Hi Have You Herad From Brian Recenty? I Think Your Frinds With Him Right Im Worryed About Him And Trying

Sketch of a heavily-armoured gauntlet for Galen. I liked how it came out, so I inked and coloured it.

You know you're  in a rough line of work when the dress code includes reactive armour plating. 

Sat down and took fifteen minutes to figure out the right and wrong way to use an ellipses template and straightedge to draw cylinders.

I'm pretty sure everyone else in the whole entire world already knows this. I hate having to figure these things out on my own. I could always just stop making art, I suppose.

Pfffft, naw. Who am I kidding. Once more into the breech.

Livestream is Streaming Lively

WhiteFox Art Studio: Come on in, everyone's welcome.

Chat rules:

Be polite, be civil.

If there's a problem in the chat, bring it up with me or a mod.

Posting of links is allowed, as long as they're personal (ie: your tumblr, dA, or FimFic page), or relevant to the conversation.

Stream is mostly SFW: no R#34, no graphic violence. Other than that, I don't object to people discussing mature subjects, there may be some blood or nudity in the art I work on, and I'll be very surprised if I go the whole night without saying a few bad words.

Discussion is encouraged, arguing is not. If you want to share your opinions, by all means do so... do not rant endlessly, shout down others, or get your panties in a bunch. Listen as much as you talk.

Roleplaying is fine, as long as you aren't obnoxious about it. Chatting in-character is okay: inane slap-fights, zaney madcap antics, and inappropriate displays of affection can get annoying if they're taken too far.

This list of rules is not comprehensive. If I say something is not allowed, it's not allowed.

What's on the schedule?

Purely digital painting and drawing. Which I've never done very much of, so it should be hilarious watching my epic flails. Bluey suggested doing some urban scenery, so I'll probably be trying some of that.

Perceptionality character art.

Scanning, editing, and colouring of an Unplanned Adventure Comic page.

I might be taking a few requests, on an "if I feel like doing it" basis. If I can get my web cam set up with a minimum of fuss, I'll stream the traditional media part. Or something

Art critique and commentary: if you have work you'd like feedback on, or there's a particular subject you wanna hear me talk about, go ahead and ask. I'll see what I can say about it.

During breaks, I may be putting on a movie or something. Probably R.E.D., we'll see.

I may sing a little bit.

Well! I think that's everything, so let's get this trainwreck started!

Balian here (and his twin brother Xanthus) are private security agents for Perihelion Industries. They bump heads with Galen from time to time

Balian is sporting an "Escort" model man-portable railgun. The coolant runs out after about fifteen rounds, but that's okay, because the quick-change barrel lasts for about twelve. In spite of this, however, the Escort is the weapon of choice for the designated marksmen of PHI's private security forces.

Balian usually operates in full-body powered armour. On the top right is his helmet.

Below that is a profile sketch. I usually do one those before I draw someone at an angle, to help me sort out the proportions of the head and placement of the features.

Hey, look. I drew some keywork 'cuz I was bored. Then I inked it, really really badly.

True story.

I might do more of these, they're good practice. Straight lines aren't exactly my strong point.

On paper, this is 12 cm across... just under five inches. I really should be able to manage one about half as big, we'll see how that turns out.

A bunch of quick and loose drawings. I do these as warmups whenever I'm having a hard time getting started and when I need to play around with poses for comics. No refs, just a heap of sticks and spheres.

I can't remember how long it took to do them... maybe three minutes per figure, though I usually go back and spend a few minutes cleaning up the ones that I like.

This little guy is a carbuncle: a lizard about five inches long when he’s not all curled up. He has a gemstone inside his head that, if extracted and correctly processed can be used to create a potion that grants the imbiber... I dunno, eternal life, or the ability to perceive the essential nature of reality, or something like that. Removing the gem kills the carbuncle, so this one is having a little quiet time sitting on his own belly, ‘cuz poachers got most of his family.

Wow: this one looked so much better as a pencil sketch than it does on screen. Especially that hind leg, jeez.

