Today, we have my griffon girl, Gaela, posing with the charming and powerful Chieftess Muyal, a snake pony of one of my good friend’s design. In a rather rare event, Gaela has opted to wear some clothes, a traditional garb of Muyal’s tribe intended for winged visitors. The dress is actually designed to contain a creatures wings to prevent them from suddenly flying away. Gaela insisted on wearing it with the locking mechanism engaged… you know, for the full experience! The Chieftess is a big fan of birds, and while she’s met many pegasi visitors in the past (as evidenced by her headdress), Gaela happens to be one of the first griffons she’s been able to meet face-to-beak. She takes the opportunity afforded by her visit to get a few photographs taken with her, which Gaela doesn’t mind at all; after all, she loves being in front of a camera.

This was my first real attempt at a snake pony… I’ve gotta say, the flexibility of their body offers nearly infinite different ways to pose them, especially when you put them in an environment where they can freely wrap around tree branches or obelisks. I like that you can be very freeform with how you pose their bodies, it’s probably what I enjoyed most about designing this piece. I drew a few different sketches for the BG; the first, I had them in her throne room, but then I wanted to have Muyal coiled on some sort of structure. I tried a golden obelisk from her village, but then a more natural jungle scene came to mind. I feel like this was the strongest BG for the scene. The object in Muyal’s hoof also changed a few times; originally, I had her posing with the key to Gaela’s dress, but then I swapped it out with a golden orb and eventually settled on this amethyst one. I think it offers a nice color complement to the rest of the colors in the scene.

Inspiration seems to always strike me fiercely and at random. That’s exactly what happened with this piece, so I thought I’d go ahead and share this. Until inspiration strikes again, keep it classy, ponefriends ;)