Maria Ochoa

Spirit x Rain babies

Speaking of adoptables, I tried my hand at doing my own a week ago. The concept seemed really popular and I was hoping it could be another way to make money with my art. I sold each of them for $8 and they eventually all found a home! Creating the color designs was a lot of fun so I can see these being addicting to do as well!

I'm not well versed in the science of horse genetics. These were created with a little research but the color possibilities and patterns would be endless so I'm n...

Horse Art Trades

On instagram, an artist I follow named Mint_Dolphin27 was selling adoptables in exchange for art of their characters. I enjoyed the designs in their selection so here were my offers! In order, it was their characters Blaze, Brisa, and Prism. I had fun drawing them plus it was good practice in horse anatomy and digital drawing C:

Spirit Halloween: Days 30 and 31

My final two prompts I decided to post as one big picture. It's the whole family! Strider, River, Spirit, Rain, Esperanza, Geist and Falling Snow having their own little pumpkin parade <3

I'm a little sad no one on instagram gave this a try, but I'm proud I finished it! I was pretty hard on myself as I worked on these. I felt my traditional pieces weren't great, and for a while I was getting caught up on comparing my work to other artists I followed. I went back and forth from tradit...

Spirit Halloween: Days 27, 28, 29

Day 27 and 28 didn't really have a story prompt. Double Trouble features Geist and Falling Snow's kids. Twins! The black one is named Strider (after Spirit's dad) and the sorrel paint is called River. People on Devart would correct me with things like "that's not how horse genetics work" "isnt Strider Spirit's dad?" and I'm debating on changing his name to avoid confusion and unwanted remarks like that. I was thinking Wander! Like Shadow of the Colossus C:

On day 28 I wrote out my thoug...

Spirit Halloween: Days 23, 24, 25, 26

Day 23 and 24: Forage and Warmth

“Geist  learned how shy Falling Snow was, but he helped the herd in his own  ways. In the mornings she woke up to find a pile of green morsels and  sweet berries he left for her. He informed her father and mother about  trails the herd could safely follow, and towards water sources that  weren't entirely frozen yet.

The nights were getting colder and  the herd huddled close for warmth. Falling Snow...

Spirit Halloween: Day 22

Day 22: Adventure

“Rain  and Esperanza watched as Geist spent her time with Falling Snow. So far  he proved to be trustworthy but he never stayed too long among the  herd. Perhaps he wasn't used to being around so many horses yet. But  thanks to Geist, he visited often and was always happy to help forage.  Esperanza let out a gentle laugh and told Rain how adventures leading to  mysterious stallions seem to run in both sides of ...

2022-11-01 22:07:10 +0000 UTC View Post

Spirit Halloween: Day 17, 18, 19, 20, 21

Day 17 didn't have a story prompt but I used it as a chance to redesign an old Spirit OC of mine named Wind. When I was a kid she was my "horsesona" XD but then I made her Rain's sister. She has a coat color that's called a splashed white. They're really cool looking! I got some feedback on instagram and then tried to merge the popular choices together into something I liked. Day 21's Storm was also a chance to design a canon character. There are short novels for Spirit lore about Rain and Sp...

Spirit Halloween: Days 12, 13, 14, 15, 16

Sorry for the sudden silence! I fell behind on my prompts, and worked to keep up with them. And there were other things that happened that kept me busy. All in all, it was a productive October, and I did finish my Spirit Halloween challenge! I posted them all on my instagram but here you'll get the uncropped and full images as well as silly sketches.

So onward with the prompts!

Day 12 and 13: Moonlight and Afraid

"A  few days passed and Geist ...

2022-11-01 20:44:28 +0000 UTC View Post

Spirit Halloween: Days 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Here are the next batch of Spirit prompts along with the story snippets! :3

Day 7 and 8: Bewitched and Forest
“When  looking for food, Geist tended to wander off from the herd. But she  always returned before causing her family any serious worry. There was  one day, however, when she came across a peculiar sight. At first, she  mistook it for the painted doe, but when she drew closer she realized it  was another horse! Geist never saw anyon...

Spirit Halloween: Days 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Hey all! Hope you have been having a good first week of October. I'm slowly chugging along on these prompts. I'm a day behind but I've been enjoying the experience with these like I did with Smaugust :3

I have been posting these on my instagram account with little story prompts so I'll add them here too! They also crop the images so at least here you can see the full picture in a larger size!

Day 2: Rain

“At  first, Spirit worried how well Rain would...

Sham reference sheet

This started out as a small doodle but then I started adding more to it and turned it into a reference sheet. I always see artists I want to commission and realize I never have proper references so I figured if I ever wanna get Sham drawn he's totally ready now!

Spirit Halloween!

After Smaugust I wanted to dive into something else for September but I was burnt out. I took a break all month but I still wanted to do something for October. Spirit/horse related things were still on my mind so here I made my own list mostly because the pun made me laugh.

I'm not entirely sure how Ill approach this, if I should stick to traditional or digital, maybe a mix of both. Either way, I'm gonna do my best to stick to this and upload each piece this month.

Happy October, ...

Dragons, dragons, dragons!

A quick look through all my pieces for Smaugust 2022

The rest of Smaugust

I did it! I saw the entire challenge through ✊

Here are the rest of the pieces. First time doing a lot of these characters so forgive me if they look wonky. Definitely was a fun learning experience and it's cool to like, look at these and appreciate how diverse these characters are.

Also TROGDOOOOOOR!!!!

But yeah, thanks for looking and a small sketchbook tour will follow!

More for Smaugust

Here are more prompts for the challenge! It's been a blast tackling characters I've never drawn before. Plus the way it fills up my sketchbook is real nice too 👌👀 Smaug and King Ghidorah have to be my favorites so far! Tell me what ones you like!

Smaugust begins!

Hey all, Ive been working on the Smaugust challenge where you draw dragon related pieces all month. Its my first time participating and Im really enjoying it so far 👍

I made my own prompt list and the first twelve days revolve around the Dragonheart franchise and my OC. And after that I'll be tackling various dragons in media! I figure I'll post when I get a good hoard of images done! Please enjoy this batch and can't wait to show you more!

Tek, Lell and Aljan

Had a spurt of energy and made these three pictures today. More characters from the Firebringer books.

First is Tek, the pied rose and black warrior mare. She ends up becoming the mate to the main character and it becomes her story as much as it's his. Tek is really cool, she's brave and sassy and begins as a mentor type to other characters and ends up as a leader her people/herd love and adore.

Second is Lell who is a princess of her people! She's energetic and bold, and becomes ...

Unicorns, Gryphons and Pans, oh my!

So I'm reading through the book trilogy of Birth of the Firebringer and have felt inspired to do art of the characters. Get ready for a bunch of nerding over fantasy creatures!

I came across the first book by chance during high school. For one class we needed to pick out a book to do a report on and I didn't have much interest in the selection they had. I saw the hardcover of book one and it had this abstract art of three unicorns running across a field with a wyvern creature in a cave....

Attorney Chronicles and Unicorns

Lately I've been feeling very meh. After recovering from Covid I've been in this weird liminal state while trying to get back to the daily routines of things. I've been watching my boyfriend play the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles and when I can I've been reading the Firebringer Trilogy. Both have been nice escapes from everything!

Agra and horsie sketches

I'm feeling a lot better now! A small cough still lingers but that's alright with me. I haven't felt up for drawing too much but here were some doodles I made in the last couple of days. Digital art has been fun but there are some sketchbooks I am also aiming to finish. These were done with ballpoint pen and posca pens for the color. Hope you enjoy and y'all take care!

Small hiatus

Hi everyone, hope you are all well and safe. I wanted to post a small update. My boyfriend and I caught Covid, not due to any carelessness it was a small fluke. But we're hanging in there! I'm still feeling pretty sick but wow, as someone who had covid when it first appeared, the vaccinations and boosters make a world of difference. So yeah, get vaxxed and stay safe! And hopefully there shall be more art in the future <3

Horses, horses, horses!

My Geist hyperfixation continues! The first picture is a gift for another artist on instagram who made this sweet message about Geist and the story of her weird theft. One of the first people I came across that new my name and the character was mine. It made me feel happy. So I drew her own character named Tiara frolicking with the new Geist!

Fourth prize

The last request is done! The winner asked for their asari character as a child being held up by their krogan sister ❤️

These were all very fun to do especially now that I have a new laptop. Everything feels like it moves smoother and I'm trying new brushes and its great!

CDN shenanigans

I held a month long post-day-challenge on CDN with art as an incentive to participate 👌 Four people won and here are three of the requests!

I was honestly worried I wouldn't be able to serve up decent art since its been a while creating digital works. But each piece has pushed me into doing something new as well as getting used to old habits. And I'm glad each person enjoyed their piece!

Rain and Geist

Slowly getting used to doing digital pieces again. I honestly prefer working with traditional media but there is a crispness digital pieces have that no amount of scanning or cameras can capture with my personal drawings. Both have their strengths though.

It's been a while since I used a tablet pen too so messing with the pen pressure has been a journey!

Spirit Family

It's been a while since I did a full digital piece and it feels so smooth on the new laptop! Still got Spirit on the brain! I used some reference because my anatomy with horses is pretty rusty. This began as a warm up sketch but then it turned into one of those things where you keep going and going, and I'm glad it did! I'm very happy with it and hope you enjoy it too!

NEW LAPTOP!

I got a new laptop! My bf offered to get me one and I was hesitant because I keep convincing myself that my old one is fine (and yet it takes like fifteen minutes to boot up oof) so I finally said yes and yesterday it came in and we've been tweaking and testing it.

It has a build in tablet pen and lets you draw straight on the screen! It'll take some time getting used to but I can see that being really handy! And definitely help me get back into doing digital art again :3

As pract...

Happy Geist

Was browsing for refrences and found some poses to use for Geist and I really wanted to color something with markers. The first one is my favorite! Very dynamic 👍

The Band....THE BAND!!!!

This is an oldie but a personal favorite of mine. It was a gift for some folks on CDN of their characters in a faction called The Band. I don't think I have posted the finished piece anywhere so UP IT GOES. I also found the sketch progress WIPs and I love when I find those!

Branka and The Void

There was a post I made as Branka about her death experience and the image kept playing in my head. So I decided to draw an scene for it. It's been a while since I did a serious full colored piece. I'm very proud of it!