Weekly Sketches - Pony Size Comparisons

My previous sketch had been named "Unusual Sizes 1" because I was planning to continue with that theme this week. However, by and large, these ponies aren't unusually sized for what they are, so I decided to name it based on what it really is: a size comparison chart.

So, as the title indeed indicates, this is a series of sketches showing how big ponies of various body types are, relative to each other. Or at least how big I personally consider them to be. After all, there isn't any official record of pony sizes, and the cartoon itself will even show the same character at different heights in different scenes on occasion. Add to that the simple fact that there is no direct human analog to compare ponies to, and it's not at all surprising that different fans can have very different opinions on exactly how small these little equines actually are. And since it is an important distinction, I do need to point out that I've been measuring pony sizes based on how high up the top of their skull is, much like real people are measured, instead of tracking height by their withers, as real equines are. And conveniently (for me at least), my headcanon on pony sizes puts their heads at an even twelve inches in diameter, which I mention this here because I was measuring ponies by 'heads' in my last set of sketches. This means that an average mare, being three 'heads' in height, would likewise be three feet tall.

As a side note, partway through the week, I realized that I had a bit of a color theme going on, with each character chosen so far being primarily white or green. Which, of course, I had to follow with my remaining sketches. This did result in me refraining from my ongoing theme of each set of sketches containing a character from the previous set, but since the last set had two such characters, it all balances out. But at any rate, here's the individual descriptions of these characters:

Iron Petal - Now here's something new for my weekly sketch series: a humanoid! This is Iron Petal, my primary character design in the video game Starbound. He's a member of a robotic alien species simply called the Glitch, which (like all of the playable races) is roughly the same size as the humans are. So I've decided that Iron Petal himself is five and a half feet tall, conveniently putting him at a nice height for size comparisons. This is actually the last of the sketches I did, due to my inexperience with drawing humans (and humanoids), and also because it took me a bit to determine what character to draw; most of the green/white characters I could think of had really odd sizes and proportions. These two, for example. Drawing time: 43 minutes. I'm rather surprised that this wasn't the longest time in these sketches. But then, I was somewhat distracted while trying to draw the next character in line.

Princess Celestia - At a full five feet tall, Celestia is the largest pony in Equestria, and is close in height to a typical human. She's also one of the most visually complex, due to her multi-colored mane and numerous accessories. This, combined with the aforementioned distractions, resulted in this taking the longest time out of all of these sketches. Drawing time: 47 minutes.

Princess Sue - This is one half of Thattagen's twin half-dragon rulers: Princess Mary and Princess Sue. These two have been described as being equivalent in size to Princess Luna, which would make Sue four feet tall by my measurements. I'm not entirely sure how her jagged horn would actually look from a frontal angle, but I think what I drew here works pretty well. Drawing time: 31 minutes.

Fleur De Lis - Fancypants' refined companion is three and a half feet tall, and is thus roughly the same height as Fancypants himself. She shares the same overall shape and height as Princess Cadance and the Season 1 version of Princess Luna. Drawing time: 28 minutes.

Hollow Grounds - This is Glaive-Silver's Ostfriesen Knight, and the second of three Ostfriesen characters to appear in this set of sketches. Hollow is a typical-sized stallion, and is thus three and a half feet tall. He's also having just a bit of fun here, at the expense of his romantic partner. Drawing time: 22 minutes.

Simmilie - This is another of Thattagen's characters, and the last of the three Ostfriesens to appear here. Simmilie may appear to be a typical mare, but is actually a changeling in disguise. Fortunately, she's a good-aligned changeling, rather than one of the sinister creatures that most changelings are. As her pony form is that of a typical sized mare, she would be three feet tall here. She's currently trying desperately to avoid bursting into laughter due to Hollow's tickling tail, with only marginal success. Her outfit is loosely based on this picture. Drawing time: 42 minutes, a fair bit of which was spent trying to get her mane to look right.

Sweetie Belle - I had realized, and decided to follow, the unintentional color theme before deciding who to use as a representative of a typical foal. I spent a bit of time trying to think of a green or white foal to draw here, and ultimately ended up looking at the wiki's List of Foals. Perhaps not surprisingly, this was quickly followed by an 'oh duh' moment when I saw Sweetie on the list. Like most fillies in the cartoon, Sweetie is two feet tall. Drawing time: 23 minutes.

For the record, it didn't occur to me until I was typing this description that every character here has a horn. Well, except for poor Iron Petal. While the color theme mentioned at the top was semi-intentional, this theme was completely coincidental.

Next week's sketches will be the first of the Halloween Art Challenge sketches that I've talked about here. So expect lots of dark and spooky imagery to come!

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Credit goes to and for creating MLP:FiM, and to Chucklefish for creating Starbound.

Iron Petal belongs to me.
Princess Sue and Simmilie belong to , as does the whole concept of Ostfriesen.
Hollow Grounds belongs to .