I Tried Stopping It

Pokemon: Skrelp
Rank: Hard (55+)
Creation Time: 2+ hours (I forget)
Description: A Skrelp I drew back in December for a failed TCG project. I was trying out SAI and fell in love with a brush that looked like ink so I used it for everything. Might as well try to get a Pokemon for it.



Proof: http://i.imgur.com/J3Nk3fX.png

 

Claiming Skrelp for curation!

 

Pokemon: Castform
Rank: Medium (45+)
Creation Time: A few hours, but mostly being dissatisfied with the background and changing it.
Description: It's a Castform because I drew this in June for the summer criteria, but sat on it too long. I wanted to to a watercolor style like early Sugimori artwork, and the rest just followed.



Proof: http://i.imgur.com/r7xKN4H.png

 

I'll do both of these, since it seems Skrelp was forgotten. ^^;

Skrelp

Spoiler

First Impression: I love the mood you set with this. Skrelp looks mysterious, and this setting gives off a very grim feel. The colors are crisp and the skill with which you drew that Pokemon clearly comes from some raw talent. Really good job.

Good Stuff:

-Your line art is super smooth. The little accents you gave in outlining things like his eye socket, and the creases in his ears and tail, really make a big difference. This is a challenging angle to draw, and you’ve executed it well. The proportions are correct and it certainly feels as though Skrelp is going to swim out of the image.

-This style is also great. I like the murky shading. Leaving the edges between colors rough and patchy instead of smoothing out the blend adds to the feel that this is taking place underwater. It especially excels in the background, because those edges add depth. I feel like I am staring into an oblivion. That brush works really well here.

Coulda Been Better:

-While the shading is really good, I feel like there are a few places where it seems to have been neglected. Skrelp’s arms and body appear very flat in comparison to its head. I totally get that lack of detail can add dimension, but even some simple dark shadows there would have made Skrelp more angled and balanced. Same could be said for the (I think it’s seaweed? :x) behind it.

Final Thoughts: Overall, I think this is a really solid piece of art. You’ve drawn this pogey really well and given it some great detail. More than enough for Hard, I think. I give it a 60/55, and Skrelp is captured. :] Sorry for the wait.

Castform

Spoiler

First Impression: Castform is so cute! That smile is so simple, but gosh it is adorable. The background is really rich and realistic. And those eyes, I just… ;DD

Good stuff:

-You have such a great attention to detail. You know exactly where the light touches and how to portray that. Things like the little reflections on Castform’s eyes, and adding dimension to those bubbles with soft highlights- great. It’s such a basic concept that can completely change your art, and you nailed it. You also incorporated some distance in the way the circles above Castform's head gradually separate as they get closer. Very nice awareness.

-I also admire the creativity that went into this image. Morphing that cloud in the background into a Pikachu was a really awesome touch, especially because it was done so well. You even went as far as to add smaller, closer clouds in front of it to represent the cheeks. A cloud in real life could legitimately look like that. LOVE. The fading and blending was just impeccable, because the atmosphere looks incredibly realistic.

Coulda Been Better:

-Honestly, the only thing that looks a bit off to me in this image is the brush you used to shade Castform. Might be the same one you used on Skrelp, and while it worked great there because of the water atmosphere, it seems pretty out of place here. The blotchiness takes away from Castform’s roundness, so it gives it an effect of looking more like a prune instead of a bubble. Blending those shades into a smoother, more seamless appearance would have made this mon look a little more legit.

Final Thoughts: Beautiful coloring and portrayal of this little weather poke. Love the background. Love the expression. It is simple, but was drawn with skill. I give it a 50/45, more than enough for Castform.

Again, sorry for the delay. Keep making more art, it is beautiful.

Edit: Wow, I did not realize how short these were. FELT SO MUCH LONGER WHEN I WAS TYPING THEM. If you'd like me to elaborate more, let me know. I kinda just went straight to the point on everything.

 

Thank you for curating, EmBreon.

Pokemon: Ledyba
Rank: Easiest (25+)
Creation Time: 1.5 hours
Description: Shiny Ledyba in the fall I guess. October theme (orange)



Proof: Has a g6 signature in the upper corner.

 

ur bug is next on my list after EmBreon on PWN

 

Wooooo!!!! Time for Ledyba! Ledyba is a simplest rank mon, so let's see if you will catch it!

First impressions: After glancing at your other works, your work has developed very well and I see your ledyba drawing is definitely an experiment in style. You are experimenting with transitions and shading and I applaud you. It seems that you want to try a more painterly style with this drawing as opposed to the graphic nature of your previous drawings! I applaud you for ditching hard lines!

Technique: You work is clearly done on the computer and that is fine. You're using soft brushes and layering semi-transparent brush strokes to create texture throughout your work and to to simulate shading. There is a light source which makes me happy. The perspective is challenging as you are looking up through the nigh sky in an autumnal forest. Unfortunately (though for an easiest rank mon I wouldn't even expect shading) the light source in the trees doesn't necessarily match the lighting of the bug, but for this rank I'm flattered that you attempted shading at all. I don't want to discourage you from shading and I want to encourage you to look at some references in the future for shading on trees.

I have challenge for you: if you really want to run away from outlines, try using old fashioned paints without outlines or starting a computer painting with no outlines.

Sometimes hard edges are needed but for this rank, and for the rank above, really, you're cool.

Pokemon likeness: Looks exactly like Ledyba.

Composition: I looooooooove that you have ledyba off center and have the opening of the forest move our eyes to him!

Conclusion: I really love that you decided to take a risk and ditch the lines. I would recommend staying outlineless but keeping your forms crisper. You've surpassed what is required at this rank and done what is expected for the rank above. With your composition, I would say that this sits between medium and simple! If you work on sharpening ledyba just a bit more I would love to get it a medium rank! So your score is (40/25)! Ledyba caught!

 

Not sure if it matters but Ledyba is actually Easiest rank (as noted in the post gun made)

 

Name aside he required 25 pts to get the bug and clearly surpassed the requirement.

 

I'm sure julio meant that Ledyba is in the simplest rank, not "Simple Rank", as his scoring meters were correct. Tricky wording, but it is not a big deal.

Also Gun, this fits October's theme for orange. So you can claim the extra $2k as well.

 

Pokemon: Magikarp
Rank: Easiest (25+)
Creation Time: 2 hours?
Description: New Magikarp game is out so why not. Attempting to get credit for May themes: Mermaid or (un)Focus
Proof

 

now I clam your work

 

I think this goes without saying that this passes for a magikarp. I do, however, think you'll benefit from hearing a critique.

Magikarp is one of our simplest captures and I think it was a pretty fun drawing. It is a fairly simple scene, there is a a bit of drama with the karp about to be hooked up presumably by fisherman trainer, but who knows, it could be eaten or trained to be a Gyarados. There is a little mystery that makes such a scene interesting.

You empolyed a very simple, color scheme. You've chosen a very late afternoon color scene right on the bridge between hot (the yellow and orange) and cold blue-violets. You've tapped into, whether or not you were aware, a complementary color scheme. Your blue-violet (indigo) shadows and water bring out the yellow-orange hook and the part of the karp facing the light source (which is presumably outside the water). I'm not sure if sunlight is actually that strong enough to light things that sharply for things that deep as you're saying they are, but it does add bit of drama.

Magikarp's air bubbles, while subtle, do help lead our eye and connect the scene to the fishing rod which is good and (I wish other people would employ these subtle ways of moving our eye in the picture in higher ranked-works).

The biggest problem, I do have are two things: the background and the outlines. I saw last time you employed literally no outlines at all and tried to draw something very impressionistic, and now you have something of the exact opposite: increibly thick, dark outlines. The way you shaded and blurred the background reminds me of a soft, impressionist work like this haystack painting by Monet,



yet the outlines give me a feel of a fauve artist:



That was by Georges Braque, who later became a Cubist alongside Picasso. But the thing that works in that painting is that the heavy strokes of color that balance the outlines. In your work there isn't much to counterbalance the heavy outlines, leaving them looking like heavy weights when karp is supposed to be weightless and suspended in water. I can tell that you're experimenting with both extremes, and I feel like with continued work you'll find a happy medium between extreme outlines and nonexistent outlines, as they do change the character of the work.

