I'll Take This As A Point Of Pride. :3

Last one, I swear: Watusi Cattle. I swear, these guys look like a cartoon rabbit snuck up behind them with a bicycle pump and inflated their horns.

This is what happens when you sketch at 5AM.

Yeah, I don't even know what I'm doing anymore. Just... what.

'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. 

So it's my birthday. I drew myself a gift for it.

It's lazy, but I feel like being lazy right now. No jubilant celebrations or anything, just a quiet day to myself.

Hokay: after the Imp sitting on his own arm, and the carbuncle sitting on his own belly, I’m pretty sure the post colonic subtitle for the comic would be Perceptionality: an X sitting on their own Y. X3

So here we have a lady sitting on her own hair. Not much to say here, except that I wish I could have been more aggressive with removing the page shadow, but I would have lost too much of the pencil lines in the process.

I’ve mentioned previously that there are numerous people in the world of Perceptionality that are almost, though not quite entirely human. Whelp, this is another one of them. Prehensile hair can be very useful, when you need an extra hand to hold something, or a seat I guess. It’s also worth noting that in any tabletop RP that I get the chance to play with prehensile hair, I will do so without hesitation. It’s great.

Ember-Bell's story is entirely plot driven, and she is an entirely passive character. The story moves forward because things happen to her, not because of things that she does. She endures her problems, but does not attempt to actively solve, resist, or avert them. She doesn't attempt to do anything to improve or alter her situation. She is reactive rather than proactive.

Because she is passive, her character doesn't experience any struggle. As such she is fairly pitiable, but does nothing to earn sympathy. I feel sad for her plight, but I don't have any way to cheer for her because she just isn't trying. I don't feel invested in the story or emotionally attached to the character, because there's nothing to make me wonder "will she make it?" or "how is she going to handle this?" She isn't trying to make anything happen, nor is she trying handle the situation at all. She just sits through it apathetically and suffers.

This powerlessness is Ember-Bell's only defining personality trait. It's the only thing that defines who she is, and everything else about her focuses on what she is. For comparison: Twilight Sparkle is intelligent, logical, methodical, and awkward outside her element. These are personal traits, and independent of whether she's an earth pony, unicorn, or princess. Ember-bell, on the other hand, is... well, she's resigned to her fate. We don't know anything about what she's like other than that. If she were something else, like an ordinary earth pony, she wouldn't even have that trait because she wouldn't have this horrible fate to be resigned to.

This goes far deeper than personality traits like her favourite colour or distinctive catch phrases... we don't know how she thinks, we don't know what her attitudes or morals are, we don't know if she has any principals or ideals. She's just... resigned.

Further exacerbating this is the fact that Ember has no character faults. She didn't do anything wrong to deserve this fate, so there's nothing for her to atone for... or she can't remember  what she did, which has the same end result. She doesn't have any flaws or shortcomings, so there's no potential for her to grow. Typically, in stories like these, a character gains the power to break their curse by overcoming their inner weaknesses. Ember doesn't seem to have any inner weaknesses to overcome, though.

To play devil's advocate, I suppose Ember's helplessness could be due to the format of an ask-tumblr: her actions are dictated by prompts from the reader. Unfortunately, Ember's ignorance of the mechanics surrounding her "condition" is transferred to the readers: she doesn't know how this actually works, and neither do we. All we know is what doesn't work. We know how to loose the game, but not how to win or even how to play. We, like her, are left stumbling around in the dark desperately trying not to make a wrong move. The only option is to guess randomly, grasping at straws, hoping to eventually poke something that works.

Even then, Ember responds to most such guesses with "that doesn't work, you don't understand at all." Which isn't exactly encouraging or motivational.

Conversely...

I love the concept, and how it's presented. The story is about a character who is aware that she is in a story, and that kind of meta-narrative/self-awareness is hard to handle well... and it's handled quite well so far. And I honestly can't get enough of stuff like that. If it weren't for the whole "stumbling around in the dark" thing, I would be submitting asks on a daily basis because this is a universe that I want to play in.

A Long Answer For A quick question

So I’ve been thinking a bit on this, and about my blog here, and I decided that I really need some sorta of feedback from you guys, my followers. It’s very important, and it’s just a little question or two. It’d really help me out in the long run. <3

1. Do you guys enjoy Ember’s story?

2. If so, what would you like to see more of?

Dangit, Robert, stop scaring small children with your face. Seriously. Put that away.

Prelim concept for another comic character. Robert Granger is a HR manager on the space station where James lives. He's a yappy yuppie puppy, a little too enthusiastic, and way too over-caffeinated. His outfit is a hybrid of business suit and jumpsuit, I'm gonna have to play with that some more.

This is loaded with fail... that's what I get for inking an unfinished design. Except for the scaring-small-children-face. That's a keeper.

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)

Balian here (and his twin brother Xanthus) are private security agents for Perihelion Industries. They bump heads with Galen from time to time

Balian is sporting an "Escort" model man-portable railgun. The coolant runs out after about fifteen rounds, but that's okay, because the quick-change barrel lasts for about twelve. In spite of this, however, the Escort is the weapon of choice for the designated marksmen of PHI's private security forces.

Balian usually operates in full-body powered armour. On the top right is his helmet.

Below that is a profile sketch. I usually do one those before I draw someone at an angle, to help me sort out the proportions of the head and placement of the features.

Capoeira is really fun to draw.