, you should start to see the outline of what will eventually become your sketch. It’ll be a bit easier to maneuver around your skelton at this point, seeing as you no longer have to worry about a clutter of lines in your way, pulling your eye and getting you confused. Feel free to just lower the opacity if you feel you may need them later, but I tend to just erase them.

Step 4: Sketch Around The Shapes

Okay! Now onto the tricky part, because there isn’t really much of a guide at this point other than what you’ve set up. Since that may vary, I can’t really give much strict instruction, either. Just work on getting a more accurate sketch of your base pose, really. Add details, draw out the eyes and muzzle, things like that.

Step 5: Clean Up Anatomy And Proportions

Now at this point, unless you’re comfortable with anatomy and proportions, you should have a reference. You’ll need to be sure everything is proportionate, so for example your head isn’t twice the size of your body, and your legs aren’t 4 different lengths, etc. This is typically where artists fail the most. Why? Because people forget that anatomy is NOT the same as style. You can only break anatomy for your art style once you LEARN anatomy, so that it is still appealing. Take Tim Burton for example. You really think any normal dog looks like Sparky from Frankenweenie?

See, Tim Burton is able to break anatomy because he has learned anatomy and learned how to properly break with while still enabling it to look decent enough to flow with his style. But really, you shouldn’t worry about your style AT ALL. Nope, nope, just worry about learning the basics of art. Once you do that, you can fine-tune your art style because honestly? Chances are, unless you’re seriously heavily referencing others works or photos, you already have the foundation of it right in front of you. That’s just anatomical style, however, coloring and shading style is also something you can work on. Anyway, just keep that in mind. Moving on!

The Final Sketch

Now… as I said, the shapes kind of threw off my anatomy a bit since I don’t really use them anymore. Especially with a pose like this that I’m generally used to using more organic shapes with. I didn’t bother with it too much, though. At this point, you make final adjustments and then… draw your character! Eventually you’ll have your result, which I hope leads to a art piece you’re proud of. I can be a hypocrite when saying this, but never be disappointed in your work. Every piece, whether you view it as good or bad, is a stepping stone to improvement. Every sketch is a learning opportunity. Don’t expect to be a full-blown jaw-dropping artist right off the bat. It takes a long time, just keep working at it!

Thank you! I didn't know some of you really liked the mane 6 redesigning!

It really isn't that hard to do it in the original style of the mlp series! So!

here is how I draw my redesigns in the mlp g4 style: