i wanted an easy reference for drawing Gilda and I found these tiny sketches from a few months ago when I was coming up with headcanon piece ideas so:perfect

these two have been on my files for awhile because I thought i'd write something for them but nah..if i ever wanna write headcanons about griffons and hippogriffs I'll do something else but for now: here they are. maybe i'll update this later..

rough notes from when i did this: Equestria World Map

Hippogriffs: live in areas near water, tropics
A mix of a tropical bird or a bird from a warm climate, a feline-like mammal and a horse
HIPPOGRIFF ONLY BIRDS:
Parrots
Birds of Paradise
Water-type birds (waterfowl, penguins, herons, etc)

Griffons live in the mountain north
Griffons are typically birds of prey or birds from cooler climates mixed with some type of big cat
GRIFFIN ONLY BIRDS:
Vultures
Owls
Eagles


basically I had the idea that the main difference between hippogriffs and griffons is griffons are more suited to a cold climate whereas hippogriffs are suited to a warm one. which is what i do with basically every similar species in MLP….whatever, it makes it easy to keep track! hippogriffs and griffons have a common ancestor, it's speculated that hippogriffs are a result of interbreeding between a population of griffons that lived alongside ponies.

as for the relations between griffons and hippogriffs? They're not great. Griffons see hippogriffs as saccharine and immature, and hippogriffs see griffons as their brutal ancestors from the mother country who don't know how to have fun. Despite being so similar, the two groups generally steer clear of each other.


I'm not really sure what I'll do with Princess Skystar in my nextgen? her and Pinkie Pie are a cute ship, maybe I'll redesign my Pinkie child into a Pinkie/Skystar kid.


thank you guys for all the watches/favs/comments recently it genuinely means a lot and motivates me so much when i get nice comments because i'm so self critical and I literally have to force myself not to just write everything i see wrong with what i've draw in the description…