• Newbie Artist Training Grounds IV: Day 10

    Come on, give me the rock! Feed me the rock! I got th-- come to think of it, that's the wrong game. But you know what? I also would have expected basketball - the season is in full swing, after all! I'm actually a bit surprised I haven't seen too much in the way of subversions with this theme; not very many ponies from warmer climates doing warmer things. But that's good! It means everybody's really into the spirit of things, and that makes me smile. Also making me smile, Also making me smile, our galleries continue to be robust and splendiforous, which is totally not a made up word and accurately describes my feelings toward a Day 9 gallery that's still 442 ponies strong. This brings our total up to 5283 images! 5,000 is a huge milestone, and super worth celebrating!

    Before we get too deep in streamers and balloons though, I do want to take a minute to remind everyone about what this is all for. Our numbers are dwindling. And this is totally understandable, because life is what it is and it doesn't always feel like there's time for pony drawings. But some people are starting to get a little bit down, and those people are questioning themselves. A shocking number of names this year have been sticking with it the whole way through to this point, or have only missed a day or two. And to you folks, please take a look back at Day 1. Remember what it felt like and remember how long it took you. Now look at today. You should be seeing signs of the routine settling in. Maybe it's not a stellar leap forward, but there's progress there already. You're a better pony artist than you were when you started. So don't stop, and don't beat yourself up. You're wonderful, and doing wonderfully. Just look at this gallery as proof.

    One last final technical note, but to those of you photographic traditional drawings for this event, ChiraChan created a wonderful tutorial for cleaning them up on your computer. If you've got the time, it's worth a look! Sorry we couldn't print this sooner!




    Our prize today comes from another returning champion, this time from Enterplay. This time, we have another lovely signed playmat from the incredibly talented Pixelkitties (thank you so much!) and a full booster box containing 30 packs of the newest MLP card game expansion, The Crystal Games. If you're a fan of the card game (and you should be, it's pretty neat), this will be a really nice addition to your collection. Thanks, Enterplay, for continuing to help us out here at the ATG. Great people deserve great prizes. I only wish we had enough for everybody.

    Our Day 8 winner is lucky number 64, giving us some family holiday cheer with Pinkie and Maude. Chrisgotjar, congratulations! We'll be in touch shortly to arrange shipping details.

    One of the primary challenges for me as a themesmith has been finding fun seasonal prompts that don't constrict creativity too heavily or sound too much like they can only be about christmas. After all, this is a time full of all sorts of reasons to celebrate, and nobody should be shying away from any of them. With that said, no matter who you are, this is a month for lights and wonder. Tonight, Draw a pony decorating/Draw a pony wrapping, yo.

    Submit all entries here by December 11 at 9 PM Mountain Standard Time (GMT -7). I have run out of clever things to say here, but it looks too empty to just leave the submission link if I don't try. So I'm going to just slink away and leave with this gallery, smoke bomb style. I'm totally not just to the right, don't bother looking. Aha. Ahem. *thud*