Secret hacks? (Especially for nostrils, they look so odd wheb I draw them!

Secret hacks, lol!

I have found that the nostrils are quite important to get right, and looking at examples really help. Take an image from the web of an MLP character, overlap the nostrils with the same color as the body of the pony, then try to draw in the nostrils yourself (not just as you remembered them but how you feel you would draw them, what you can see in your mind). Do the same exercise but from other images with different angles. When you feel you got it right, which I think is important as an artist, to feel that you did it right, not what you think others will think, then you are good to go.

If you want to get angles right, just draw like crazy! And I mean crazy... Draw things in private, anything even if it could be considered wrong. I pushed my luck by drawing really disturbing pictures at a friends house, to see how far I could go. It became a thing (and many people have seen them and praised them, including a book publisher). And I could really feel I got more and more of the angles and perspective right. Then it was much easier to draw "normal" thing including MLP characters. It kinda takes the pressure off when you train your drawing with something that you don't really care much for if it gets wrong. And drawing, realistic or not, does help.

I have been enjoying both the stories and artstyle of G4 (excluding the movie). As a long time fan of MLP in general, I didn't think much about getting myself an OC since it is so G4 specific, but since we are on the last season, what better way to remember the show in the future than to be part of it all?

What made G4 so great was the vector graphics artstyre, which at the time was considered "okay", using Flash to make television etc. But now when Flash support ends in 2020, it is impossible for them to use the same tools, and the show's creators will move away from this, probably to 3D animation (which I am not a fan of, it forces the expressions and angles of the character designs too much).

So I was having some fun in MSPaint one day (waiting for some download, getting restless), and accidentally drew a pony character that really got my attention. Very angular, small pupils, kinda unique compared the the more rounded designs of G4 ponies with their mandatory huge pupils. You don't get to see that mess today, bcause it was drawn with a mouse, and it is kinda outdated. However, I have since then reconstructed the character from multiple angles.

Meet my OC, earth pony Splashee:

Why the name Splashee you say? It is just a fun name to pronounce. So what do you think?