Planning customs?

[Sawkinator]

I see a lot of people talk about the customization process, but not much about the planning. How do you all go about it? Do you use lineart/bases? Keep it in your head? Do you wing it? Do you work on one at a time or do you have several concepts to choose from? Where do you get inspiration from? I'm curious to hear how everyone does it!

[BlackCurtains]

Inspiration can come from anywhere for me. I think mostly I go off the base I want to use, like the body color if I don't want to do a FBR. Like for example, I have a light yellow and light pink pony on my desk and I want to do spring/Easter themes. Sometimes it will be a whole color palette. I like using Color Hunt for palettes. Other times I look through my art supplies and see what I have, maybe I'll find something that way.

I also think about what I want to do. Like if I feel like sculpting wings - what kind? - dragon wings - is it a dark and scary dragon or a light and beautiful dragon? and go from there. I think about customs I've made in the past and usually want to do something different. I go through my hair stash if the pony will have hair to see what colors I already have.

Typically, I keep everything in my head. I can "see" my idea in 3D when I look at the bait, but I can never get it down on paper when I try. I might write down details I'd like to do, like adding jewelry or if I want curly hair or something, but that's mainly so I don't forget. When I start I try to replicate what I see in my head but that doesn't always work out either. If I'm having a hard time making something work, I'll shelve the custom for a while... or a long time. I have WIPs going back like 10 years

Usually I go in with an idea though. Then I look at my baits. Everything starts to come together after that.
So my process is kind of like this:

- I decide I want to make an ocean themed custom.
- What gen?
- Do I want to do a FBR or not?
- If I do, then I look at baits for poses I like or think look "beachy" or whatever
- If not, then I look for body colors that I like and fit the theme, like Goodie Goodie (of course this depends on what baits I have, I rarely buy baits for specific projects, so I just pick what would work best from my stash)
- What hair colors do I want to use?
- What elements do I want in the design?
- Do I want to sculpt or paint them?
- ...and so on.

I tend to work on one at a time, but I have done several at once. I'll be working on three customs coming up soon.

More places to get inspiration from include Google images (I use that a lot for refs), Pinterest, Mood boards, scrapbooking paper sets... going to an arts & crafts store but be careful because you will buy everything

[SunPony]

Great questions!
I've gotten inspiration from looking at the bait ponies I have available, looking at a swap partner's idea list, even dreams!  Or maybe - from wanting to see a pony from one generation in a different generation's style.
I'll usually mull it over in my mind for days, weeks, months, or even years before actually doing anything.  In that time I'm thinking about all the different options for how to make the pony.
Once I have a solid idea, or maybe a few different ideas for the pony, I will make lineart of the base - I usually trace the bait pony.  Then I drew/color my ideas on the pony lineart to see how they will look.  I might do several drawings until I see the one I like.
Hope this helps.  Maybe I could dig up some sketches later....

[Griffin]

How have I managed to miss this wonderful topic?!

For me it depends. When I first started customizing, I would often just doodle some designs and then pick my favourites (or ones I could easily find materials for, I didn't have access to quality nylon hair at first, for example!) to work on. Some of these never got made into actual customs.

For years I almost exclusively made customs for swaps and commissions. In those cases I had my partners or customer's wish list to get me started. Swaps in particular are still one of my favourite ways of going about custom planning. I love having some ideas to choose from, even some limits like my partner's preferred poses or favourite colours, but also having the freedom to develop those ideas further and putting my own spin on them, within the parameters provided by the recipient's wishes.

However, every now and then I would get an idea of my own and run with it. In these cases I have drawn inspiration from nature/wildlife, colour combos or palettes, music, artwork, everyday life... Once I was inspired by the colours and patterns in my summer dress. Sometimes there's a specific material I want to try, like the bright orange wool roving I found at the fleamarket, and plan my custom design around it.

As for the actual process, I usually start by brainstorming, either in my head or on paper. I may write down ideas and/or limitations, perhaps go digging through my bait stash to find one that matches those ideas. At this point I may have a concept in my head, sometimes an almost complete one, sometimes only a vague idea. I usually start by picking the bait I want to use. Then I draw a sketch, copying the pose of the bait. I almost always do full colour sketches of my customs before I start working, as I like to see how the colours work together. I also typically stick to this sketch, although every now and then I might decide to change something in the middle of the process. Especially with more complex symbols I like to draw them on paper first. Sometimes I use parchment paper and pencil to transfer the sketch onto my pony and paint over that - this is a great method if you want to do the same symbol on both sides and need to make them identical and aligned! Sometimes I wing it, though. I may sketch with pencil or white gel pen directly on the pony before painting. Either before the FBR, just to see what size the symbol/details will be (I like to do ponies which have detail painting all over them, lol, not just traditional symbols), or over the FBR and then paint right over my sketch. For me it's easier to map proportions, for example, when doing this in pencil or pen rather than paintbrush.

When I was more active, I used to have several WIPs at any one time. I still like to work on at least two, as there's always waiting time involved. But for years I've been quite inactive so I may just have the one. At the moment I actually have a list of designs/ideas I'd like to try, but let's see...