Artist Training Grounds: Equestria Mock War Edition

Grab a sword and jump in!

Well hello there, everypony. It has been a long time. In case you haven't heard, Equestria's quadrennial war games with the Griffon Empire are upon us. It's a time for harsh training, a time to pony up, a time to make your equine nation proud.

It's also a time for drawing some cool looking ponies! Dust off your pencils and tablets, because we are about to art. You may remember the last time this event was held, but in case you came in after the end, the Newbie Artist Training Grounds are an exercise in creative expression and improvement through repetition. You, yes you, can learn to draw like all the big name artists, and all you have to do is practice. There's hundreds of bronies from this summer who will testify to that. So for the next five days, let's put on war paint and have some fun. Find the rules of engagement and get some questions answered after the page break.

How do I submit?
It's simple. When you've finished the day's assignment, upload it to any sort of image sharing service on the internet (DeviantART, Imageshack, etc), then head here(Currently Down!) and follow the instructions. A giant thank you to calamari for once again generously providing and hosting this script. As a note, the submission site does not enjoy the characters, <, >, ", and ', and will kind of get tossed out the window if you include them anywhere, so do yourself a favor and don't.

When is my art due?
All assignments are due 24 hours after being handed out, which in this iteration will take place at exactly 10 pm, Pacific Standard Time (which is 11 pm blog time because Sethisto lives on crazy moon time in Arizona. Never mind that. You want to set your clocks by UTC -8:00). 

Crap, I missed the deadline! I almost had it!! Is there anything you can do for me?
History will show that I am very lenient when it comes to this sort of thing. If you finish only to find the gallery for the day up already, go ahead and submit anyway. I keep checking for late submissions up to two hours after I finish the gallery post and hand out the next theme, so don't give up hope!

Your submission thing is dumb and I can't get it to work. Am I out of luck?
If you're having difficulty submitting, send me a line at phoe@equestriadaily.com, and I'll manually post the submission at the end of the gallery. Feel free to hit me up with any other questions you may have while you're there! =D 

I'm terrible at art and can't do this/I'm way too good to be a 'Newbie'. I can't participate, right?
Nonsense, the both of you. This is a pressure free environment to work on something fun and stretch your creative muscles. You don't really have time to make it perfect, and nopony expects you to. Just dive in and have fun with it! You won't regret it, no matter what your skill level.

Hey, your theme said 'Draw X', but I really want to draw Y. Is that ok?
I do require your submissions to hold to the theme of the day. Part of the point is to make sure you're always doing something just a little bit differently, even if that thing is thinking on your toes. Submissions do not need to follow the literal interpretations of a theme: dig through the old NATG archives, and you'll see some pretty creative stretching of my words. A warning, though! Your submission must, must, must adhere to Equestria Daily's content guidelines. Keep your blood and  sauce within reason, or I won't be able to post it.

How the heck am I supposed to get better in just five days?
Good question, but fret not. Canterlot wasn't built in a day! Truth be told, this is what I'm calling a 'primer' event. The goal here is not to become a master inside of a week, but just to shake off some rust, establish a rhythm for yourself, and find a schedule you can work within to draw ponies while still getting to live your normal life. You'll be seeing other mini events like this pop up every so often as we wind our way up to the big one this summer!

So... when does this start?
Tomorrow. That's January 9, at 10 pm PST. Be there with a beret on for bonus points.

Phoe, you talk too much.
Yeah, I'm kind of a rambler. You'll... you'll get used to that. Learn to love it, even. If not, we're offering free trips to our re-education facilities in the Galapagos! How wonderful! Just ask PK...