Weeeell, I worked on this art piece for over a week, and I was happy with the end result (although I was really strained considering I had a lot of other crap going on). I decided to give it another go at Equestria Daily, because it looked really cool to me. THIS TIME, however, I made sure to politely ask for some feedback so I could fix myself in the future.

They responded within twenty minutes, so I was pleasantly surprised. I even got reasons for the rejection. I sorta had a feeling I'd be rejected, so I wasn't devastated or confused. (I'm still amateur, and I still don't know 60% of the art features, so I took any criticism with gusto).

However, some of the reasons struck me as... odd. I'll copy paste: "We don't usually do feedback on art submissions (We get too many), this one is pretty messy though. The lines aren't smooth, colors patchy, glow effect sort of all over the place, proportions pretty far off, background a void. Just stuff that comes with practice!"

Considering they were polite, I am going to be polite about my confusion.
1) Messy-- I agree. But for different reasons than what was pointed out.
2) Lines aren't smooth.---well... yeah, it wasn't supposed to be a smooth piece anyways. I figured the LACK of clear black lines on the main sections of the piece made it clear. I used the textured brushes to define borders, and I thought it was a great idea (I've seen it done). Sorta to give it a surreal-ish look. I erased the lines around the borders of the hair, but it still looked pretty sharp.
3)Colors patchy-- The only patchy color I can see are the rough shading on the bones. Which is what old, dusty bones tend to look like. Rough and discolored.
4) Glow effect sort of all over the place-- I agree. I think the glow on the ponies and skeleton was perfectly fine, but upon hindsight, I would have subdued the backglow. This criticism makes perfect sense.
5) Proportions pretty far off-- ....... I honestly have no idea what they're talking about. I.. I guess Spike is a wee bit bigger than he's supposed to be...? If they're talking about the ponies not being completely show-similar... well, it's called a style. Anthros, realistic styles, and chibis aren't show-accurate, but they're all over the drawfriend's. I am really confused. I don't know what to think.
6) Background a void-- Considering I fleshed out the obelisk and cliff with textures, I assume they're talking about the rock wall to the side. Well, I did give it color, and it's not exactly flat, but I COULD have put more detail on it. I just figured that it wouldn't be illuminated so there wasn't really a point. Again, I guess I agree with this. A little bit.

Now, don't get me wrong, this wasn't a fantastical piece whose rejection I am throwing an uproar about. It's perfectly fine that I got rejected. It was the why that confused me. If I were to criticize it, I would have said different reasons.
1) Color contrast is wonky
2) could have used a might detail to the rock wall
3)there seems to be some incorrect shadows here and there
4)make the centerpiece larger in comparison the back.

Then I again, I know sh*t compared to the EQD art pickers. They know more about this art sh*t than some 16 yr old Mississippian .

I was debating on posting the image without someone asking, for the fear of looking like, "LOOKAT WHAT I ARTED MAMA, DO YOU LOVE ME MAMA? STOP HURTING ME MAAAA. I LOOOOVE YOU MAMAAA...." But, I suppose I could use some more constructive-criticism. Just don't be an egotistical douche about it.

Btw, if any EQD art pickers are reading this: Good job on the drawfriend's of late. Been seeing some better than the usual stuff that y'all usually pick.

Are they fighting Hihio Zabimaru?

Well, there's definitely much more detail that can be added to the background, and the shadows and the glow effects aren't perfect.

But overall, I think it is really good. I like the theme, the composition, the colors, and even the birds eye view angle.

If anything, I'd make the subjects of the picture (the skeleton and ponies) closer up, add more texture to the rocks, and fill in some of the empty space in the top left.

But as I said, I really like the picture. You're a talented artist. Never give up!

2186169

I don't think he had horns, but I can see the resemblance. Seems an anime crashed headfirst into Equestria... starts with a 'B'...

2186169 lawlz no, just an old pet. Very old. So old.

2186202 What really got me was the proportions thing. Do you know what the heck they're talking about? Cuz that area seems fine to me.

Dude. It's EqD. They refuse anything that isn't meme related. Stop trying. There Canterlot's Finest, though. It's still unknown but it's much better than EqD.

2186699 I actually am featured there a bit often.

Awesome picture!!

2186699
That's odd... Alex is one of the more prissy EqD staffers...

3216180 I've only seen neutrality from his personality, so I cannot judge as I have insufficient data to do so.

3216188 He usually comes onto threads in this group to post about how wrong we are and how EqD's pre-readers are awesome.

3216189 Oh yeah. Now I remember. Yeah. When you've been with a group of assholes and dumbs***s for quite awhile when you yourself are not one, you don't want to accept many truths about them. It's normal that he's in denial. The only one I hated was Ebon, but I can set that aside now that he left their douchebag club.

