My 2 Funbits - My Pony History

Hey folks,
This is my 2 Funbits which I usually included in my Saturday Journals. It's where I just take an interesting topic and type a bit about it, for fun just a bit.
You can find the list of journals that contained my previous topics here: sta.sh/0176sgetzl14

I actually needed to post this 2 days ago, but since this week had something going on, I thought I'd wait until the right moment for now.
Next week I'll try to have them on Tuesday/Wednesday.
This one is also going to be longer than normal.

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As for today's topic, since I went around the sun again today I thought to look back at what this marks... 2 years ago. Which was when I made my first pony related art, starting talking online taking active part in the fandom. It was also the time I graduated from college so I suddenly had... time.

So here's a little breakdown of some progression steps I had back then.



Just look at those sketches! I barely knew the anatomy of MLP, heck I barely knew the anatomy of regular horses for that matter, so that didn't exactly help either. Still, a stylistic approach can be interesting, but it's still funny to see how those sketches turned out.
I never concidered myself a clean sketcher or line artist. I tried, but unless I did them in one swift movement, they'd still have the uncontrolled feeling.
I suppose "uncontrolled" might be a good description of my approach in a way. Often just moving the brush, making a mess and something comes out of it.

So ugly though.



Then these happened after that, the first coloured and shaded pieces, albeit fast. In the previous sketch sheets you could spot a Monkey/Pony crossover, or a Ponkey. Which turned into my OC, the brown earth one specifically (because Applejack).
So that's where my Ponkey line came from! 2 years ago it started. Hooves and body of a pony, head and legs of a monkey. Also the tail. A gene pool mix.
It also went into making the Mane 6 into Ponkey Monkeys, which were all made separately over time. Playing around with poses, looks, shading.
The way I made them is fairly different compared to what I usually do these days, although not unused. Making a silhouette, filling it in then shading in the area with soft brush.
Well... they were quick and rough 2 hour each.



Although after the Monkey series I did several others and Lady Applejack: fav.me/d58cpt6 was the first to make it to an EQD drawfriend, this piece up here was the first real "painting" like artwork I made pony related. with somewhat of a background and basically no white space. Funnily enough it's also still one of my more popular pieces! (Sitting at #10 of most favourites as I'm writing this)
It's also the very first time I was intrigued by the possible history between Gryphons and Equines (Thanks Gilda!) which I made into my "First Contact War" series. I guess the name already showed it.

First Contact War is basically an universe set in a "alternate" historical MLP timeline I'm creating through making art for it with little back stories to them. So instead of writing the story to follow I'm creating a world in which those kind of stories can take place in. That's kinda how I see it.
I've always been interested in making universes. I have had one years ago, but that one hit a big hiatus and part of it was also because I was just too afraid to share it, not having "enough" to show.
You can see what I've done so far in my gallery folder here:
assasinmonkey.deviantart.com/g…


So yea, a lot has spawned things over time. From just some pony sketches to a gallery full of pony paintings. Simple Ponkey sketch into a full blown personal OC line. Paintings starting the creation of an universe.

Then there's big things like my Livestreams. I first picked up a channel I think back in Augustus 2012 or so, when I did a request, making it live for feedback. That kinda slowed down, worked a lot offline. Then Equestria Daily's Saturday Livestreams started picking up in December 2012 posted by Calpain-EqD . Which still happen even till today and I'm still joining in every single Saturday for pony art.
Check out their posts here:
www.equestriadaily.com/search/…

My Saturdays have been my biggest stream days, which I started since the beginning of 2013 and since then I only missed one because of internet hardware failure.
I still hate I had to miss that day because of a stupid box, it felt horrible because I like keeping a chain going on once I get things rolling.
Other than that day I've always been there streaming.
Since September last year I've also begun streaming daily. You could say my streams got out of hoof, it just kept growing and growing. Probably also because there was room to grow, game time could move and things like that.
Quickly it turned into a daily minimum of 2 hours art streaming, although it's usually more like 3-4 hours minimum




Well, still streaming strong daily, I even have a my daily stream journals where I note the times I start and stop streaming. The content I stream during it can change over time though. Mainly because I've, not too long ago, made an official journal announcement post about the fact I'm co-founding a company as a lead-artist. Called 'Jagaco', or more accurate, 'Jagaco Games'.
You can check my Jagaco post, with more detail, out here:
fav.me/d7iz7o4

MLP:FIM Season 4 had art per episode being made, something I'll definitely do next season! (Yes, I'll be there, I'm here to stay), I've picked up some others stuff, looking into more new things. Picked up my Twitter account ( twitter.com/AssasinMonkey ) again, mainly for big important stuff.
I also looked into conventions. Was thinking about BUCKcon but I can't return with a loss and Vendor positions closed recently. Maybe next year's conventions.


Anyhow, I've been typing for too long already! This was supposed to be short. It does fall in line with my future plans though. I'm not in this for a short run. I've got 2 active years behind me and I plan on many more!
Everyone here has been very supportive through comments, watches, views which is really appreciated and very awesome to experience.
I would hate if I had to walk away from all of that, so I won't, can't and just don't want to. This is way too fun.
It'll have to share ground with game art but we'll figure that out

Thank you all for sticking around and hopefully y'all have had some great times as well, either in the Brony fandom or another and maybe have got some nice history yourself.

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