Oh, yes, perfect lines hurt, a lot. Even lineless is easier than that (at least that's my point of view), but honestly, I'm not highly surprised that sketching ponies took as near as entire afternoon.



Not sure if my suggestion is going to be helpful, but you may replace original sketches by rough ones. Difference? Only you can understand what is drawn on rough sketches - that's how terrible they are. But! It really helps to save time since you are doing the fine lineart anyway, in any case. Your hand just remembers how to draw the floof and stuff and bam - all done, no need to make them perfect on earlier steps.







Again, it doesn't work the same for everyone, but you may try it out if you want to speed up or something^^

