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My statistics tell me this is my 100th deviation here! I wanted to do something for that, so I decided to re-draw a drawing I remember being really proud and happy with back when I made it in early 2013. On Top of the World

…I think I spent a really long time trying to make the foreground look good, and then just didn't have any energy to put on the background? I remember I still really liked the result though. And I mean, considering how long/how much I'd been drawing at that point, it really wasn't that bad. And it's fun so see how much I've improved since then

Though this took a lot longer than I anticipated to make. I'm not used to drawing landscapes so a lot of time had to be devoted to studying pictures of Norway, looking up tutorials and trying out different ways of drawing everything to make it look the right amount of realistic and cartoony to match my skill level. I could have tried to make it even more realistic, but that isn't something I've been training and drawing before, so I'd would have taken even longer to try and do. So I eventually settles for this style, which was time consuming (zoom in on the mountain's forests, and know I didn't have brush for that. It's all line-by-line. I like torture.) but I thought looked good enough. I also had a fun time figuring out how to make the armor look like metal, and not plastic. And I do mean fun; I know I complain a lot, but it's really enjoyable working on something and figuring out how to draw it to achieve the look I'm going for

Looking at it know, I can already spot some mistakes -the angle of the light would mean that the path behind her should also be lit and thus have melted snow. But the original has partially melted snow, so I wanted to include it somehow and thought that is could be starting to melt in the sun, while some parts were still in shadow, and I didn't consider the angle of the sun. And the village could really look better. This always happens when I draw something over a long period of time, at the end I notice all the mistakes I did in the beginning. But you can't work forever, so I decided that it is finished and instead focus on how much I've learned drawing this



Anyway, in case you think she looks a bit familiar, that's because she's actually Golden Grain as an adult. Yup, Golden is one of the oldest OC's I've made. And she's remained pretty consistent too -starting as a farmer, having a little sister she loves more than anything, and growing up to be a soldier/knight for the Princess, while becoming increasingly serious and expressionless (…vulcan) as she ages. Her name and mark used to be different, but the personality and appearence has barely changed at all. It's fitting since much of per personality revolves aroung being stoic and steady.


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Though I figured, since I stopped posting stuff on this account for a few years, just looking at my deviations you'd kinda get the impression I suddenly jumped in terms of ability. So for the sake of this whole, seeing how I've improved thing, I dug up my old computer and found some pony-related art I've done for each year, just to establish a bit of a timeline. 'Cause I was still drawing all that time, I just didn't post anything — I'm not sure why? I just kinda forgot you could do that, I guess. Anyway, old artworks:

sta.sh/214gic1i700d

Early 2014 -Looking through my stuff from this time, I was really into reindeers and having reindeer oc's for some reason. I don't remember this one's name, but I made him to be a love interest for Twilight. He didn't have much personality outside of that.

Middle 2014 -I just included this because I physically jumped when I first saw it. What was I thinking, that neck looks painful.

Late 2014 -I remember really liking this one. I'd just gotten into Legend of Korra, and I was really happy with how I'd translated her looks into pony-form.

Early 2015 Hey, these seem familiar. Zaira was a an old OC which was the student of Zecora, later when I made Kinyume all of Zaira's personality and traits kinda got morphed into her. Jazz Cider is the predecessor to Ambrosia, being the child of Bid Mac and unknown unicorn mare. She was also very quiet, but was more of a "mysterious" and thoughtful kinda quiet. She was also really tall, but lanky rather than bulky. Aurora Light is proto-Fire Aurora; it's was the same character, but in the middle of her transition from misunderstood, tragic alicorn hero, to the mess she is today.

Late 2015 -I'd almost forgotten about this character. Their special talent was the ability to look and act like different people, and they had several personas they'd use when interacting with other ponies. And they were my first non-binary OC, though I didn't know that term back then. That's all I can remember about them really.

2016 -I didn't do much pony-art this year, and what I did do, I didn't finish. So just some sketches of Golden Grain, trying to figure out how her armor would look like.

2017 -Golden Grain again, with a kinda-accurate cutie mark. Seems I tried to make her buff, which makes sense seeing as she is a soldier. Also a first look at Flowerbed… and she was purple D: I later changed it to brown since I thought it made her and Golden look more related. And her mark is pretty accurate too, so you can probably guess at what her talent is.

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I am in no way gonna claim that I'm now some amazing, perfect artist, but looking back, I can at least say that I am always getting better and have improved a lot since I first started

Upvotes at import: 60 | Stars at import: 33
Posted previously at: 2018-12-08T07:19:10 | Posted previously by: Mildgyth