Mane 6 – Different as Night and Day

My vision of the Mane 6 as characters.

It can be hard to distinguish the details in my character designs without having a bunch of them standing together, which I don’t do very often.

The characters I do aren’t cookie-cutter shapes. One thing I do enjoy in art is giving attention to details for characters to stand out uniquely from each other. This includes their height and body shape, width of hooves, how frizzy their manes are, length and size of wings and horns, eyebrow shape, fluffiness, and shape of fluff. However, I do prefer thinner, shorter necks and thinner limbs with large hands/hooves.

The downside to this is that characters aren’t drawn very consistent, which means the sketch-build stage takes significantly longer and it’s nearly impossible to animate together in motion.

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Some people think I have a “Tim Burton” style, but there’s loads of artist who also do this sort of deal, and far deeper than I. But while Tim Burton wants to make cute things be creepy, I just want to add creepy elements to something cute, while keeping something creepy if need be.

PINKIE PIE

Size – Average

Build – Average

Fluff – Rounded frizz

Eyes – Rounded, cute

Mane – Very frizzed, looped, puffy

I draw Pinkie Pie with a gold tooth. This is because I imagine her as needing one after discovering sweet treats and not caring for her teeth very well—-on purpose—-to get the gold tooth instead of a natural replacement. Most artists (and there’s very few) who do draw ponies different sizes often make Pinkie Pie “thicc” or plump due to her diet on sweets. I would, except I think her hyperactivity burns so many calories that she’s able to maintain an average weight and size. Her hair I imagine to be the likeness of frizzy cotton candy.

FLUTTERSHY

Size – Taller, small wings

Build – Thin and awkward

Fluff – Short and sift

Eyes – Oval tall, cute, pretty dark

Mane – Silk smooth but frizzed

Oh, poor, dear Fluttershy! I give her characteristic dark circles; doing this draws a lot of attention to the eyes and makes them ‘pop out’, giving a sense of PTSD and alertness, like something isn’t quite right. Yep! Fluttershy suffers from PTSD as she’s so easily startled. And Fluttershy’s general lack of sleep caring for animals all the time adds to the dark circles. She has smaller wings and she’s fluffier do to being a bird-horse.

I also put her on a tall body with flared hooves to make her appear awkward and clumsy. She thinks Rainbow Dash is taller than her, but as a gentle giant, she doesn’t know how tall she is!

TWILIGHT SPARKLE

Size – Average, long horn / wings

Build – Average

Fluff – Average

Eyes – Average, dark

Mane – Straight but slightly frizzed

Book horse I think is a mainstay (pun) source for all things average IMO, except her eyes and hair. Twilight’s extremely busy lifestyle and constant stress I feel warrants her to have darkened eyes of insomnia. This is a pony who could sleep for 12 hours and still not wake up rested. I also don’t think she’d spent a lot of time on her appearance, letting her mane and coat remain brushed at minimum.

RAINBOW DASH

Size – Short, long wings

Build – Sma… “aerodynamic”

Fluff – Sifted Pegasi-fluff

Eyes – Average

Mane – Slightly Frizzed

Suffering from spunky case of “little mare syndrome”, this is what we call “smol dash”. She’s spunky, larger, stronger wings help carry her through the air. She’s missing a tooth because of her activities and her hooves aren’t nearly as polished as the others. She doesn’t brush her coat often unless to be presentable as a Wonderbolt. I also try to make sure Rainbow Dash is a bit more flat in the chest.

APPLEJACK

Size – Very Tall

Build – Large

Fluff – Rough and unkempt

Eyes – Wide

Mane – Coarse and straw-like

The apple-bucking farm pony. She’s strong and well-built, with somewhat sharp angles I usually reserve for stallions. Very poorly-tended hair and coat. The ponytails of her hair are dense like a mace and weapons in their own right. Like Dash, I also give her stiffer eyelashes and 2 instead of 3 lower lashes.

RARITY

Size – Tall, long, thin horn

Build – Thin and trim

Fluff – OCD Brushed

Eyes – Oval

Mane – OCD Brushed

Rarity is perhaps the most opposite of the stylistic choices I make with most of the Mane 6 because she’s so clean and well-groomed. I also slim down her appearance. Unlike some other artists, I draw her (and her sister) tall instead of short and petite; she just has that air about her. I also felt she needs elf ears.