khmlp- chibis + notes

Notes ‘bout drawing the Keyblades of Harmony set

The overall idea is a mashed-together combination of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic characters and the worlds of Kingdom Hearts, as inspired by the MLP season 4 finale.

Rainbow Dash :keyblade of loyalty
The first to start the set, Rainbow Dash actually fits the Kingdom Hearts “cool” look so she was one of the simplest to design except for the wings – those I messed up on. Of course, during this drawing time, I had no plans for any other companion pieces. Her outfit was based off a simplified Sora.     

Pinkie Pie :keyblade of laughter
I love this drawing best of the whole set because the composition and character popped out great!  Her design was based off Pinkie’s Gala outfit that had homage to her cake shop job. After such wonderful positive feedback from this drawing, planning for the other companions became more serious, so sketches were done for this mash-up’s mane six though more for my curiosity’s sake rather than any finished presentable pieces.

Fluttershy :keyblade of kindness
Fluttershy’s design was difficult because she doesn’t quite fit in the Kingdom Hearts norm – animal tamer, soft-spoken, basically Snow White. The design was also based off her gala outfit, and the wind power of butterfly wings?

AppleJack :keyblade of honesty
I like how this drawing came out, very clean and simple for both composition and characters. Applejack’s outfit was based off Kingdom Heart’s Goofy. Timeless River was chosen for the old-fashioned feels where Apple Acres and AppleJack could be.

Rarity :keyblade of generosity
Gee, Rarity. She was most difficult to design for me. She is elegant boutique shopkeeper, but where do I go with that in terms of Kingdom Hearts – haven’t a clue, so based the design off what visually looked nice. That was a reference mixture of MLP episode “Dog Days”, Aqua, Eraqus, and . . Korra’s Asami Sato.

Twilight Sparkle :keyblade of friendship
Twilight is a very magical book-lover student, so much of her is based off oddly lots of blue: Star Swirl the bearded, her gala outfit and the sorcerer’s apprentice. A book strapped to her back allows her to fly when its pages are opened because reading let you to travel worlds, of course! I composed the drawing so (twi)light could be found within the dark(side).

Did anyone notice that all the unicorns have pointy hats, the pegasi attachable wings-backpacks, and the earth ponies jump/run like videogame characters in this mashed-up set. This was due that a straightforward transformation of the extra appendages from ponies to people would be somewhat misleading for those outside the MLP fandom as shown mathematically below:

Unicorn = pony + horn > human + horn = demon

Earth pony = pony > human = normal person

Pegasus = pony + wings > human + wings = angel