I’ve been wanting to draw this handsome fella for a while now - ever since I first read the ’Neigh Anything’ story from the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comics, published by IDW. This is Gaffer, one of Shining Armour’s friends from high-school. What separated him from any other pony I’d seen in the series at the time, was that he was the only one to have unique patterns to their body, as apposed to just being one solid colour. Not counting Zebra’s or slight embellishments that Alicorns would have. Looking, to me, like a cross between a Palomino and a painted horse. I liked how those more realistic are mixed with the fact that he’s a unicorn and has that yellowish green, nicely styles, mane.
 
His appeal didn’t just come from his design, I genuinely liked his character. Using the fact that he’s a massive geek to his advantage when it came to constantly coming up with elaborate and impressive plans to help and support his friend. Describing each step like he would with one of his table-top RPGs.
 
Rather than try to replicate the show’s or comic’s style, I decided to try a hand at my own. See if I could get a mixture of cartoony and detailed. Granted, I started this before I did my horse anatomy and head studies, so I’ll admit a lot of it was memory-work.