Your background is also extremely simple, which is fine since you're at the simplest rank, and while there are whole art moves that experience with vast expanses of color (look up James Turell for instance), but they don't really deal with 2-d art and often incorporate the third dimension. In 2-d art vast expanses of color works in macro photography because the subject is in such hyper detail and focus, the blank background is a counterbalance. Same goes with portraits... It is easy to focus enitrely on the subject while leaving a minimal background, but unfortunately in your work there isn't enough detail for it to be counterbalance as effectively as you could. Granted this is simplest rank, but if you attempt a higher rank capture, watch out for that!

With this work being only the simplest rank, it ultimately didn't matter since the other factors in your drawing clearly compensate. I would encourage you to work in higher ranks because I believe you have the tools needed to be successful in them. 35/25 Magikarp catpured!

 

Art/Story Collab with Dash



Pokemon: Croagunk
Rank: Medium (45+)
Creation Time: 4+ hours?
Description: Made for the artist/writer collab contest. Dash's counterpart story is located here.

 

Things that need curating: this one.
Curators who are claiming this one: me.

 

I gotta say, Gun, I saw your art before I left URPG some years ago, and seeing you still here and putting out art is awesome! Let’s get to it!

Form
That sure as heck is a Croagunk! A pretty good-looking one, at that. You hit all the beats with the features, and pretty much everything’s in proportion. I have some minor quibbles with the arms, but I’ll hit that in the next section because it’s by-and-large a perspective issue. You also avoided the major pitfall of front-facing drawings; Croagunk’s face and features are very symmetrical. You also did really well with letting your shadows reveal the shape; Croagunk’s shaded lower jaw is a nice touch. I would personally suggest further defining Croagunk’s head ridges by showing them extending down to the eyes, but that goes into the territory of “taste” where I would try and push Croagunk to be a little more realistic, so take that with a grain of salt.

Croagunk’s not the only thing in this image, though. I see an Aerodactyl flying around in the upper right, and something that looks very much like a Charizard hanging out in the upper left. Both of them are looking pretty good. I would recommend tweaking Aerodactyl’s head a bit, though; the back of its head is rather large while the front of its head, where Aerodactyl’s massive chin lies, is smaller. This is a minor detail, but it makes Aero a tad less recognizable.

Finally, I’d like to say a couple of words about your buildings! While I believe you put an appropriate amount of effort into the buildings in the background, I feel like you could have pushed the building that Croagunk is sitting on a bit more. Skyscraper windows tend to be rather simple, but they’re more than just glass plates. Adding some window frames and giving the building a proper roof would be simple, geometric touches and would make the building look more realistic. See the below for an example of skyscrapers with this window style.

I would also suggest giving the skyscraper on our right a larger quantity of smaller windows; if we zoomed in on that building, the windows would be huge! These issues aren’t egregious, but going into further detail would really sell the realism of this image.

Perspective
This is every artist’s favorite, right? Joking aside, I would be remiss not to discuss this in the context of this piece, given how perspective-heavy it is. For the most part, you’ve done a pretty good job at this. The reflection of Croagunk on the front skyscraper clearly shows that it’s leaning down and peeping over the edge. The many lines within your skyscrapers also have internally consistent perspectives, and you’ve done a good job with atmospheric perspective by using lighter lines and less-saturated colors in the background.

There are a few issues, though. Like I mentioned, the arms are giving me a bit of trouble. Right now, it looks like Croagunk is sticking a pair of very short arms straight out and dangling them over the edge of the building. I don’t see any indication of elbows, which is a problem. Some stronger shadows on the upper arm to indicate that it’s bent down, and highlights on the forearm to indicate that it’s coming forward with light shining down on it, would help bring the arms out and make them a lot more realistic.

Furthermore, the buildings are problematic in some places. The lines on the building in front are good, but the buildings in back could stand to be polished a bit. See in the image below, particularly on the middle image, how the lines on the buildings all converge?