3216189
Well yeah, because I'm right.

Duh.

At its humble beginnings, it was a simple website... an inclusive website for everyone to share whatever love they could write or draw about the series...

That was 'back then'.

Now, it's an elitist hole, where ''Only the best and finest may ever have the HONOR of being deemed good enough to be graceful displayed''.
From inclusive and all about the small people... to an exclusive, closed-off, den for the elite only (or whatever strikes Sethisto's fancy today).

The ''old website'' would look upon the current one and shed a single tear of regret at what it has become.

6317687
Solid necro, bruh.

6318054
Weeeeell... Have YOU anything to actually say here ?
You're here to participate in the club... right ? Not here for no reason, surely.

6333906
I'm mostly here ironically, since, y'know, EQD Pre-Reader. Most if not all of the Pre-Readers are in this group, in fact.

But fine, you want me to say something? Let's break this down. Note, I only really know how the fanfiction side of things works, so if your beef is with something else, this may not apply.

When Equestria Daily was started, it was Sethisto and maybe another guy? running a fandom blog for a show they really liked. They'd collate news about it, and post art, stories and videos made by the fandom, just whatever they found in their spare time and liked.

Said fandom, being this fandom, was about to experience a sudden and unimaginable growth spurt. EQD started in January of 2011, around the halfway point of season one. As word about MLP spread across the internet, people flocked to it in droves. EQD quickly getting thousands, then tends of thousands, then hundreds of thousands of hits in a day. Suddenly, it was the center of this fandom, a place for everyone to go and find all the news about this show they loved and hey, there were stories and art and music, too!

Now, the thing about fandoms is, there's no bar to entry. You like a thing, you go hang out online with other people who like it. People from all walks of life, all backgrounds, all levels of skill and experience, can create whatever they like and put it up on the internet for others to enjoy. There was a lot of content being created back then, and there still is.

The thing is, Seth discovered he couldn't keep up with it. People would send him links to their content and others'. He needed people to help him out. So he got some. And then, because there was so much content coming in, they decided, hey, maybe we should implement some standards, so we're only posting the best quality content our readers will want. The readers didn't mind, in fact they clamored for more and better things.

But there was always more content coming in. Some of it was good. Some of it was just shy of great. Some of it was really, really bad. And when you're new to a fandom, when everything is shiny and exciting, the badness doesn't affect you so much. You just want more of this thing that you really, really like. But after a while, the glow wears off, and you start finding yourself getting tired of certain tropes, or maybe you don't need to follow as many artists as you did last year. Some of them aren't that good, when you get down it, you can divert your attention to others.

So the fandom evolved, standards rose, and it can seem unfair, especially as new fans come into the fandom day after day. To them, everything is constantly new and shiny, and they don't understand why these shiny, amazing, awesome things aren't being resoundingly fawned over by the rest of the fandom. It can seem unfair, but that's life. The old website couldn't have handled the new website's load without evolving and changing along with the fandom, and that's pretty much the end of it.

Now, again, I don't know how things work in the music, art or video ends of EQD. But in fanfic, if your story is rejected, you can always put in the effort, either by yourself with a helper, to rework and reshape it into something that will meet those standards, stringent as they are by necessity. You shouldn't take a rejection notice as a "NO" but as a "Not now". (Well, unless it actually is a "NO", but that's likely going to be given for content, not form.)

And I'm one to talk, I've been in this fandom for almost as long as EQD has been around. I'm established, I know what I'm doing, it's not hard for me to get a story on EQD. So why hang around here ironically?

Because Equestria Daily is not worth getting mad about.

Yes, it's the center of this fandom, but it doesn't have the pull it used to. With fanfics especially, you're lucky to get a few hundred new views on a story after a feature. There are sites like Fimfiction now that have lower standards and thus more content production. Lack of curation means more to choose from, but you have to figure out what's worth spending time on yourself.

I hope that's enough participation for you.

6333935
>Solid necro, bruh.
-So, about that line ? You know, that line, which was the subject ? The ''TLDR'' is ..? You wanted to throw that line there for some quick fun or was it a mandatory expression ?

In any case, my point was always that someone shouldn't have to be apprehensive to express their resentment, whatever others may ''believe'' in its legitimacy or not, without someone getting on their high-horse and throwing out walls of texts. Or banning them.
This may or may not be related.

>Most if not all of the Pre-Readers are in this group, in fact.
-What a... 'reassuring'... thought.

6334656
No high horses involved, just filling you in on the deets.

The tl;dr, as you put it, was in line with this group's existence, which is to say, a joke. Also, you did necro the fuck out of this thread.

Ain't nobody gonna ban ya. :V And if you're afraid of walls of text, you're probably in the wrong place.