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Keep Pretending · FiM Minific ·
Organised by RogerDodger
Word limit 400–750
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Nellie Takes Her Bow
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#1 ·
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
Review—
Prompt relevance: very high
Style: roughly penned, some overlap and some layering issues
Background: none
Story potential: high
Result: strong contender

I love the story potential on this one. Just wishing it was a little more cleaned up.
#2 · 4
· · >>MLPmatthewl419 >>Zaid Val'Roa >>GroaningGreyAgony
Let's spread around the review love some! This art only has one comment.

My initial impression here is on the negative side — but I'm pretty sure that that's entirely an effect of the uncanny valley. Specifically, this does a good job of emulating the MLP pony style, but the body proportions definitely could use some work. The figure's about halfway between "real pony" and "hyper-exaggerated show model" and thus looks wrong regardless of which one I try to parse it as. That huge, unblinking eye is also boring straight into my soul — again, uncanny valley problem; it's much more realistic than the show's, which draws attention in.

Beyond that, this has some interesting detail offering good hooks for potential stories (and it's sad nobody did so). There's a lot going on with the taped-on Cutie Mark. The bow pose, which could have gone wrong in many ways, feels natural. There's some solid detail work in the hooves (though the details in things like eyes and hooves do feel somewhat at odds with the overall sketchiness of the piece). The tutu is a simple, well-chosen detail with a lot of implications.

Mostly, though, I wanted to point out something cool that nobody's commented on yet: her horn is also taped on.

Tier: Almost There
#3 ·
· · >>Zaid Val'Roa >>GroaningGreyAgony
>>horizon
Ya know, I thought it was pretty close to the older style pone, like G1 or G2. And holy crap, I didn't even notice the horn \O/
#4 ·
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
>>MLPmatthewl419
>>horizon
I wish I'd noticed it too, because now I'm thinking of someone dressing up real life ponies as the cartoon counterparts and making them reenact the show.
#5 ·
· · >>GroaningGreyAgony
(Art) Genre: _The Eyes_

(Art) Thoughts: I get a sense of something foreboding in this piece. I think the caption also points us toward a hint of something darker here. I can't put my finger on it, but I think it's effective at getting that across.

(Art Tier): Medium
#6 ·
·
Odd and sketchy. More interesting for its ideas than its presentation. Mid tier.
#7 · 2
·
>>Moosetasm, >>horizon, >>MLPmatthewl419, >>Zaid Val'Roa, >>CoffeeMinion

Nellie Takes Her Bow

This is inspired by the eponymous ELO song, which I also quoted in the caption; a sad song about an actress who “plays / someone else’s life upon the stage.” I originally wanted to show the full stage, with a personage representing the song’s narrator in the audience, but nothing turned out as I planned and I wound up scrawling this at 3 AM before the deadline. It’s not what I wanted it to be, but here it is, much like Nellie’s life in the song.

I was striving for a semi-realistic style with shading, but wound up drawing it haphazardly on standard pony forms, which helps lead to that uncanny valley feeling. The mark patch and horn did turn out the way I wanted them, and I’m fairly happy with her expression, on the face of it. The posture is based on actual bowing horses.

Technical note: this is a pencil sketch with the contrast adjusted on the scan to darken the lines. It resembles penwork, but no pen was used.

Thanks to everyone for your comments!