Derpy Claus

submission for this week. Theme is 'Seasonal Pony'. And thus we have Derpy Claus, the winter wrap up gift giving pony.

Derpy Claus sees you when you're sleeping. She also sees that cloud up there shaped like a Muffin.

I managed to discover a few new techniques for this piece that I'm really happy with. My first attempt for this week ended in disaster when I tried using Mineral Spirits(solvent) to blend the colors. So I went with a different idea here involving Derpys coat color. Up until now I had used my black color pencil to very lightly shade Derpy in. I've always felt that left her a little heavy on the black, and usually very rough in texture due to the paper.

My solution here was to first coat all the areas of her coat in white color pencil. Using a shading stub to color in the coat with graphite, as opposed to actual black pigment from the color pencils. I would rub the stub on a spot on my paper with that was impregnated with graphite, and then use what had rubbed off to color in the gray on derpy. I believe the end result is quite smooth, and completely believable as gray 'color'.

EDIT: There! I corrected the spelling!