Ciderfest - Crystal Mt Ponycon [Process] (Patreon)

As a tradition for Ponyville Ciderfest, they usually have an art piece created in honor of every other pony convention, a "Good Luck" to the upcoming con. Aug31-Sept2 is Crystal Mountain Ponycon (CMPC) in Provo, Utah, and I chose to draw the announcement art! Here is my process!

Sketch first! Concept is for Caramel Malt (right; Ciderfest mascot 1) to be crystal-y, simple enough. Barley (middle; Ciderfest mascot 2) is being offered some shady crystals by Salt Lick (left; CMPC mascot).

The two in back will be a simpler style, lineless (similar to the style I made for Bronycon), while Caramel in front will be lined as normal.

Alt doodle of Salt Lick, who was going to be hiding some bags of "sparkle powder" behind her back~

Flat colors laid in for the background characters. Caramel is lined, and her lines are colored. For her eyes, I chose to make the pupils less dark to make it more...sophisticated? Lighthearted? It fit and so I rolled with it ;)

The black lines on top and bottom are extra space for "bleed room" - it won't show up on the final product but I give myself that extra canvas space so nothing will get cut off.

Background ponies are getting some quick layers of shading as Caramel gets her colors filled in!

More shading touch-ups in the back. The crystals and shading are done with a quick watercolor brush to blend colors and keep anything from being too bold. Now it's time for Caramel's crystal effects!

For the crystal effects, I added two layers, simply using a normal pen brush to make random polygonal shapes. Both layers are going to be different opacities/levels of transparency.

At this point I'm just playing with colors and Levels (modes/filters on the computer, things like "Add", "Color Dodge", and "Overlay"). Some work better with different colors, so I am messing around to see what works best without being too obnoxious.

She is shiny! I take those colors and pin them to Caramel, no shading necessary. Adding a few highlights here and there though, things like a white glow to her cheeks and hooves. She must be...shiny!!

Now it's time for the background...!

I'm going for a simple texture...maybe something crystal-y? Light blue seems to fit, and after laying down a few random colors I just start adding layers without really keeping to a theme.

The smudge tool is fun for creating those blades of grass and weird textures. Huh, it kind of works.

Oh yes, I think I'll keep that.

Adding a bunch of cute and simple white effects for things like sparkles, emoting lines etc. And done!

Go check out and support Ponyville Ciderfest if you can, I'll be there this October!!