Pony drawings

[PrincessStarlily]

Wow, I love your art! Very impressed with your sense of light and shadow. What program and brushes did you use? I'm still getting a grip on digital art, and haven't attempted digital painting yet.

How long have you studied art, and what have you learned that has helped you most? I plan to major in Illustration in college, and my dream is to someday illustrate children's books or get involved in the movie industry.

Thanks so much for sharing your work! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your pony portraits.

[Galaxy91]

Thanks for the compliments, I'm glad you like it!

What program and brushes did you use?

I use Adobe Photoshop CS6! I have mostly self-made brushes, and brushes I collected from differnt sources. Many artists offer free brush packages, and if I like how it looks, I download it and keep the ones I like best. For my Skylark picture I did not use any special textured brushes (except for the tinsel) - I just tried to make it look smooth by smudging the shadows very softly. Here's the link to a very useful tutorial of how to make a good smudge brush, I highly recommend it!: http://kir-tat.deviantart.com/art/Photoshop-Blender-261362265 The tinsel I made with a self-made glitter brush. Its basically just a brush that scatters dots about  If you overlay a few shades of the same color and top it off with white, it will look like glitter!
I hope that helps 

How long have you studied art, and what have you learned that has helped you most?

I went to art school for a year, and years later I went to Game Art & Animation school. This gave me the chance to learn a wide variety of skills and techniques.
I think what helped me most is seeing how professional 2D artists work, getting resources and hints from them. School helps you with that, but there are also amazingly talented concept artists online that offer tutorials and videos to people who want to get better. You can learn so much by yourself this way!

The internet was a great help for me in many ways. I had deviantart accounts since I was 13, and it really pushed me to draw more! Its just so satisfactory to upload your art to a community, get feedback and compare yourself to others. It motivates you to practice, which is probably the most important thing.  Also you can ask for critique, which helps you to see your own mistakes.

I think majoring in Illustration is a great way to learn! It will give you the chance to spend a huge amount of time with drawing, try out many different techniques and get feedback from skilled people. I'm sure this is a good path to choose!

[HelloGoodbye]

Your art is amazing!  I love the whole piece, but my favorite part is the tinsel.  It looks so real!  I also feel like tinsel is something that would be really challenging to draw, but you made it look perfect!

[Harmonie]

Amazing! Like HelloGoodbye I really like the tinsel, however, the tinsel is made even better by the shadows and lighting!

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

That sound you just heard was my jaw hitting the floor