The sliding scale of realism, the horse girl dilemma

[WingedDragon]

Is anybody else here being a horse girl first, and only My Little Pony because...horse? Every time I try to draw some serious Pony art, I always ended up referring to photo of real life horses. They are so full of personality and power, even if their eyes do not emote much, or at all.
When rendering the pose I referenced into Pony, they lost so much. The joints really adds a lot to the perspective. It is worse when I am using my real life dolls as model because many poses has their legs in uneven length. If anyone of you have Styling Star Catcher or Cheerilee (Unicorn), you will know exactly what I mean.

How do you approach these problems? What is your personal "perfect" pony proportion?

 

[Sassarazzmadazzles]

I started off as a horse girl too lol - when i draw, i just kinda put what im feeling into it!

 

[otteroflore]

I was not a horse girl, but I was an art kid who learned how to draw horses in a second grade extracurricular art class where we had to actually learn anatomy (i added a horn to mine ofc) (also i used this knowledge to learn how to draw sparklewolves later on, before i discovered MLP)
But! I have drawn a lot of ponies, and I am incapable of sticking to one style for them so in many different styles. I think using real horses (or ponies) is actually really good, because then you're thinking about how to interpret the horse into a simpler style. But they definitely work better if you have a more dynamic post, which I think is why so many pony drawings have that "one leg up" pose. For sculptures I'm sure theres more of a difference in anatomy because I would think that they're manipulating the anatomy so the horse can be posed and stand up.
In terms of finding good references for cartoon art, I think it's also good practice to find the most professional sort of... version of pony that you want to draw and examine that. Like, when I was learning g4 art style I looked at Lauren Faust's sketches on dA, or box art type stuff, instead of the show (cause that show had lotsa weird glitches lmao). I was also really into the babybluebell pony maker on dolldivine and I remember that artist had really great style (It was more like g3, I would say). And things like these g1 stickers I found online were so cute while also having some really subtle creases in the joints that I think give them a great sense of movement and perspective (esp the middle ones):

but I mean, I was never perfect at drawing them, I veered into the territory of stylizing things a lot. I mean, my most recent pony fanart was.... well...

/anyways/ bug eyed ponies aside, it sounds like maybe you just have a more detailed style than other people, which is fine! You could also explore adding shadows to show details around the joints, or even feets that are littler, more like a proper horse. I always really liked pony art where the legs looked more properly little like a pony, like the g1 ponies mostly have legs that seem the same width around, and they really thickened them up by g4, which is just so weird when you look at an actual horse, which have itty bitty legs.

 

[Jellybean]

I love to look at drawing ponies with an understanding of real horse anatomy, because to me, part of what makes (G1 specifically) MLP so appealing is that they aren't just cartoony little blobs, they have some consistency in their anatomy that clearly draws on what is appealing about real horses. I try to keep an eye on proportion in my drawings, keep things curvy where they should be curvy and jointed where they should be jointed, but let it be simplified into the plump little shapes that make them cute. Is any of this making sense? I've never been able to describe art in explanations very well. XD

 

[MezzoVii]

whenever i draw ponies, i take inspiration from arabian horses (my favorite horses), as well as the proportions of g4 princesses and g1 sweetheart sisters. most mlp toys have thick stubby leggies, and i think it's harder to draw a dynamic pose with those proportions.

 

[WingedDragon]

@otteroflore @Jellybean I can never thank Bonnie Zacherle enough that she shared her love of horses to the world. G1 design really reflex on that love of horses and real life ponies. The main character Meagan is even a farm girl. That is also kind of a problem when G3 has forgotten its farmcore root.

Quite funny that you two mention that G1 bumps on the legs really bring the life into the ponies, Because I am always torn between the original Gayle Middleton:

And the more anatomically dynamic, Carlo LoRaso

The design philosophy is clear, toy-accurate vs more alive. Carlo did something similar to G1 legs.

@MezzoVii I think is the reason why G2 has its own charm even if they were so different. The legs are just fun.

 

[ChocolateStarfire]

I'm not sure which came first...horse girl me or MLP me? I've had similar dilemmas when I draw ponies--I also like to have horse-like expressions and appearance vs the G4...G4.5 look. I like to have a middle ground with my pony drawings, somewhere between actual horse and actual pony toy.

A more horse-like version of my ponysona, Chocolate Starfire (I drew this in the early 2000s):

<--This was a drawing I made of my ponysona-horse-sona in 2011
More doodles:

A drawing of a custom pony of mine, Andrew Strawberry, that I digitally colored in 2007

<-Rainbow Curl Pony Stripes (more horse-like proportions)

<-Twice As Fancy Buttons (more pony-like proportions)

 

[Sassarazzmadazzles]

So like, this is more of my pony in my style, i feel like you can see both pony and horse in it
like the head is huge and she has a jelly bean body, thats the pony parts, but the over all look is more horse? if that makes since

I was trying to find a picture i did but it has ran away from me, where it has my three ponies together, but they just look like straight up horses lol

 

[WingedDragon]

View attachment 79724
So like, this is more of my pony in my style, i feel like you can see both pony and horse in it
like the head is huge and she has a jelly bean body, thats the pony parts, but the over all look is more horse? if that makes since

I was trying to find a picture i did but it has ran away from me, where it has my three ponies together, but they just look like straight up horses lol

Yours does feel like a more realistic G4 rendition. G4 was criticized to be heavily stylized for the benefit of animation, but they do look and act like ponies. It was a plot point the Zecora episode that she unknowingly perform a pony threat display which cause the entire town to be afraid of her.
I say this is a good creative choice. Do you like MLP Movie artstyle too?

I'm not sure which came first...horse girl me or MLP me? I've had similar dilemmas when I draw ponies--I also like to have horse-like expressions and appearance vs the G4...G4.5 look. I like to have a middle ground with my pony drawings, somewhere between actual horse and actual pony toy.

A more horse-like version of my ponysona, Chocolate Starfire (I drew this in the early 2000s):
View attachment 79686
View attachment 79687 <--This was a drawing I made of my ponysona-horse-sona in 2011
More doodles:
View attachment 79688

A drawing of a custom pony of mine, Andrew Strawberry, that I digitally colored in 2007

View attachment 79692 <-Rainbow Curl Pony Stripes (more horse-like proportions)

View attachment 79693 <-Twice As Fancy Buttons (more pony-like proportions)

You are basically me. I have a lot of drawing that is just horse, but with anime eyes and extra fancy mane. I love what you did to the Rainbow Curl. Normally, MLP colours don't look too good on realistic pony, but you strike some very nice balance of it.

 

[Sassarazzmadazzles]

Yours does feel like a more realistic G4 rendition. G4 was criticized to be heavily stylized for the benefit of animation, but they do look and act like ponies. It was a plot point the Zecora episode that she unknowingly perform a pony threat display which cause the entire town to be afraid of her.
I say this is a good creative choice. Do you like MLP Movie artstyle too?

You are basically me. I have a lot of drawing that is just horse, but with anime eyes and extra fancy mane. I love what you did to the Rainbow Curl. Normally, MLP colours don't look too good on realistic pony, but you strike some very nice balance of it.

its cute, but sometimes its too round in the faces lol