T. K. Arispe

Did more sketching!

Doodled an entelodont from memory (the head should be bigger), and tried to make it look more interesting than just being a large pig. Actually it kinda turned out looking like a spotted hyena and I'm not even mad. Entelodonts are so rad. I've been to the American Museum of Natural History and saw the real live actual type specimen (and only specimen) of Andrewsarchus, which is nowadays widely suspected to be an entelodont relative. I remember reading about it when I was younger and how it was speculated to be an absolutely massive carnivore, before further research gave it a firmer phylogenetic placement. That's one of the fun things about paleontology--our vision of the past is constantly being updated by further discoveries and research.

And then something completely different: ponies. I've been on a bit of a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic kick lately, and I've even been making plans for an entire blog post essayrant about everything Gen 5 got wrong that Gen 4 (FiM) excelled at, because I am an Ultimate Nerd. I've also been working on a fanfic that explores what Princesses Celestia and Luna might get up to after the events of FiM season 9, because I really don't think they'd be content to laze around forever after their retirement. They need adventures!

Anyway, these are two OCs of mine who I've written about in previous fics (maybe I'll put my MLP fics up on the blog once I'm done posting all my Neopets stuff). Princess Radiant Dawn is an alicorn who rules the kingdom of Daybreak, which she saved from a tyrannical lamia queen. Radiant Dawn is the Princess of Happiness, and Daybreak is home to many ponies whose special talents lie in the realm of spreading happiness. Ray is quiet and shy, but won't stand for injustice, and strongly believes that when all ponies are allowed to follow their passion and their dreams, everypony benefits. She has a real soft spot for foals, because she used to be a schoolteacher before becoming an alicorn.

Below is her husband, Prince Ironclad, the erstwhile general of a pegasus city-state. The two met when Radiant Dawn was called in to Ironclad's homeland (er, homecloud?) to help expose a government conspiracy, and although they got off to a rough start, they discovered they made a great team. Ironclad is hard-working and no-nonsense and can come across as gruff, but he shows his warmer side toward his family.

 And pony versions of Tam and Carrie from Ravenscrag. I was kind of experimenting with getting more dynamic with my pony drawing; I've been studying the artwork in the FiM comics and trying to render my ponies with more fluidity. In the past I haven't strayed far from the original look of the TV series with its fairly rigid Flash assets, but I felt like that was making my artwork too stiff. 

Okay, I'm off to do more nerdy stuff.