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i wish I had a scanner
Fics
Intricate ink work. We have four quarters of a moth's wings, one for Celestia, one for Luna, one for Twilight, and one without a cutie mark on it. The fourth quarter is not colored like any of the alicorns in the show, but with colors complimentary to Starlight? I'm not sure. It could be any pony, really.
But the whole thing is overlaid on a light sketch of another, identical moth, oriented a quarter-turn from this one. Surely the artist would have used a clean sheet of paper had he or she wished to do so, and we can only conclude that this ghost of a moth is relevant to the picture. But what does it mean?
I don't know. But this work is clever and executed well. There's a few places where the ink lines get a little sloppy, but we were all pressed for time. Look at the clean, crisp lines on the orange Celestia wing - beautiful, with a clean border between the outline of the wing and the precise crosshatching there. If time hadn't run out, I suspect the Luna and Twilight wings would have benefited from the same precise linework.
This is beautiful, and I second the notion that I wish you had a scanner.
But the whole thing is overlaid on a light sketch of another, identical moth, oriented a quarter-turn from this one. Surely the artist would have used a clean sheet of paper had he or she wished to do so, and we can only conclude that this ghost of a moth is relevant to the picture. But what does it mean?
I don't know. But this work is clever and executed well. There's a few places where the ink lines get a little sloppy, but we were all pressed for time. Look at the clean, crisp lines on the orange Celestia wing - beautiful, with a clean border between the outline of the wing and the precise crosshatching there. If time hadn't run out, I suspect the Luna and Twilight wings would have benefited from the same precise linework.
This is beautiful, and I second the notion that I wish you had a scanner.
Review—
Prompt relevance: low
Style: good inked designs
Background: none, leftover sketch visible
Story potential: low
Result: Needs work
I do like this image, and I think there’s good artistry at work here, I just don’t see relation to the prompt or potential for a story to come from it.
Prompt relevance: low
Style: good inked designs
Background: none, leftover sketch visible
Story potential: low
Result: Needs work
I do like this image, and I think there’s good artistry at work here, I just don’t see relation to the prompt or potential for a story to come from it.
(Art) Genre: Yes
(Art) Thoughts: This is pretty! I don't get the connection to the prompt, but that's okay--you inspired some stories with this!
(Art Tier): Medium
(Art) Thoughts: This is pretty! I don't get the connection to the prompt, but that's okay--you inspired some stories with this!
(Art Tier): Medium
There are scanning apps available for smart phones. On Android, I use Google’s Photoscan app. I like the iconizing, but it could have been more crisply executed. Mid tier.
>>Hap I'm glad you liked it so much. :) Truth be told, the second moth is on the back of the paper. I didn't think it would show through as much as it did, because no scanner, but... yeah. I was working with a bunch of loose sheets, trying to nail the outline, and I started filling this one in to see how it would look. After doing the eyes and part of the right wing, though, I decided I didn't want to start over with a clean sheet of paper... So it was kinda a mix of time and laziness, really. I should get some thicker paper for drawing.
You're definitely right about some of the ink being sloppy. I did this all in one sitting, and my hand was getting pretty tired. I should have broken it up a bit, to keep the shapes fresh and give my fingers a break, but yeah. The order here was right wing - outside part of left wing - right tail - rest of left wing - left tail - body, and I think it shows. I'm especially unhappy with the left wing, tbh, because it's very complex without being equally interesting.
>>Moosetasm
>>CoffeeMinion
The relation to the prompt is that moths have false eyes on their wings; they're essentially 'pretending' to be bigger and more important than they are. The 'eyes' thing kinda got subsumed by the Luna/Celestia thing, (and Twilight's star was a pure whim) but those patterns are intended to look like a closed eye and an open eye, as well as the sun and the moon. I probably should have drawn the eyes as slightly more realistic, and let the colors carry the pony connotation more, but this was originally conceived in black-and-white; I started with a simple ballpoint and some printer paper. When the ballpoint died, I went to office depot and bought some gel pens, so color was added, but I didn't re-design the eyes. I originally wanted it to be more eyes, less pony, but it sort of ended up the other way around.
You're correct about it being a fairly nondescript story-prompt, though, I'm very pleased that it got used at all, especially when there were so many better pieces.
>>GroaningGreyAgony
I have a scanner app on my phone, and I did give it a try. Unfortunately, whatever correction algorithms it used insisted on smearing the color out of the lines and into the whitespace. It's possible yours would be more effective, but I think the relatively high-contrast with thin lines made this a bad fit for automatic clean-up. I legit did consider importing it into a photo-editor and cleaning it manually, but time and energy weren't there. Maybe next time I'll use the scanner at work.
Thanks for all the comments, guys! I'm glad I made this.
You're definitely right about some of the ink being sloppy. I did this all in one sitting, and my hand was getting pretty tired. I should have broken it up a bit, to keep the shapes fresh and give my fingers a break, but yeah. The order here was right wing - outside part of left wing - right tail - rest of left wing - left tail - body, and I think it shows. I'm especially unhappy with the left wing, tbh, because it's very complex without being equally interesting.
>>Moosetasm
>>CoffeeMinion
The relation to the prompt is that moths have false eyes on their wings; they're essentially 'pretending' to be bigger and more important than they are. The 'eyes' thing kinda got subsumed by the Luna/Celestia thing, (and Twilight's star was a pure whim) but those patterns are intended to look like a closed eye and an open eye, as well as the sun and the moon. I probably should have drawn the eyes as slightly more realistic, and let the colors carry the pony connotation more, but this was originally conceived in black-and-white; I started with a simple ballpoint and some printer paper. When the ballpoint died, I went to office depot and bought some gel pens, so color was added, but I didn't re-design the eyes. I originally wanted it to be more eyes, less pony, but it sort of ended up the other way around.
You're correct about it being a fairly nondescript story-prompt, though, I'm very pleased that it got used at all, especially when there were so many better pieces.
>>GroaningGreyAgony
I have a scanner app on my phone, and I did give it a try. Unfortunately, whatever correction algorithms it used insisted on smearing the color out of the lines and into the whitespace. It's possible yours would be more effective, but I think the relatively high-contrast with thin lines made this a bad fit for automatic clean-up. I legit did consider importing it into a photo-editor and cleaning it manually, but time and energy weren't there. Maybe next time I'll use the scanner at work.
Thanks for all the comments, guys! I'm glad I made this.