Owner: Opareite
Gender/Species: Male/Unicorn
Name suggestion(s): Evenric Hypnos Pie (Even Pie), Midnight Flight
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A design for my shipping grid adoptables
For this one, the buyer asked for a unicorn with mainly Luna's color scheme, highlights from pinkie and a sparkly mane. So I started by finding what colorscheme to use, that didn't look like just a luna-clone, and eventually settled on this with a blue-grey body and purple-to-pink gradient for the mane. Supposed to remind a bit of the end of a sunset or the start of a sunrise.
I then went to deciding on the cutie mark, sicne that would affect how I'd design the character. I wanted to use some kind of light, to contrast with the dark of the body -faerie lights, paper lanterns etc. I remembered from when I was a kid, there was this… hot air balloon show or documentary or something on TV, which ended with the balloons glowing during the night. So I looked it up, and it turns out it's a thing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balloon_… Now, this seemed perfect for a LunaPie kid, as I the hot air balloons could reflect on Pinkie's balloon mark, and I could have them glow in warm colors. Since it would be depicting nighttime, I could also add some stars, and get a bit of Luna in there as well.
So from that, I put the mane into this… not a braid, just hair-ties in intervals to make the mane a string of floof-balls. Since I felt it would tie back with the balloon theme just a little. I made the horn curl slightly to also give the mane a round feeling. The round floof would also help tie the design to Pinkie a bit more.
I added the colors and the stars, and was reminded of the confetti in Pinkie's older design's mane. So I decided to roll with that, and gave him sparklers stuck in the tail in lieu of a rubber duck, and added a string of paper lanterns instead of Pinkie's triangular flags on a string (bunting?). The lanterns were also very nice, in that I could give them a yellow-orange-red glow, which meant that I could use those colors in the cutie mark without it appearing too out of place with the rest of the colors.
Lastly, I knew what I wanted to be in the cutie mark, but not how to place the things. Now, from what I can find, "balloon glow" is done by lighting the burners of the balloon, while still keeping it tethered to the ground. Let's the flame get really bright and lights up the balloon, without it flying away from the viewers. I decided to take some artistic liberties, and made the balloons float -gives me more options for composition. (And, this in ponies, there's probably a spell to keep the balloons from moving =P) So, I copied more from Pinkie's homework, and gave him three balloons; one yellow-ish in the center, with one blue-ish on each side and slightly further down. And lastly, added some stars to fill out space, show that it's night and tie it to Luna more.
For the names, I wanted one to follow the Pinkamena Diane Pie, Maudileena Daisy Pie -scheme, because it's funny. So, Diane is the roman goddess of the hunt, forests etc. and the roman god of sleep was Hypnos. That's easy. The first name could be nonsense, but needed to be able to be shortened into a one or two syllable name that makes somewhat sense even if a bit silly (Pinkie, Maud). For the short version, I went with Even, because it was two syllables, and fit with the "somewhat sense even if a bit silly" -Even: Eve, evening. "Evenric" was then picked just because it sound funny and plays on "Eric". But I also added a more traditional pony name if that's more your fancy, with "Midnight Flight" -it is hot air balloons on his rump after all, and thought maybe one name shuld reflect that. Also a bit funny in that it sounds like a pagasus name, which fits Pinkie's kid =P
And that's all the thoughts I had when makign this! Thank you so much for the support! :D