Mod Pic! Because Reasons.

Online, Five By Five, Alive and Amplified

Well, I finally got my internet all hooked up at home. You know what that means?

We's gonna be Livestreamin's tonight! Probably 4 or 5 hours from now... That's gonna be around 6:30PM (Eastern Standard Time) for me, 5:30 for those of you in on the east coast of the US, 4:30 in the central US and Mexico, and 6:30AM for those of you in the middle of Russia or Indonesia.

Still taking suggestions/requests for what to do! I'm gonna be drawing stuff this afternoon and screwing around with it digitally for the Livestream... if you'd like to see something, now's the time to speak up. Ask and Submit buttons are right over, you know how to use 'em. I might take requests in the stream, but I'd rather do the drawing and inking on paper in advance (I have a webcam, so I may be able to stream some traditional work. I don't have any of it actually set up yet, tho, so that's speculative at this point).

One thing in particular: If anyone has B/W or grayscale lineart they'd like to see coloured and rendered, I'd totally be up for doing some of that.

At any rate... see you there!

First real piece of MLP fan art I've done.

Ideas are like demons. They can't be ignored, and they can't be destroyed. The only way to get rid of them is to exorcise them. In my case, by drawing.

I don't know why people picture muses as smexy babes in flimsy drapery.

Quick little study of my hand, 5-10 mins. Hands seem to put most artists on guard, but I love drawing 'em. Well, maybe more of a love-hate thing. I wasted half my time in high-school drawing my left hand.

Sweet Celestia in a bucket... when I sketch, I just fling lead everywhere, don't I? Tho, some of that is actually hair on my knuckles. I'm kinda scruffy.

Does that mean this counts as furry art? Guh.

Capoeira is really fun to draw.

I saw this tutorial years ago, it's invaluable. Seriously you guys.

http://browse.deviantart.com/art/Abdomination-How-to-draw-beef-132538271 < Source

Steal This Rant

Alright, so, a friend of mine (Flux Chord) is getting trolled because he allegedly copied another artists work. As reprehensible as I find plagiarism and theft, quite frankly these people have no idea what they're talking about. It's a disgrace to allegations.

Here's how this whole thing went down... Flux Chord used a piece of art drawn by CandyClops as reference for the pose of two characters (in an amorous situation. I'm not gonna link either of the images or the artists tumblrs, because I have a pretty strict SFW policy). On the one hand, he only used the ref to draw a couple of sticks and circles before continuing on independently. On the other hand, he did not credit the original artist when the work was posted. CandyClops' followers... not Candy, mind you, the followers... have since been directing some very inappropriate and unwarranted comments at Flux. Here's the thing... this can barely be considered theft. Sticks and circles, people. There's a big difference between using reference, and tracing something. I've taken a good close look at both images, and I highly doubt that it was traced. Are the two poses very similar? Yes, they are. And I don't see what the problem is.  Before we start slinging mud about unoriginality, let's not forget that, well, they're My Little Ponies. Their designs were inspired by a cartoon show. CandyClops' work was inspired by another artist, just as much as Flux's was. Fan art is kind of like that. Furthermore, it's an extremely generic posture. There are probably hundreds artists that have used it. It's practically a stock pose. So, again, I don't think CandyClops' followers really have any high ground in that regard either. If it were a distinctive or iconic pose that CandyClops was known for, I could understand being upset. This pose is downright ubiquitous, everyone uses it. Is it cheating? I really don't think so. I use real life photos as reference all the time. It's a fundamental element of how you learn to draw: do studies till you're familiar with the subject, and then you can draw without refs. What's that? That's different because I use a photo, while Flux was using another artist's work? Well, I hate to break this to you, but Flux wouldn't be the first. You see, "copying from the masters" is a standard learning exercise. And I don't mean drawing some sticks and circles, I mean copying famous paintings and drawings verbatim. They did it in Renaissance Europe, they did it in ancient Japan, and they're still doing it today. Now... Flux didn't give credit. That's rude, totally not cool. Let's be honest, though, this was a faux pas. A minor oversight, which was quickly redacted. Hardly an infraction of the Artist’s Ten Commandments, or one of the Seven Deadly Artist’s Sins. Let's face it, plagiarism is reprehensible but I honestly think this was just an innocent mistake. Wanna know why? Okay, let's take a minute to look at why people plagiarize or steal art. Unwarranted reputation, for one. Artists generally steal work to make themselves look better than they actually are. I've known Flux since he first started getting into art, though, and I've never known him to take any such shortcuts to fame. The guy is constantly working hard to improve his abilities, and I've never once seen him cheat before. That's the main reason why I really think that using CandyClops' work as reference was nothing more than educational experience, rather than theft. Tracing is a really lazy way to make art, and that's one of the major reasons why plagiarized work is so contemptible. I've compared the two drawings, and Flux definitely wasn't tracing... no question there. He wasn't being lazy, either: the sticks-and-circles stage takes the least amount of effort, it's all the inking and coloring afterwards that's a pain. Profit's another motivation for such things... except that Flux wasn't drawing a commission. He isn't even taking commissions, so it's not like he's trying to attract undeserved clients. Well, there's always popularity... make yourself look better to attract followers. Except that if Flux was trying to attract followers, he'd have a lot more R#34 in his Tumblr and a lot less story-driven comics. Plus, that'd be Discorded Whooves and Derpy in the artwork, or Luna and one of the Royal Guards, or... well, you get the idea. His and his girlfriend’s OCs, on the other hand? Yea- no. That's not what I call pandering to an audience. (By the way: the OC's are married adults, making this some of the least illicit R#34 in the fandom I've ever seen) So, what is this really? Flux used some artwork for reference, and didn't credit the original artist. When objections were raised he took it down immediately, fully admitted to his mistake, and made an apology (sounds pretty responsible to me). Which CandyClops accepted. That's right: the matter has been settled between the two artists. What's the deal then? Why is Flux getting hounded (and his girlfriend too, for that matter)? The trolls smell blood in the water, that's what. This is harassment and nothing else, and any moral high-ground is just a pretense to spew forth vulgarities and abuse. It takes very little spin to make Flux look like a villain in this situation, making him an easy target for slander, but there's really no substance behind any of it. Seriously. There's actual plagiarism going on all the time, and people are twisting the subject like this to get a few desperate jollies by making life miserable for a legitimate artist? Is this supposed to come off as some kind of white-knighting attempt, or act of social justice? I don't think so. Like I said: this just gives allegations a bad name.

