Equestria Daily

Silfoe has been around since some of the earliest days in the fandom, with an incredible amount of pony art under her belt. She has done everything from epic battle scenes to cute simple romance pieces, and has an incredibly distinctive art style that I think most of you have probably run into at least once if you follow pony fandom drawings at all.

She's also well known for her comic "Ascension", a story about Celestia and Luna and how they originally became alicorns.

Anyway, I'll shut up and get the spotlight over to her! Go get the interview and gallery below!

The Interview!

Q:) How did you stumble upon My Little Pony? What was your "origin" story if you will?

I had heard about it making some waves on the internet so I decided to check it out. This was just after the first season had ended so the first episode I ever watched was “The Best Night Ever.” From there, after watching all of season 1 and consuming some fan works out there, I started doodling ponies while I watched tv, which progressed to using ponies to learn digital drawing, which meant I started posting them, which got me sucked into the community as more than just a lurker. I’ve been stuck here ever since.

Q:) What is the process you usually go through when drawing something new? What tools and programs do you use?

I switch between Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop CC depending on what I want for the individual piece. More line dependent drawing, like most stuff on the Royal Sketchbook, would be done in CSP and a very painterly piece would be made primarily in Photoshop. So, for example, I might do some rough sketching to figure out poses and composition in CSP and then export it to Photoshop to actually paint the thing.

Q:) Do you draw professionally? Or is this a side thing to another career or job?

Semi-professionally, I suppose? The extra revenue from commissions and patreon and generous folks in general, certainly helps make ends meet. My main job is still art related, though it’s not drawing or painting. I intend to someday MAKE this drawing thing work full time.

Q: ) Let’s get the usual required question out of the way: Who is your favorite pony and favorite princess? And if it's different, who is your favorite pony to draw?

Purple Smart is favorite overall pony. And though Twi is technically a princess, I still favor Sunbutt as best princess, who is, coincidentally, my favorite guinea pig when trying to paint something new.

Q:) What kind of challenges do you usually run into when drawing a character or subject for the first time? Has there ever been an image concept that completely stumped you?

Discord is weird to figure out sometimes… but aside from him, it’s usually just trying to figure out WHY the overall image isn’t working. And that happens a LOT. Usually, it just gets worked out with thumbnails or side sketches with references. If all else fails, scrap it and start again.

Q:) The Ascension comic seems to experiment with action scenes with the Royal Scrapbook is more of a "Slice of Life" blog. What have you learned with the depiction of your action scenes?

That they’re haaaaard. Thankfully, it’s the fun end of the spectrum, providing a nice challenge. The main things I’m in the process of learning from Ascension is comic page composition and better linework. Though the entire comic is already written and roughed out, I still learn something every now and then so I recompose entire pages once in a while.

Q:) What are your thoughts on a Celestia/Princess focused episode?

I neeeds it. I’m not even particularly attached to how I hope it could go. I just want her and/or her relationship with her sister to be given some light.

Q:) Socks, sweaters, silly hats, swimwear, full body armor, ponies have worn it all. What is your favorite accessory to draw ponies in?

I think I fall squarely in the full body armor camp. It’s too fun to design.

Q:) What do you like most about Friendship is Magic? What keeps you drawing so many awesome ponies?

Honestly, the community. The show is fun and all on it’s own, a nice bit of cute and innocent. But the community is what turned it from “Oh, this is cute,” to “I must draw ponies every single day!” Someone makes a thing that inspires me to make a thing which inspires someone else to make a thing and the chain just goes on and on until we’re drowning in all these cool fan works.

Q:) Do you have any tips for newbie artists looking to improve?

Be critical of your work but don’t be hard on yourself, if that makes sense. Always keep an eye on what you can improve on, work towards learning it but don’t kick yourself because you aren’t learning it as fast as you think you should or that this other person picked it up faster or whatever. Everyone learns a bit differently but the important thing is to keep learning, keep practicing and never get complacent.

Q:) Why do you think My little Pony Generation 4 has been so successful? What keeps you here involved in the community?

I don’t honestly know why it ever took off as much as it did. All I know once some folks got into it and this fandom started rolling, it started snowballing until it’s this behemoth of awesome plowing through the internet. And it really is because of the fandom, the community as a whole that I think a lot of folks got on board and stayed on board. I know that it’s because of the community that I met several of my now closest friends, who in turn helped me out in tough times and I tried to return the favor. Because of the fanart side of things, I’m constantly getting better at my craft, get some financial support from it and give me a path to make a full career out of art. I owe quite a bit to the community.

Silfoe's Top 10 Picks

[1] Source

Solar War by SilFoe

[2] Source

Royal Sketchbook: Nightmare Night by SilFoe