Sketch To Infinity And Beyond

As you all know, I love world building.  One of my favorite things is to expand the AT&F universe and make it feel more alive and real.  I had mentioned before I am working on a background scene "bible" of angles and shots that can be used for the series and will share in a future book release probably.  

Today I wanted to show you a scene for an upcoming episode and how it all started.  The first image was the initial idea and sketch and the image below is the more completed (not finished) product. This shows a view that isn't the main town of Ponyville, but the town's outskirts.  Maybe a popular route as you come into town and smaller periphery businesses are there such as fast food shops and gas stations for motorists and travelers.  I wanted to capture the small town feel with telephone poles too.  Still debating to show a Ponyville landmark in the background such as the town hall or a water tower.

It's always weird to me how the sketches often in my mind, look better than the more completed projects.  I think it's because the sketches allow our minds to "fill in the blanks" and alter things towards our understanding.  A more completed piece takes out the unknown.  But I love doing this and researching the Pacific Northwest for this series.  I used a handful of towns along the Columbia Gorge region, exploring through Google Street View and Maps and I think this looks pretty good for a typical "American" style small town entrance.

I also have a lot of visual cues for further understanding this world such as the population sign.  The sign shows the viewer what they are looking at if I didn't explain it to you here.  You would still figure it out.  The Hay Burger seen in the background is the same one our very characters visit multiple times throughout the series.  It puts some perspective to it's location now.  The population seems fairly moderate.  I'm debating on Ponyville's population between 11,000 to 17,000 to 21,000.  I want the town to be small, but big enough that it is the center of commerce in it's county, Mare County.  It's no big city by far.  Places like Dockland, Seaddle are the big cities.  But Fort Vanhoover, which is closer and larger than Ponyville is deemed "the city" to these rural folk in Ponyville.  Fort Vanhoover has appeared many times in the series but people don't realize it unless they look for visual cues.  When Twi was looking for a car, they were in Fort Vanhoover based on the dealership signs.  Some restaurants they eat at that are fancier are in Fort Vanhoover.  It's just fun building all this up.    I drew the city's skyline in panel four of this episode once.  

Okay I am going off on a tangent.  If you enjoy more world building posts, let me know.  I enjoy talking about them like a loon.