I did an actual real proper serious REF SHEET for Spirit Wind!!!!!!!!!!! omg!  
And look at the cutie patootie! with a shiny new booty!  
cus omg OMG I ACTUALLY REDESIGNED HIS CUTIEMARK
 
So, I actually built Spirit Wind very badly. I was VERY new to ponies, and when making OCs on the ponycreator I made what was the first draft for Spirit. But like, I didn’t fully understand the beauty of what Cutiemarks ARE back then. So I was just like “Uhh, I need to shove some .png into this to make the cutiemark, but what symbol feels relevant to me? Oh! The yinyang! Duh!” Cus I had it like stuck all around my room and always wore a necklace with it on and blah.  
But then I was like hmmm now I need to name him something that fits, uhhhh something Spiritual, let’s see, my element is Air… Spirit Breeze? Nah, Spirit Wind? Yeah cool!  
…. Actually Spirit Breeze isn’t so bad XD but though his R63 name is Glitter Breeze, so….  
Anyway, I tried to give him <i~>talents</i> based off of his cutiemark, this is completely backwards of how it should be.  
I was so afraid to make him an artist because “Oh, there’s probably thousands of other artist bronies who make their OC an artist”, but later on I realised WHO CARES  
You can make your OC whatever beautiful little horse you want them to be!
 
But the problem was, He somehow actually looked nice with his cutiemark. I didn’t want to get rid of the Yinyang or the general colours, but it did stand out too much and was way too basic.  
So recently I was thinking idly “How WOULD I make it more interesting? if I kept it mostly the same?” and this idea popped in to my head!!!!
 
Also, As for the style?  
I freaking love the movie style so much I started this pic just cus I wanted to draw Spirit in that style. But then I decided I might as well make it a REFERENCE!!!!  
I actually….. really want to draw open style ears now….  
Not so much “Ah cus they look so adorable in the movie”, yes, they do, but more cus I have been lost adrift in a sea of pony daydreams lately and the amount of emoting and expressiveness I can imagine with them now since the movie is incredible and the ears are a HUGE part of that.  
I know I LOVED the ear style I developed and people also seem to like it too! but I’m not sure what I should do. Cus I also kinda want to branch out.  
I did experiment with open ears a few times in the past, but ended up developing this cute little podgey ear style I have and fell in love with it. I really wouldn’t want to abandon it, but like I said I wanna also experiment… what to do?  
I also keep doing the same freaking thing with SNOUTS!!!!
 
Anywho it was super duper helpful to go back to copying actual show refs for once in my life (just making him a little taller cus he’s a stallion). Cus it’s been a hella long time since I’ve actually copied show style outside of “How should I do this wing?”  
I got some practice with the basics, yo!!
 

 
Anyhoof, I hope you like the new style of my pony self. It’s my fresh debut!!