Greetings. This was the pic that most grabbed me out of today's Drawfriend on EquestriaDaily, and I only became more intrigued after finding out it was a screencap, establishing a point of comparison. Much like the source image, you set up the frame so that the faces of the two characters were on full display, with the eyes and mouths prominent and loud. With the focus on expression, everything else serves as decoration to highlight those pony faces, and what colorful and visually pleasing decorations you've provided to complement the main attraction. The hair possesses a luscious bit of tinting that gives it the same texture as candy. I could peel those layers of hair off Rainbow's mane and eat them like licorice ropes. Meanwhile, Twilight's tinting is less shiny but also less distracting. It draws more attention to her face. And what a face it is.



The expressions in this piece are super readable and convey the strong base emotions of joy and fear. And while there is no shame in imitating the source material, I like that you took your own artistic initiative and went your own way with the overall emotions being expressed. The reference used head tilting, eye size, and missing components to really stretch the expressions about as far as they could go. In terms of sheer emotional energy, the source has your picture beat by a few dozen watts. Twilight looks more pleased than excited, and Rainbow looks less mortified and more worried. Twilight's posing for a photo rather than a cereal box, and Rainbow is watching Scootaloo's spelling bee tryouts instead of Scoot's brain surgery. But it's not a simple matter of one picture being superior to the other. Your expressions tell a different story, and the changes you made to the composition contribute.



For instance, in the source, Twilight has no visible chest or lower back. She is all head and neck with a little smidgen of tail to really put all of the emphasis on that head. Your Twilight gives her a pronounced chest as well as the whole upper torso, adding a lot more stability to her pose. You also have a much more visually interesting line of action that I can follow all the way through to the tail. Another element the source has that yours lacks is the motion of the Twilight's mane. Note how the source's sways down at the top and clings to her neck at the bottom, adding some extra frenetic energy to her head. Yours is more static and reflects the more stable pose you set up. On the flip side, you also don't have bizarrely mismatched eye lines, so that's a plus. The eyes and mouth themselves on your Twilight are fairly close to the original, only done up in your style. The eyes are closer together, the mouth pushes up less on the eyes, she shows less teeth, the eyelashes are bigger, and the nose is smaller. It all comes together to make a pleased Twilight, proud of her work but not overly excited about anything. However, everything about this face points to that sense of joy. It's consistent and insanely readable. I could however possibly interpret it as a fake smile, of the sort you might find in Our Town, depending on how I choose to look at it.



Meanwhile, Rainbow's looking awfully timid about an event that's soon to occur, and she's got some noticeable differences between her source material as well. Much like Twilight, she's got a little more there to see. In the source, Rainbow is all upper body, no legs. In yours, we can see the way in which she is standing, adding that same sense of stability to her side. With Rainbow, it works a little less well since fear and stability don't generally mesh. With her legs absent, it creates more of a sense that she's floating in the air, especially with her wings out like that. In your pic, it's apparent that she's standing, yet her mind is clearly not grounded. Another minor change you made that was more embellished with Rainbow than Twilight was the angle of the head. The source places Rainbow very much facing toward the camera while yours is much closer to a 3/4 view. We could interpret Twilight and Rainbow to be looking at us in the source, but there's no danger of that in yours. They are either caught up in their own minds or looking off into the distance at something that reflects their emotions. The lack of stretch lines around Rainbow's mouth has an effect of softening the impact of her teeth biting down on her lip. If it weren't for the fearful eyes, I could believe she was about to do one of those loud whistles here. It's also interesting how something as simple as changing the design of the wings effects Rainbow's body language. The roundish wings of the source make her look a little more timid and pathetic, while the pointy ones you've provided are perky and aggressive, like she's trying to subconsciously peacock her way into still looking tough despite how she feels. Given Rainbow's character, perhaps the pointy wings work better for the picture. The last thing of note would be the angle you used for Rainbow's forelegs, and here's where I really think the source has the upper hand. Rainbow's front leg joints pull inward at the lowest point, creating an overall shape resembling a triangle and symbolically showcasing her mindset since she's pulling inward too. Since your pic has the 3/4 view, your forelegs create more of a rectangle shape, again reinforcing this idea of character stability. It doesn't negate the tremendous emotional force of the expression, but it lacks the means to complement it and push it further that the source material possesses. Not only does Rainbow look secure in where she's standing, but she's got a bold, wide open stance with a pronounced chest, just like Twilight. Tweak her face, put her hooves on her hips, and you'd have a heroic superhero pose, a far cry from what you'd get if you did the same with the source pic. The form and line of action of your poses are sublime, but there's a lack of synergy between Rainbow's pose and expression. Instead of a roaring fire of fear, I only see a little flicker of anxiety. If that's the emotion you interpreted Rainbow to truly be feeling in the source scene, you did a good job showcasing it. Otherwise, I'd recommend taking a closer look at the body language on a deeper level. Remove certain elements and see how the picture changes. Determine what each body part adds and takes away from the pose. If you can be consistent with this style while simultaneously pushing the emotional boundaries and backing it up with compatible body language, you can get away with some absolutely breathtaking visuals. Make the most!