HOME | DD
Pix3M — G4 MLP Anatomy Notes - Nose
Published: 2012-11-17 06:03:58 +0000 UTC; Views: 23120; Favourites: 580; Downloads: 571
Redirect to original
Description
Update: Jan 2, 2013: Changed name of series for 'marketability' reasons and added a few more tidbits.Dec 2 2012: Expanded on ponies resembling wolves, and went deeper into explaining the slant-face problem with FiM-style.
Nov 17 2012: clarified some points.
Was originally gonna write what I know so far about the entire head which includes the eyes, but it seems that would make this tutorial HUGE. I thought I would just cut this down to just talk about the nose which seems to me as one of the more defining characteristics to somebody's pony style.
If there are stupid errors, bad phrasing, or anything else which makes these notes less awesome, don't be afraid to point it out.
Also check out what I've written for
...the eyes: [link]
...the legs: [link]
...the ears, tail, and the core: [link]
...neoteny & acceleration: [link] (Parts of this one is practically nose part 2)
Source for ref pic of
Horse: [link]
Wolf: [link]
Wolf Skull: [link]
Horse skull: [link]
Related content
Comments: 38
This is my solution to the problem of drawing the snout
It makes total sense 3D, but it's harder and less show-accurate, so I don't use it very often.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
I think it's still a bit slanted, but you're totally right that it's hard. Some of the top-tier pony artists don't get it right.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
That's why I usually avoid that 3/4 angle. It's really awkward when you realize it. Almost as awkward as the "twisted perspective" of ancient Egyptian art. www.shira.net/culture/kemetic-…
How do you cope with this problem? By avoiding it?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
This is where simpler, more abstracted art styles come in. Show-style gets away with it because it's a style which people normally don't look closer and realize how silly it is. Instead, I realize they probably made the nose like that to get away with smaller mouth and nose, much like actual cartoonists have great freedoms with regular anatomy to create more interesting characters. More realistic styles depend on better understanding of actual anatomy since people are gonna look at those more literally.
I think my avatar (at the time of writing for anyone who reads this comment in the future) shows where I am at with coping with non-sensical form with 3/4 noses. I find that it's largely trial-and-error but with the understanding that noses should be kept small and the shape should probably should not try to stray too far away from show-style at the same time.
For the most part, the best approach to figuring out this problem is just... do your anatomy homework. Learn from anatomy of both horses and humans.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
This is a brilliant tutorial! Should help me stop drawing dog-horses. XD
Just one thing, though; You spelt 'interesting' incorrectly where you said 'I've revealed an interesting mistake'
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I've always always preferred making the front plane of the nose visible in 3/4, which means drawing both nostrils like so . This was a great breakdown as to why it makes a drawing look more like a 3d object (which any drawing that is not a flash object is better off aiming for.)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
An interesting read/tutorial. I always knew that the show did something with the character designs which prevented show-like 3d modeling and now I know exactly what that is. Thank you for that insight.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Them Scribbles...
Honestly though, thank you for all of these tips. These could come in handy.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Nice guide
I had some problem to deal with the nosetrils myself and the nose/jaw shape.
But I came up with a style that I think is pretty accurate, like this one: [link]
Can you please give you your toughts on it? 
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
The faces in that comic have a really nice shape, imo, and definitely look more like 3d objects than show-style.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Oh cool, then I think I did a good job, I guess x3
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Thanks for that tutorial. I'm sure I'm gonna improve after applying this.
Also, Mr. Scribbles is best pony
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
The tutorial is great, and I'm sure Mr. Scribble enjoys the changes in his life XD
Although I must say, drawing these noses are remarkably challenging... aren't they?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Challenging, but nothing that close referencing can't help.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
... I feel like even hours of practice can't help that if you are not naturally talented... and if you are not Mr. Scribbles who has his mouth done for him xDD
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Magnificent! This is by far the most helpful tutorial I've seen for drawing MLP.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Very well described! I always wondered why my ponies looked slanty >.< kudos!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Interesting observations and a really good explanation of why 3D ponies tend to look wonky. ^^
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Annnnnd downloaded so I can go over every. single. detail later on.
Mr. Scribbles ftw.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I think Shining Armor is the only adult male pony I've seen in a 3/4 perspective (or at least, in a perspective that shows both of his eyes) and even that makes me think that his farther eye is like a frog eye; bulging eyes.
👍: 0 ⏩: 2
Actually quite a few stallions have 3/4 perspective, my avatar is actually based on a 3/4 pose from the show. Some examples of stallions with 3/4 are the doctor pony from Read it and Weep, Thunderlane, one of the stallions in the cider episode and others as well. It's still really weird anatomically though.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Nah, I think the other stallions just have a nose large enough so the other eye simply isn't visible at all. Heck, look at the pic of the horse. That's arguable 3/4ths.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Mr. Scribbles seems content with his improvements.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0