One Year of Pony

Best year of my life.

First of all, thank you so much everyone for the birthday wishes! It means a whole lot to me. I've been meaning to write this for a few days, but I had a lot more to say too.

A little over one year ago, out of a mixture of boredom and curiousity, I watched a few episodes of this colorful pony show. Shortly afterwards I did something very out-of-character and something that was very rare in my life until that point - I picked up a pencil and tried to draw. And then I shared these scribbles on Ponychan, and at some time, someone said something along the lines of, "Good work, keep it up!", which I'd never even dreamt of hearing before. And so after searching for years, I finally found a reason to draw. And everyday I still look forward to seeing these wonderful people that I met way back then.

Hundreds of paintings later (and thousands of ponies ), I look back on this year and see all the wonderful friends I've made here and have yet to make, people who I truly care about and who help make my days feel meaningful and who make me proud to create things. And if you are reading this, then you are among them. People who, in addition to making drawing rewarding and fun, also help me to get inspiration and teach me techniques, or just chill out with me in the pony art livestreams, who have drawn me such wonderful things and made me happy, and for whom I've been able to put my heart into making gifts for, hoping to make them happy too. These are feelings I did not know until ponies came around.

I used to feel that the internet was a pretty awful and useless thing, nothing more than a place to waste time and play games. But finding myself here with you guys has taught me otherwise - seeing all of these people creating paintings and music and stories, putting their souls out there for the world to see, shows me that there's something good and beautiful in every person and that you can see it so clearly once they find their voice. A year ago, I'd see my computer as a place to be alone and waste time and feel ashamed about myself and my life. Now, it is a place to share, and be with friends, and create things to make people happy, to contribute your little bit of beautiful eccentricity to the collective consciousness.

I want to go to Las Vegas and buy Midwest a drink. I want to go to Norway so I can tackle Manatee and paint the mountains with Zlacker. I want to go to Israel and draw pastel Appleblooms with 5kmoe. I want to go to Minnesota and dump a truckload of watermelons through Nomible's windows. I want to meet up with Jake again at the next convention and play some music. I want to hunt down Lightbulb in California and run some analog opencanvas. I want to go to Texas and draw animals at the zoo with Faz and fight his professors. What I just wrote wont mean much to anyone else, but it means a lot to me. I love these guys. And I love a lot more of you too who I haven't mentioned here. Why do I feel so close to people who are on the other side of the world? Why would we care about and worry about each other, and keep each other's welfare at the forefront of our minds, like a genuine friend would? Because ponies. And I know, it doesn't make any damn sense, but who really needs an explanation for something that makes you feel this good If you want to know my definition of a Brony, this is it.


But this is DeviantArt, so what about art? What have I learned about it in a year?

I've learned, if you want to be an artist, then be one. You already are one.

People develop a neurosis about their artwork where they believe they aren't good enough, and they 'need to get better before they can create art'. I know this because I had the same outlook and I couldn't draw anything even though I wanted to. But this thought process is illogical, irrational, and unacceptable. The idea behind your artwork is far more important than how correctly you draw it. If, for instance, your objective is to make the viewer feel happy, and you draw a little scene with two smiling cartoon ponies, you'll succeed and feel good about your work, no matter what. Maybe the proportions are incorrect, and the background has broken perspective, and the colors are clashing. This does not matter. Look for and note the errors, work on avoiding them next time, but let them go. Noone should beat themselves up about their artwork, ever. You created something unique that is utterly yours and you transmitted your feelings onto paper and into the viewer's mind, and that is art, and that is something to be proud of, always. If that is appealing to you, then you are an artist.

You'll see a lot of extremely skilled artists creating amazingly detailed and visually pleasing pictures. But you'll also see that nice shading and perfect anatomy and pleasant colors don't, on their own, make you feel anything as a viewer. You might say, "wow, that looks nice", but will you want to cry, will you relate it to your own life, to a friend you'd lost or missed, to an opportunity you squandered, to a quiet vacation where you felt at peace, to a troubling time when you thought life was totally hopeless? Technique alone doesnt invoke emotion in the viewer. It's the idea behind the picture that brings art to life. And every person has moving ideas in them.

So never think that you can't draw an idea you have because 'your level of skill won't do justice to your idea'. Lots of people feel this way but it's simply not right. Your talent works for you, not the other way around.

This is my philosophy because drawing these ponies brought me joy even if they turned out looking crummy. And if they didn't have the power to do that, I wouldn't have started to draw at all. I have certainly gotten more skilled in the last year of drawing, but it was completely accidental! Getting better at it was a pleasant side-effect of having fun while drawing, and so I encourage anyone, if you're not having fun while you're drawing, then you need to relax your attitude towards it until you are. If you're not enjoying drawing, then you won't do it. That's just human nature. But finish a picture that really means something to you, that you pulled out of the depths of your own soul, and you'll love it and enjoy it no matter what. You'll get more skilled without even knowing it, but that shouldn't be the priority.

Over the last year I've learned a lot about color balance, value composition, line weight, drawing things in space, facial expressions, drawing cloth, sky, landscapes, etc... but what is infinitely more important is that I learned how to enjoy drawing independent of those things, and I learned that everyone has the right to feel this joy.

I also learned that you can never, ever know what will happen with a drawing before you put your pencil on the paper. You might go through a day feeling like you just can't draw anything, and you can't think of anything, and you feel like you'll hate whatever you do. But until your pencil and paper finish their dance, you can not have any clue how it'll turn out. So when you feel that 'art-block' as they call it, just spend 10 minutes scribbling and see what happens anyway.

Also, art is social. Share everything and talk to everyone and be proud of what you make. It helps and it feels good to do. That's kinda the point of Deviantart but there's a lot of people who are afraid to share their works, and they shouldn't be.



Anyway, that's a year of pony. Someday maybe I'll draw other things but I'm in no hurry to. And if I do, I know that what I've learned through drawing these colorful characters will be a great foundation for it. I do know, that this loving community here and the wonderful people I've met have made drawing a habit that I will have for rest of my life.

So thank you all so much for being there, sharing your works with me, teaching me, and giving feedback, and supporting the little pony pictures that I do. Most of all thank you to those few who I talk to and draw with almost every day. I really love you guys. A year ago, a voice called out to me, and told me to go to Ponyville to make some friends. Well I never thought I'd actually make friends with anyone, let alone with people as wonderful as all of you.