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Description
100th Deviation! Landmark! Punctuation! For! Emphasis!

I can't give words to how incredible it feels to have reached this. To think, just one year ago, I wanted to be an engineering major. One year ago, I wasn't even a brony yet. I got a dA account to host some concept art for a story I was writing. I didn't think I would end up pushing myself to this point!

I didn't even think much of my art skills back then. I had enough skills to be happy with my own things, not showing them around, but enough to visualize who and what I was writing. Back then, Pokemon dominated my life. And now... here I am. It kinda feels like a final exam I knew I damn well studied for. So much has changed.

This piece was something I planned on doing from around my 80th deviation, but only in execution then: I was literally drawing a blank on the subject matter. I knew I wanted to do something pony related, I knew I wanted to use as many mediums as possible. And the final list is: pastels, charcoal, pencil, colored pencil, acrylic paint, and ink. 3 black-and-white mediums, 3 in color.

One medium per pony, that was the rule. But I something more here; I didn't want to just limit the medium to it's own slice of the image. The way that RD's wings protrude into the acrylic, the way that AJ's figure is within the ink and pastel sections... they are meant to represent. Represent the ways that even though there will be differences between friends as medias will, that media is who they are. And that it's no detriment to these 6, whose friendship is steel-strength. Harmony isn't being together alike; it's being together different.

And their arrangement around the table isn't coincidence. Aside from neatly separating by species, think of these 6 as pure colors. By coat color, if we replace pink with red (which pink is red+white), then starting at the 9 o'clock position and going counter clockwise... Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Purple, White. The only color missing is green, right in the middle. (which could be Spike, potentially.) A positive spectrum of color.

Pinkie is the playful 'pastel', whose adherence to the canvas is only as hard as the artist pushes. It's texture is one of light-hearedness, one of roughness. It rather suits her; she certainly wouldn't have been a black-and-white medium. Her way of life is too colorful.

AJ is the firm 'charcoal' (Compressed and loose alike), which can be hard and determined in it's line work, yet soft and yielding when it needs to be. There are clear borders to what is and what is not, just as AJ is. She is plain and honest in attitude, but soft and to-the-heart in her words.

Fluttershy is the base medium of all art: the plain 'pencil', which is both the simplest and the most versatile medium. Soft, yielding, but like charcoal, can be pushed to dark and hard only when necessary. Her Element, Kindness, is the kind of pressure an artist should apply with her or his medium, in my opinion. With a gentle push, a Kindly spirit, I treat the pencil with light lines and large love.

Rainbow Dash, the vibrant, light, and colorful 'colored pencil'. I can't have a picture of RD without color, and the medium suits her. After regular pencil, the vanguard of color comes from this, blending easily with it. Fluttershy and RD have been friends since far long ago. RD guarded Flutter when she was picked on, much as colored pencil comes to strengthen the line-work of the pencil.

Twilight Sparkle, the complex and smooth 'acrylic paint'. The center of their group of friends, but also the impromptu leader of them. Acrylic paint is a difficult medium to master, never mind individual style. The medium isn't easily subtractive, but can give an incredible range of color to those who know how to work with it. A complex color medium, a complex leader.

Finally, Rarity as the strong-arm 'ink' medium. There are often temptations to sharp contrasts with this medium, and the world is always black and white. Like her very being as an artist whose choice medium is clothes, things sometimes seem cut and dry in the fashion world. There is pure success, and there is pure failure; no middle ground can be found. Such contrast casts a shadow of doubt on an artist's heart. Rarity knows that pain.

They all embody these mediums, unique to them. They remain friends because of those differences and contrasts make them each stronger in turn.

Time Estimated (Breakdown):
-1.5 hours on a pencil sketch
-4.5 hours on the "1st wave". Accomplished: acrylic (done), charcoal, pastel, pencil, colored pencil.
-1.5 hour on the "2nd wave". Retouching pencil, colored pencil, added ink (finished ink)
-1.5 hours on the "3rd wave". Refine pastel, ink, charcoal, pencil, colored pencil.
-15 minutes: Whole picture last touches.
Total Time: 9 hours. This beats out "Party Time (Cake Cave Rave)" as the most time I've spent on a single picture by 10 minutes.

Three last little notes. I originally was going to use construction/origami paper for Rarity, but... after looking at how the picture was coming together midway, it struck me better to use a different medium. (And I was apprehensive of spending 5 hours on a arts-and-crafts project for this when I couldn't be sure of the results.) Two... I think it was entirely appropriate to be listening to "Why Can't We Be Friends" by Smashmouth on repeat while writing this up. Listen to it on YouTube or something while thinking of these 6; see if you don't get a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Third, there are four more characters referenced in the picture. My OC Pennaprose and three canon characters; see if you can spot them all.

