Birthday Gift

Applejack the My Little Pony.  Not my pattern it comes from Knitoneawsome I made a few minor adaptions in the ear's and hind legs and the hat.  Now that the piece is finished I wish I had raised the nose section by a row or 4.  I grew up with the original 80's MLP's and adapting to how the new versions are drawn was a bit tricky but I learned from this first one.

I asked my niece if she wanted me to make her anything for her birthday and she asked for a Applejack and Rainbow Dash.  Now I was only able to squeeze one pony in before her birthday so the next one might just wait till christmas.

I had the option to do the eyes and cutie mark in a number of ways but in the end I choose to paint them on while referencing a MLP embroidery pattern for the eyes and cutie mark.

For anyone interested in the painting process, I used a mix of Modpog (craft glue) 1:2 Acrylic Paint.   It helps if you can mark out the area you wish to paint with pencil/calk/washable marker, then use straight modpog to put a base layer down.  Why?  Because the yarn will suck up a TON of paint if you do not, and it will help provide a smoother surface.

I mixed a 1:2 ratio of MP to paint, and did a base layer of white for eyes, freckles, and I forgot to put one down on the cutie mark which is why the red doesn't pop as much as it should.         

I wound up doing 3 coats of white letting each coat dry for 2-3 hours giving me a solid surface to work on. 

Once the white was set over night I scetched out where I would want the iris and pupil, the with some sheers I went over the area around the eye triming up any flyaways before taping up the marked area to paint.

I worked the iris color first, then painted the pupil once the iris was fully dry.  While I waited for the eyes to dry I did work the freckles and cutie marks but I didnt get any progress shots of them.

 The orange we picked out was a bit darker then I realized as the red from the apples was blending in, took 3 coats for each apple.