Some advice on painting and symbols?

[Enolaalone]

This thread has some awesome tips in it

I think with the painting as mentioned above me ^^ it is just practice. I am not practiced enough to make really smooth even FBRs, and I am not practiced enough to do tiny symbols. I am getting better at eyes though, as I've done a few recently. I like painting eyes. I am going off track here. 

[DancingPhoenix]

It also helps to lightly draw on the pony with pencil so then you can just fill in the sketch you did. And for details you can also draw with pencil right on the paint! Also don't load a brush with paint, just put paint on the very tip. Your female Tex looks great! You're better than you think you are so don't give up

[Sunshine]

Thanks everyone for all the tips and support.

Yes everyone is right - practice practice practice!! I just am out of ideas too, lol... that's another issue.
I did try with my dutch Star Pony G3 remake to draw her star in pencil... omgosh even though I did it lightly, it took FOREVER for the yellow paint to cover it. That was an instance where I had to break down and use a paint pen, because of the crisp edges I needed.

I have purchased some higher quality small paintbrushes... I have some ideas but all of them need FBR and that took me so long, I just... haven't been motivated to try it again. I have two baits in the process of FBR - both are in the VERY early stages where it's a lot of "white" mixed into the paint so that it'll cover... but, I've been so busy lately that I just can't do it... lol

I just got my first custom from a user who I'd consider a true customizer (as many of you are! I'm just... not one, lol) - and she's LOVELY. She's also a yellow pony, the symbol is great... everything looks awesome, but it DID give me a little bit of hope because... it's NOT factory. I can see BARELY little brush strokes, or... one little thing a bit different than the next... and it's PERFECT that way. After seeing it in real life, and seeing how beautiful it is, I realize that even ponies that look factory really are works of art... and aren't factory... not to mention look at how many "factory errors" we see... so, what does the factory know anyway, lol.

[CarnationTwirl]

instead of drawing on with a graphite pencil, consider using a watercolour pencil crayon.  You may need to sharpen it and dip it in water first, but the few trials I've done of that have left some nice clear marks on the pony.  I seal in between body and symbol painting so it wipes off with water.
Also instead of going straight to yellow, starting with white and glazing the yellow over top.

[LadySatine]

Hey you guys, where do you get good quality brushes? Even at JoAnns and Michael's I'm not satisfied.

[Colorscapesart]

I order brushes from dickblick.com, fast shipping!  It pays to order a few though as the shipping per item ratio gets better.

[LadySatine]

Awesome, thank you! I'm tired of cheap brushes.