Friday, March 30, 2012

A Gift: Happy Birthday Ponydora

My dear friend. You thought I had forgotten about you, didn't you. ^_~

If nothing else has come out of it, I'm at least grateful to deviantART for giving me a heads-up on your birthday, so that I was able to make you something in time for the special occasion! I've been a bit pressed for time, of course, so the effort is perhaps not as grand as I might have initially wished, but I can only hope that you will enjoy it all the same.

This picture is something of a reference to a scene in chapter 1 of Flight of the Alicorn (Ponydora's excellent and widely lauded fanfiction, of course), even though it's not entirely faithful to the story, and more than anything was meant to show an appreciation for a correspondence that I've come to value highly. For those who are familiar with the story I can say that many of Rarity's thoughts and feelings in the narrative of the first chapter have echoed my own quite a bit as of late, and I felt that it was the absolute least I could do to show an appreciation for an individual who I most respect and admire. Again, I can only hope that you are happy with it, my excellent friend. ^_^

As I'm sure you all know by now, deviantART is keeping me rather busy lately as I work to get all my fanart uploaded, but I will do my best to get back to all of my messages (meaning on posts past included) as soon as I'm able. And in the meantime, as promised on my last art update (before I initially anticipated having this one done and posted quite so soon!) commission #8 will be shortly forthcoming, and with any luck I will be able to share that piece with you all very soon.

Until then, cheers my friends. And Ponydora-dear, best and warmest birthday wishes to you, you deserve them! **virtual hugs!** =^.^=


WD

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

A Little Announcement: deviantART

Aheh, well yes, I was planning on making this announcement this morning, which I thought would be within a perfectly reasonable time frame but apparently, the internet moves even faster than I was initially thinking and many of you it seems are already aware. ^_^; As of yesterday I finally have a deviantART page for the purpose of displaying my pony-arts!

I think you all know that I've been very hesitant to do this for a long time, but yesterday AtomicGreymon was kind enough to let me know that a certain individual on dA had taken my steampunk Rarity painting, digitally removed my signature and replaced it with his own, and had posted the work in his own gallery. Art theft is sadly a relatively common thing and while it's possible to report it to deviantART staff without an account, it certainly lends some weight to the matter and makes it much easier, and so at last I consented to give in and just do it. And, figuring that this was perhaps the universe's/fate's/destiny's way of trying to push me in a certain direction, I decided to get my artwork up as well (something which I'm still working on doing). Unfortunately, as of now it seems that my initial misgivings were quite justified and despite the fact that I was online responding to comments until four in the morning, I returned to the page a little while ago to discover hundreds and hundreds of messages already waiting for me... well, I'm going to do my best to not let myself get too overwhelmed anyway. ^.^;;

I did want to reassure you all that despite the fact I will have a gallery up there now, I will continue to prioritize this blog and am planning on uploading all of my new work here first. As well of course, to get back to all of my comments since they (and all of you who regularly follow me) are the reason I've kept this blog up as much as I have. ^_^ And yes, as I said on my last post hopefully I will have some new work for you all soon enough... until then, cheers loves! <3


WD

Monday, March 26, 2012

More Gifts/Drawfriend Doodle-Roundup #5!

Good morning all! After what has been ages, I've taken a small break from my regularly-scheduled commission work and done a few pieces of personal fanart, as well as another gift or two that I'm very happy to be able to share you all! It's been forever since I've had the occasion to make a post such as this, so without further ado, here they are~

First off is a doodle which has probably been a long time coming, and which I've mentioned wanting to do many times but just have never gotten around to: my first-ever fanart of Spitfire! I've been kicking around this idea for ages now but after a recent conversation on my previous post about said pony, and after learning that I'd missed my friend Kateasaurus' birthday (she's a big fan of Spitfire) I decided there was no time like the present. Hopefully you enjoy her especially, Katie-dear, because she was made with you in mind and I wanted to do something to make up for missing your birthday!

..Okay, I know what you all are probably thinking and really, I have no excuse for myself. But I can say at least that I originally made the sketch of this picture months ago! This doodle is a reference to a line in a fanfiction, Diamond in the Rough, that described Fluttershy "joylessly pounding down shot after shot like an old, bitter alcoholic". As out of character as it was I still found the mental image hilarious the first time I read the story, and told the author in my comments on the EqD thread that someday, I would make a fanart of the idea. Nearly six months later, I have at last.

D'aww, Twilight Sparkle can be so adorable when she wants to be. This picture was a definite quickie and was not inspired by anything in particular, just the result of some random sketching I did while working on my upcoming commissioned piece. She looked so cute that I decided to finish her, and I suppose more Twilight is always welcome by many of you besides.

