EqD ATG II - Day 17 - Pony Under Pressure

My entry for day 17 of Equestria Daily's Artist Training Grounds II. The brief was "draw a pony under pressure".

This was the perfect opportunity to draw some Rarity, who has been rather under-represented in my entries so far. Then, after sketching the scene out, I realised there had to be Sweetie Belle in there too. My two favourite ponies in one picture! Given the subject I decided today's picture would be perfect for playing with shading and lighting techniques. I also built on my earlier work on capturing the look of the backgrounds from the show, as mentioned in my day 10 piece, this time avoiding the overabundance of straight lines I used then.

Update: For my own reference I put together a breakdown of the stages involved in constructing this picture, which I've uploaded with commentary to my scrapbook. Click here.