I like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Hence, I selected that show for my icon theme. But I believed full bodies, or even full heads, of these characters would be a little cliché (and giving them dots for eyes would make them look like Funko Pops). 

I decided to go with headpieces (hair, ears, horns, a bow, and for Gummy who has none of the above, eyes. And frills for Spike). I at first tried using shapes and the pathway tool, but I also extended my use to the blob brush and the pen tool, as well as the eraser. 

These are the sketches I drew up for my first draft. And then I added a bit more for final drafts. I thought of a variety of characters for this project, and I received a recommendation to change hair styles such as for Applejack and Pinkie Pie. I even experimented a bit to see if I could add a hairstyle that never made it in to the final draft. 

As you can see, I started out with six icons for my draft. And I started with thin strokes. This was before I edited Applejack's piece, Spike's piece, and Pinkie Pie's piece, and even a bit of Twilight's look. 

Not only was it recommended for me to take out the thin strokes, but I extended the amount of characters to twelve. I also updated several characters as well.  Based on most of the feedback I received, Pinkie Pie's hair is less bubbly, Spike's ear frill is not too close to the top frill (that's something I just noticed without being told), and Applejack's hair looks more like it has bangs, straighter hair and a scrunchie that goes more around the hair (as well as hair at the end that sticks out more).

It was my decision to keep Rainbow Dash's and Discord's look.

These icons should be able to give the audience an idea of what characters I'm representing. And the idea for these icons is to show my creativity in them, so I made final changes to the first draft where I felt inclined to. The object of creating hair pieces, some with longer hair pieces than others, has been met; there are 12 icons in this set. And there are no thin strokes.