Very novice drawer; here's my first sketch of Applejack!
I've been a lurker around MLP subreddits for quite a while, and all of the fantastic fan made content out there has inspired me to try making some myself!
I've always been awful at drawing, having little success with anything more complex than stick figures, not that I've ever really tried all that hard before, but I've finally found the motivation to try and learn / improve.
So I went and bought one of those USB stylus/pad things, and here is my first drawing!
I tried to follow this guide with this reference.
Took me quite a few hours, and I'm quite happy with it for a first attempt, though it seems I have the whole body angle slightly off.
I will probably try and colour it later, and will hopefully be able to correct some of the wonky lines when I do that. (non-wonky lines are hard to avoid with a pencil and seems even harder with a stylus!).
EDIT: Updated version
EDIT2: Another update
EDIT3: Finished version
Posted Jul 4, 2012, 5:30 PM UTC · edited
These are the things I found at first glance:
Head: I think you sketched a little too wide circle for her head as the shape is a little odd, especially on her right side. If you look at your reference you can see that her head's shape on her right side by her eyes almost goes straight up with a slight curve. Her eyes needs to be shaped according to the perspective. You need to make her right eye thinner and position her left eye a little lower and make it a little bigger. Her ear seems to be a little big. That's all for the head now. EDIT: Forgot to mention her muzzle; the curve is a little too long making it really thin.
Body: Her neck is a little thick and should curve more towards her ear. Her front legs seems a little thing and could curve a little more. The curve on the front of her hind legs are good but the curve on the back could end in making the legs thicker at her hooves. The hook could also maybe curve out and down rather than up and down. You can also compress her body a little, making her shorter, not lower but shorter in the horizontal direction. Her belly could also be a little thicker.
Tail and mane: Her tail is a little large and reaches a little to far away from the body. Her mane's shape is actually okay and you should just make the ends more pointy and give them a smoother curve.
I hope I did a decent job trying to explain what I wanted to tell you, not really so good at this yet. Hope it's not overwhelming I just want to help you get better. I think you've done a really good job for your first attempt. And good decision starting with that guide.
^(Probably a little bad grammar and spelling in this wall of text, please forgive me.)
Thanks for the feedback! I've spent the past while changing all the things you've mentioned. I completely re-drew the legs and tail, and modified everything else. The only thing I didn't specifically do was shorten the body, but I think the larger legs help with that a little.
Here it is!
Did you notice my ninja edit about her muzzle(nose)? Her back legs looks really good now, the tail is much better. Her hair looks better as well, eyes too. Now there's just small tweaks for getting this to look real good. Here's a picture describing I made quickly to demonstrate.. As you weren't far off the mark, just need to change the angle of her forelegs and change her muzzle. And I'm glad to help :)
I've changed those areas along with tweaking a lot of things here and there, it's quite amazing how some of the smallest changes can really improve the overall look.
Unless there's anything majorly wrong with her (I don't think there is anymore!) I'll probably give colouring a go, as I'm quite eager to try out some new/different drawings.
Yeah, some of the small details can leave quite a big impact on how good the final product looks. There's still some small adjustments that could be made, but I'd start coloring it, finish it; and compare it to your reference. Then you can see what small adjustment you can do to make your next drawing.