Description
100th Deviation! Landmark! Punctuation! For! Emphasis!

I can't give words to how incredible it feels to have reached this. To think, just one year ago, I wanted to be an engineering major. One year ago, I wasn't even a brony yet. I got a dA account to host some concept art for a story I was writing. I didn't think I would end up pushing myself to this point!

I didn't even think much of my art skills back then. I had enough skills to be happy with my own things, not showing them around, but enough to visualize who and what I was writing. Back then, Pokemon dominated my life. And now... here I am. It kinda feels like a final exam I knew I damn well studied for. So much has changed.

This piece was something I planned on doing from around my 80th deviation, but only in execution then: I was literally drawing a blank on the subject matter. I knew I wanted to do something pony related, I knew I wanted to use as many mediums as possible. And the final list is: pastels, charcoal, pencil, colored pencil, acrylic paint, and ink. 3 black-and-white mediums, 3 in color.

One medium per pony, that was the rule. But I something more here; I didn't want to just limit the medium to it's own slice of the image. The way that RD's wings protrude into the acrylic, the way that AJ's figure is within the ink and pastel sections... they are meant to represent. Represent the ways that even though there will be differences between friends as medias will, that media is who they are. And that it's no detriment to these 6, whose friendship is steel-strength. Harmony isn't being together alike; it's being together different.

And their arrangement around the table isn't coincidence. Aside from neatly separating by species, think of these 6 as pure colors. By coat color, if we replace pink with red (which pink is red+white), then starting at the 9 o'clock position and going counter clockwise... Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Purple, White. The only color missing is green, right in the middle. (which could be Spike, potentially.) A positive spectrum of color.

Pinkie is the playful 'pastel', whose adherence to the canvas is only as hard as the artist pushes. It's texture is one of light-hearedness, one of roughness. It rather suits her; she certainly wouldn't have been a black-and-white medium. Her way of life is too colorful.

AJ is the firm 'charcoal' (Compressed and loose alike), which can be hard and determined in it's line work, yet soft and yielding when it needs to be. There are clear borders to what is and what is not, just as AJ is. She is plain and honest in attitude, but soft and to-the-heart in her words.

Fluttershy is the base medium of all art: the plain 'pencil', which is both the simplest and the most versatile medium. Soft, yielding, but like charcoal, can be pushed to dark and hard only when necessary. Her Element, Kindness, is the kind of pressure an artist should apply with her or his medium, in my opinion. With a gentle push, a Kindly spirit, I treat the pencil with light lines and large love.

Rainbow Dash, the vibrant, light, and colorful 'colored pencil'. I can't have a picture of RD without color, and the medium suits her. After regular pencil, the vanguard of color comes from this, blending easily with it. Fluttershy and RD have been friends since far long ago. RD guarded Flutter when she was picked on, much as colored pencil comes to strengthen the line-work of the pencil.

Twilight Sparkle, the complex and smooth 'acrylic paint'. The center of their group of friends, but also the impromptu leader of them. Acrylic paint is a difficult medium to master, never mind individual style. The medium isn't easily subtractive, but can give an incredible range of color to those who know how to work with it. A complex color medium, a complex leader.

Finally, Rarity as the strong-arm 'ink' medium. There are often temptations to sharp contrasts with this medium, and the world is always black and white. Like her very being as an artist whose choice medium is clothes, things sometimes seem cut and dry in the fashion world. There is pure success, and there is pure failure; no middle ground can be found. Such contrast casts a shadow of doubt on an artist's heart. Rarity knows that pain.

They all embody these mediums, unique to them. They remain friends because of those differences and contrasts make them each stronger in turn.

Time Estimated (Breakdown):
-1.5 hours on a pencil sketch
-4.5 hours on the "1st wave". Accomplished: acrylic (done), charcoal, pastel, pencil, colored pencil.
-1.5 hour on the "2nd wave". Retouching pencil, colored pencil, added ink (finished ink)
-1.5 hours on the "3rd wave". Refine pastel, ink, charcoal, pencil, colored pencil.
-15 minutes: Whole picture last touches.
Total Time: 9 hours. This beats out "Party Time (Cake Cave Rave)" as the most time I've spent on a single picture by 10 minutes.

Three last little notes. I originally was going to use construction/origami paper for Rarity, but... after looking at how the picture was coming together midway, it struck me better to use a different medium. (And I was apprehensive of spending 5 hours on a arts-and-crafts project for this when I couldn't be sure of the results.) Two... I think it was entirely appropriate to be listening to "Why Can't We Be Friends" by Smashmouth on repeat while writing this up. Listen to it on YouTube or something while thinking of these 6; see if you don't get a warm, fuzzy feeling.

Third, there are four more characters referenced in the picture. My OC Pennaprose and three canon characters; see if you can spot them all.