#SORRY THAT IT'S SO LONG WINDED DKJDG

[sunburstkisser]

How do you make your mlp screenshot edits? They always look so good!

Hi Scribbly :3

This is gonna be really long so I'm putting it under a readmore 😭😭 Apologies in advanced, I hope it doesn't sound convoluted skhjdg

I use Procreate and my own brushes, but you can use whatever program and brushes you feel fit :3 I used to use Ibis Paint for my screenshot edits before I concocted my perfect edit brushes on Procreate khdjg

SO! I start by picking a screenshot that I like that has two ponies in the shot. One of which is my FO of choice, and a mare-shaped pony beside him (I like using a mare-shape for my sonas as opposed to a stallion shape 😭 Anyone can pick whatever body shape they'd like, though, you can always take pony shapes that you like out of other screenshots and edit them to your liking to trace over, too! @/cosmiccherri has a uniquely shaped ponysona so they use screenshots taken from other episodes for theirs and they always look so good!!)

If I can, I find a couple more screenshots that show more background! So I can cut the background out and paste it to cover the other pony. It's okay if it doesn't completely cover, though, I go over it with brush lines and additional textures so it's as seamless as I can get it. I'm kind of a stickler for having my edits and art be perfect, so I always look for ways to use brushes to my advantage especially with trickier backgrounds.

Personally I erase as much of the other pony as I can, so I can reuse the piece bc I know I never stick with one ponysona for longer than a month 😭 /lh It's just handy for me if I ever wanna see each ponysona I go through with my FOs :3

After I get the pony erased as much as I can, I lower the opacity on the background layer so the previous pony is showing a little bit so I can trace over their body, sketch in my mane + tail style, and tweak his expression to one that I like. I also make my ponysona chubbier than the standard mare shape bc I'm not a Skinny Minnie 😭 Once I've got my sketch out, I turn the opacity back up on my background layer and lower the opacity on my sketch layer. I trace a line on the FO pony to check my line thickness, edit it to my liking, and then start lining my sketch with black. You can use whatever color you'd like, I just use black bc it's the easiest for me to see my lines- I like to separate parts on different layers, especially the eyes and hair. MLP eyes are always lined in black! Once the pony is lined, I go through and start erasing lines that end in open spaces, like the chin, shoulders and flank, ear, mouth, etc. so they end in tapers. I also erase a little bit on overlapping lines in the mane and tail, I think it makes them look sharper and more streamlined :3

Once my lineart is completely finished, I color in the pony however I'd like. MLP:FIM always has at least one leg shaded, if not two, and they're always the legs furthest from the viewer. That's one of my favorite parts to shade, and I always use a grey-ish purple

Around this area, but you can use whatever you feel is good :3! I turn the shading layer into a multiply layer, and the opacity is also turned down to 25%

After coloring in my ponysona, I color in the lineart! MLP's colored lineart is one of my favorite things in the show, and I LOVE picking the colors to use. They're always slightly darker than your pony's coat colors, and manes tend to use one or two colors for lineart despite some manes having lots of colors. Rainbow Dash's mane even uses the blue in her colors as the lineart color! It's super interesting tbh, I love the colored lineart- Don't forget to shade the lining on the shaded parts, too! Same grey-purple shading color you used on the legs, turned down to 25% on a multiply layer

That should be everything! I like to make a copy of the original screenshot, merge the background layer onto the copy, copy that so I can merge my ponysona onto it, and at the very end there should be three images left, as well as the sketch layer :3 You don't have to copy everything I do to a T, that's all just my process of editing screenshots 😭