While the view you’re going for isn’t as intense as that in the above picture, your lines should still be converging toward the vanishing point up above. Right now, the lines on the back pair of skyscrapers are all parallel within each building, which they should not be. Furthermore, on the front building, the clouds are being reflected. Unless there are more clouds below Croagunk, clouds should not be reflected because the glass will only be reflecting what’s in front of it. Overall, you’ve gone for a really ambitious angle here, and you did a pretty good job, but close inspection confuses the perspective and I believe you could have pressed it a little farther for a more accurate and intense down-low view.

Color and Mood
Okay, I’m already personally kind of weak for yellow-and-blue color schemes, but you’ve used it to really good effect here. The warm background and blue buildings don’t precisely match Croagunk’s color scheme, but it’s close enough that Croagunk looks like it belongs in this scene while far enough that Croagunk still stands out as the focal point. Its blue skin stands out strongly against the yellow sky. The dark yellow cloud cover creates an excellent ominous mood that’s further reinforced by the burning building in the background. All of the colors except Croagunk’s are fairly low-saturation, which helps to create a dismal, unhappy atmosphere; Croagunk’s slightly higher saturation further helps emphasize its place as the focal point.

The one thing I might use to further reinforce the mood is Croagunk’s body language. Right now, Croagunk seems to be just staring at the ground passively, taking in the scenery. The fire and circling Aerodactyl convey that this environment is dangerous, but Croagunk is unmoved. Croagunk can help sell this impression, too. Its hands can be gesturing - gripping the edge of the building for stability, balled into fists to show frustration, held to its face to show surprise. The slight upturn of the sides of its mouth seem to be indicating a smile; this can be changed to a frown while still keeping Croagunk’s signature grimace. The grim-and-gritty atmosphere already works; Croagunk can definitely be made to work with it with just a few more extra touches.

I also want to say really quick that I like what you’ve done with your space. There’s a lot of empty space, but very little that’s blank. The building shows the reflection of the clouds (which should probably be changed to reflecting other buildings, but it works from a space standpoint); Croagunk fills the center; the clouds fill the sky. The piece looks a bit empty, but for the dismal mood you’re working with, I think that works pretty well. Just keep an eye out if you want to go for a more cramped, energetic, or hectic piece.

Technique
There’s a lot of good stuff going on here. For one, Croagunk’s skin is bumpy. I know this sounds like a small detail, but it’s super cool that you went to the trouble of including these bumps. It makes Croagunk look like a believable amphibian, and little touches like that really help to sell the idea that Pokemon could exist in physical space. I also think you did a really good job with the clouds; the bright light at the edges shows the sun just waiting to break free. I also like the brush you went with, as it’s got a nice, natural cloudlike texture. The smoke is also nice, with lots of highlights and shadows to give it physical bulk.

My one problem in this section is the contrast between the buildings and the rest of the piece. Most of your shapes are rendered linelessly, in a painter-like style, even the inside of the broken building. However, the strong black lines that form the buildings stand out in super-sharp contrast. Contrast isn’t inherently bad, but here, it’s jarring. The buildings in the background have linework that’s paler in color. I would suggest coloring the lines on all of your building similarly, so that the buildings aren’t trying to force themselves to the foreground or clashing with the rest of the piece.

Conclusion
Now for the part you’ve been waiting for, the numbers: 55/45 - Croagunk captured! This is a great piece, one that immediately pulls the viewer in and says that things are in bad shape. Croagunk stands out strongly in a well-crafted scene. There are a few issues you can work on to really push this piece to the next level, but it’s very well-done as-is. Like I said, it’s great to see you’re still around, and I can tell that you’ve been improving.

Furthermore, because Dash's story passed at the Medium rank and you submitted this as a WaR collab, you may also claim $17,000 as a reward for your collaboration! Excellent job, and congrats to both of you.

 

Spoiler

Pokemon: Dewpider
Rank: Medium (45+)
Creation Time: 4+ hours?
Description: Felt like drawing something so I drew Dewpider. More lineless practice.