My LotR Pony: First Look

Next Scene:


Finally! After working on it for an embarrassingly long amount of time, here it is: the picture to signal the beginning of my new series of "My LotR Pony" pictures!

Now is the time where you have the opportunity to have a say in how I continue. I'm looking for feedback concerning a few specific things, and would love to get some thoughts on some of these (though of course, any and all comments are greatly appreciated ):

~How do you feel about hair color being modified to match the character better? The original colors stuck out like a sore thumb, but I could see them working if the saturation levels were dropped about 40%.

~Apple Bloom's bow...I could honestly go either way on this one. I think she looks like a pretty good Sam without it, but the bow is a pretty significant visual identifier for Apple Bloom, so whether she's wearing one or not in the future will depend totally on feedback. If people are indifferent, I'll leave her without.

~Boots and shoes; how do we feel about those? So much of the ponies are covered up by clothes, gear, and armor, I wanted at least some of their color to come through. However, I think hoof-boots look great, and I'm more than willing to add them if you guys are willing to sacrifice a bit of color (it felt like 90% of the colors I was using for clothes and armor were grey, brown, or green).

~Any character ambiguity? Specifically with the CMC. Can you tell which is Sam, which is Merry, and which is Pippin?

~General impressions of the characters in the picture.*

Also, let me know if you'd like an explanation for why I cast a particular pony as a certain character. I'd add that in the description, but I don't want it to be too long.

Anyway, hope you like it!
Oh, and please be sure to give credit if you post this up anywhere or use it for something.


*I know most people identify the Balrog by his whip, but I simply could not get a whip to look good. My friends were convinced that without his whip in the picture, he's not really the Balrog.