Yes, once again I know what you all are thinking, but for once I have created a piece of Rarijack fanart for somebody other than myself! This picture was done as a birthday gift for a friend of mine, who happens to like this pairing about as much as I do and who I had discussed the idea of an artwork with, the end consensus being that an excessively adorable picture of Applejack and Rarity together was in order (hopefully I managed to achieve just that). Though I think it's pretty decidedly shippy, I suppose there's still enough wiggle-room in personal interpretations to imagine this as more of a friendshipping picture for those who are so inclined... in any case I only hope that you're happy with it dear friend of mine because that's all that matters to me. *^_^* Excessively adorable ponies~~

Well it's a relatively small offering of artworks for a Roundup this time around, and in all fairness a few of them are a step or two above many of my doodles, but I'm merely excited to get some personal artworks up again and am happy I was able to squeeze these out in the record time that I did. Coming up next is another commission, which if all goes according to plan I will be able to share with you all very soon. Until then, stay lovely dears~!


WD

Saturday, March 10, 2012

A Little Something Special: Happy Birthday Harwick!


Wahaha yes, that's right you might have thought you could slip it by me unsaid, but another fabulous little birdie told me today was your special day, and you know what that means~! Well, possibly a party, but also most assuredly that a piece of birthday gift-art is now in order!

This painting might not be too much, and honestly I have no idea where the inspiration came from as I was initially planning on making you something fun, funnier and more on the cartoony side. But for whatever reason when I sat down to draw, this was the ONLY image that would come to my mind and so I felt compelled to just go with it... hopefully you will enjoy it as well!

Meehee... I hope you won't hate me too much for doing this, but really you deserve it you know. *^_^* And I felt it was the least I could do. So yes, once again Happy Birthday dear, and wishing you all the best in this year to come~!

More art coming soon enough as well, everyone! Or if all goes according to plan, that is. Until then, do stay lovely~! <3


WD

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

And Now for Something a Little Bit Different--Commission #7!


Good evening, dearest friends and followers! I am happy to say that at last, and perhaps a day or two later than I intended to have it up Commission #7 is here. And I'm certainly pleased and relieved to be able to share it with you all now.

This commission was done for the lovely BaffMan of pony community fame, who also happens to be a fellow Rarijack fan which of course I can hardly complain about. He came to me wanting a piece that brought to life a little scene written by himself and a fellow fan and friend from my understanding, and I did my best to do his vision justice, resulting in the cute little scene above where Rarity is not altogether thrilled by her experience helping Applejack in the orchard (Applejack, by contrast seems to find this turn of events highly entertaining). This particular piece of course is not especially shippy which I'm sure some of you will appreciate, though as per usual with my fanworks I am always happy to leave things open for personal interpretation.

As I'm sure is entirely obvious at first glance, this picture is quite different from most of my commissions to date, and certainly from the full-scale digital paintings that have made up my last two paid works. Baff, however, was perfectly content to ask for something more along the lines of what I frequently refer to as my doodles, and I can say that I was more than happy to be able to fulfill such a request... in a way it was a great deal of fun really and a pleasant change of pace from my more elaborate endeavors. Hopefully you all will enjoy the end result as well, and even if the piece is arguably not as "impressive" as some of the others that I have done.

As usual, I'm happy to tell you all that you can be expecting some more new artwork from me soon... very soon in fact if I'm able to stick to a personal deadline that I have given myself. While I can't promise there will be much in the way of personal fanart as I was originally hoping, seeing as how I once again have several commissions lined up I can only hope that you all will enjoy the offerings all the same, and very much look forward to being able to share them with you.

Until next time then, I trust you all will remain quite fabulous. Cheers, darlings~!


WD

Friday, March 2, 2012

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Art for Something SPECIAL!! Plus, Trixie~


Greetings, lovely followers, and what a delightfully glorious day it is! I'm interrupting my previously scheduled art posts (meaning the commissioned piece I intend to have completed within the next day or two) to bring you all something special which could not wait, and which I feel deserves its own celebratory post even if it could. And that special something is a fabulous gift I received yesterday in the mail. Namely, this:


No, your eyes aren't deceiving you... this really IS one of the most adorable little works of art to ever be crafted by human hands. An absolutely precious little Applejack, looking sad and alone, and clutching onto a tiny Rarity plushie. I mean seriously, if someone denied me my pills for a week and subjected me to nonstop work stress, I doubt it could cause my heart to flutter any more than this.



This gift was made and mailed to me by an exceedingly kind artist, of Equestria Daily and deviantART fame who goes by the name of dusty, perhaps better known as Sond on this blog. The terrifically fabulous thing is that I was aware of his artwork already (do check out his deviantART gallery), and in fact had been gushing on about one of his sculptures in an EqD custom compilation post only days before Applejack arrived. He made her for me simply as a show of appreciation for my artwork, he said, a gesture which I obviously find immensely touching and flattering and which of course I wanted to repay somehow, hence the Trixie doodle-art above (she's one of his favorite ponies, and I was excited to do the piece because I've never drawn her before ^_^). So yes, needless to say I can hardly express my gratitude for such an immensely kind act, and I personally feel Trixie was the absolute least I could do to make it up to him (I hope you enjoy her, dear).

Of course, as I'm sure you can all imagine there are plenty more photos of Applejack where the above came from, and in the interest of saving space on my front page you can find them all after the break. So. Incredibly. Adorable~!! <3 <3 <3