Ember-Bell's story is entirely plot driven, and she is an entirely passive character. The story moves forward because things happen to her, not because of things that she does. She endures her problems, but does not attempt to actively solve, resist, or avert them. She doesn't attempt to do anything to improve or alter her situation. She is reactive rather than proactive.

Because she is passive, her character doesn't experience any struggle. As such she is fairly pitiable, but does nothing to earn sympathy. I feel sad for her plight, but I don't have any way to cheer for her because she just isn't trying. I don't feel invested in the story or emotionally attached to the character, because there's nothing to make me wonder "will she make it?" or "how is she going to handle this?" She isn't trying to make anything happen, nor is she trying handle the situation at all. She just sits through it apathetically and suffers.

This powerlessness is Ember-Bell's only defining personality trait. It's the only thing that defines who she is, and everything else about her focuses on what she is. For comparison: Twilight Sparkle is intelligent, logical, methodical, and awkward outside her element. These are personal traits, and independent of whether she's an earth pony, unicorn, or princess. Ember-bell, on the other hand, is... well, she's resigned to her fate. We don't know anything about what she's like other than that. If she were something else, like an ordinary earth pony, she wouldn't even have that trait because she wouldn't have this horrible fate to be resigned to.

This goes far deeper than personality traits like her favourite colour or distinctive catch phrases... we don't know how she thinks, we don't know what her attitudes or morals are, we don't know if she has any principals or ideals. She's just... resigned.

Further exacerbating this is the fact that Ember has no character faults. She didn't do anything wrong to deserve this fate, so there's nothing for her to atone for... or she can't remember  what she did, which has the same end result. She doesn't have any flaws or shortcomings, so there's no potential for her to grow. Typically, in stories like these, a character gains the power to break their curse by overcoming their inner weaknesses. Ember doesn't seem to have any inner weaknesses to overcome, though.

To play devil's advocate, I suppose Ember's helplessness could be due to the format of an ask-tumblr: her actions are dictated by prompts from the reader. Unfortunately, Ember's ignorance of the mechanics surrounding her "condition" is transferred to the readers: she doesn't know how this actually works, and neither do we. All we know is what doesn't work. We know how to loose the game, but not how to win or even how to play. We, like her, are left stumbling around in the dark desperately trying not to make a wrong move. The only option is to guess randomly, grasping at straws, hoping to eventually poke something that works.

Even then, Ember responds to most such guesses with "that doesn't work, you don't understand at all." Which isn't exactly encouraging or motivational.

Conversely...

I love the concept, and how it's presented. The story is about a character who is aware that she is in a story, and that kind of meta-narrative/self-awareness is hard to handle well... and it's handled quite well so far. And I honestly can't get enough of stuff like that. If it weren't for the whole "stumbling around in the dark" thing, I would be submitting asks on a daily basis because this is a universe that I want to play in.

A Long Answer For A quick question

So I’ve been thinking a bit on this, and about my blog here, and I decided that I really need some sorta of feedback from you guys, my followers. It’s very important, and it’s just a little question or two. It’d really help me out in the long run. <3

1. Do you guys enjoy Ember’s story?

2. If so, what would you like to see more of?

First real piece of MLP fan art I've done.

Ideas are like demons. They can't be ignored, and they can't be destroyed. The only way to get rid of them is to exorcise them. In my case, by drawing.

I don't know why people picture muses as smexy babes in flimsy drapery.

For Jasper, my OC, I chose a specific breed: Irish Sport Horse, aka Irish Hunter. I'd consider that the equivalent of picking a race.

This was very closely related to his personality and character concept, not to mention his physical build and appearance (though, I didn't realize until later that I'd made him Irish and gave him a green coat).

His swooshy forelock was inspired by Superman's iconic curl of hair. I wanted give him a sort of hunky-dreamy sort of look. The ponytail and black ribbon bow was inspired by 18th-century hairstyles (Think Will Turner or Lieutennant Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean).

I actually did draw Jasper as a human at one point... I really should dig that pic up, I liked how it came out.

Hey guys

I’m just wondering, do you people with like pony characters make up the specific way your character would look if it was a human- like hair styles, race, etc.

I mean like

do you decide on the race your characters

do you decide on the body type

i mean whut.