Some interesting background trivia regarding Princes Taco:

Originally she was going to be a Queen, but Hasbro intervened because Disney had established the trend that Queens were evil and Princesses were good.

Loren Faust came up with the premise for Princess Taco's debut episode, but most of the script and character design was handled by the rest of the crew, since Loren had left the team at that point. She was surprised to see Taco appear as an alicorn when the episode aired, as her original concept was for a unicorn.

Prince Fajita was originally going to be Prince Burrito, but Hasbro had lost the copyrights for the original G1 character. Loren combined the appearance of G1 Burrito and the name of G2 Fajita. Also, he was originally going to be Duke Fajita, but again, Hasbro intervened because Duke sounded evil.

When asked where Princess Taco was during The The Best Night Ever, the writers said that they hadn't even considered giving her and appearance, and she never even came up during production. Fans raged, but Taco's episode in Season 2 was very well received.

Taco's dress appears several times on a rack in the background of Rarity's shop, and is frequently reused as a set piece or prop. However, the taco is in fact her cutie mark, and is so large it just looks like an item of clothing.

True story.

two images for the new tumblr I’m drawing for, AskprincessTaco . I don’t know why I do these things to myself.

During my stream I drew that second picture and somehow that started the legacy of Princess Taco. PrinceShootingStar made the tumblr when I mentioned that I totally would if I didn’t, you know, have two ask blogs and an art blog already. So now I’m drawing somestuff for him and AskPrincessTaco. :P

(Also thanks to Whitefox for all of the amusing hasbro quips during the stream)

This is what I feel like when I wake up in the morning.

I suppose you could call this vent art, but it really didn't start out that way. My motivations when I began were to do a figure of some sort, draw someting post-worthy, and to ink the blazes outta of something. I think I got two out of three.

As far as vent art goes, I think its good for art to be inspired by the artists experiences... but when the work is self indulgent or self gratifying, the work sours. I think I got away with it here, mostly because the figure isn't in anguish or anything... just weary.

Not gonna go into what I don't like about it... I brushed the rust off my pen nibs, and that was what I set out to do.

I did finally manage to get comments working on this here blog... at least, I'm pretty sure they're working. Lemme know what you think, I love hearing peoples thoughts. 

*’m L*lling at this harder than * really should be.

*IoI. X3

if you c*nsor anything in a post you are l*gally required to put all of the omitted v*wels at the end as a footn*te

*eeoo

'Nother charcoal drawing. WhiteFox likes snow. WhiteFox likes snow very much. Also, I am apparently one of those select few who has the right kind of face for tea-shades, so I consider myself lucky there.

I don't really draw my avatar all that often... I'm not really sure how to define him. I don't think of him as a fictional character, persona, or mascot. He represents me, but I don't think of him as being me. I guess he's like the visual component of a pen-name.

I don't like this drawing as much as the one I previously posted, probably because I didn't get to define the planes of the face or neck. Course, when you're matte white, there's not a lot you can do. I did play around with using unblended strokes to add definition to the hair and beard, and it was an informative exercise, but it doesn't carry a whole lot of visual impact.

Still... I like it.