[JUL] Basking

Signature is kind of hard to notice, but it's on the Heliolisk's hindleg, about midway up. The piece depicts an OC who regularly uses makeup to change up her markings enjoying a rare moment of relaxation to soak up some rays in that sweet, sweet sun.

Going for Heliolisk (65+)

 

Why do i claim the hard ones for myself tbh.
Im claiming dis.

 

Curation is a go~!

First Impression:

Goodness, you always seem to impress with each art you submit Velo, and I have to say, I’m really digging this level of realism you’re bringing to your depictions of Pokemon. Its fun to see how you bring each of them to life using real world animals to create something believable, but with that said, let’s continue onto the curation~!

Form:

Because this deviates quite a bit from the official art anatomy wise, I’m going to be draw from both a real life reference and art of the pokemon this is based off. Based on the anatomy this seems to be primarily based off the frilled-neck lizard, a species also able to expand their necks out to frighten predators. The cool thing I find about this is that your anatomy is blended between both it real life inspiration and the art style, seen mostly in the thickness and length of certain areas of its body. There are also certain details that are played down to blend the two, but I’ll get to that in a little bit.

I’d like to first talk about the body anatomy you’ve chosen to go with, as it generally follows that of the lizard mentioned prior, but uses the thickness of Heliolisk to achieve a new, refreshing look. The frilled-neck lizard is a small, thin species of lizard with a slender body and thin arms and legs extending to large oversized claws to assist it in climbing. Heliolisk, on the other hand is a bit heavier, most of its weight shifted in its lower half compared to the frilled lizards top heavy slender one. Heliolisk’s forearms are thin and short with proportionate sized claws whereas its back legs are longer and thicker before extending into its tail. In yours, there’s a medium of both, whereas it takes the thickness as shown in Heliolisk, but uses the more slender build of the real life thing.

On top of creating this new anatomy you’ve also managed to incorporate things like the triangle shaped edges of its collar into the outer extension of its frill. Other areas essential to its design have been added as part of its color scheme or toned down such as the size of its claws or length of its tail so as not to destroy the illusion of realism you’re created. It’s that level of detail I find amazing, but if there was anything I was iffy about, it would be the lack of scales. I understand they are more visible on its thigh thanks to the pattern there, but i feel as though some scales inside of its frill would have really have brought more out of it. As it stands, despite the look of color it appears flat in some areas, specifically in the bottom right where less light is going to hit it. An interesting thing about the bottom of the frills is that they are typically a different or lighter color then the top half, but I realize you were trying to keep to Heliolisk’s colors to tie them together. Perhaps though, you could have lighten that bottom half just a tad, along with the addition of some scales to tie both together further.

Really, there was hardly much I could say here, both the pose and anatomy are both fantastic and you really nailed this look of Heliolisk down.

Background/Foreground:

The gist of the background is that Heliolisk is standing up in a sunlit canyon with a clear sky and a sun set up on high as though it was high noon. A bit simple as far as backgrounds go, but there’s some things I can address here that seem a little strange to the viewer. First off, the canyons and all the detail you’ve put into the rock look great and I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a little jealous as your technique for doing so. At at the same time, i feel as though there’s so much more you could have added to bring life to this canyon, the sky and the surroundings.

I apologize if this was anything but a canyon, but thats what it mostly resembles here.
For reference: C1 | C2 | C3.

So the cool thing about canyons is that they don’t have to be just a mountain of rock, but it can include both vegetation and water. Based on this angle, I wouldn’t recommend adding any water sources, but there’s definitely room for all kinds of scrubs and cacti. Some canyons even have trees, but at the elevation you have presented I don’t find that plausible. I think adding different scrubs to some of the corners or along the tops or bottoms and even slightly off screen would have added another layer of realism to your background. Speaking of which, I can understand the allure of a clear blue sky, but as the sky and canyon are such a large part of the image, a few faint clouds could have added off to either side of the sun, disappearing behind the canyon rocks just as to not have so much negative space.

There is one thing that confuses me as the viewer and thats the area where the sloping canyon that follows the same line as Heliolisk connecting to the one shooting up towards the sun. It looks a little strange and seems as though it would be better to jut cut the two off, where the surface Heliolisk is standing up would sit higher and the rocks off to the side would seemingly go past it further down into the depths of the canyon.

This is what I mean here:

I'm so bad at art

As you can see from the example, I separated those sections of rock and i added possible locations where say, a Heliotile or another Heliolisk may be lurking around. As it stands, there isn’t a whole lot going on in this scene, so adding a few extra elements like other pokemon help to breathe a bit more life into it especially at this rank. One last thing I’d like to add is that canyons like these are bound to have breaks or cracks in the ground, so it would seem a bit natural to add that into your structures for later pieces that have rocks in them. Aside from that, i love the details and the technique you’ve used in painting these rocks and overall the background is still breathtaking. Just remember, my additions were only possible locations, not definite or anything.

Line:

All of the line work in this piece is very neat and crisp, although I find the difference in line work between Heliolisk and the background to be a bit jarring. The background consists most of a a gradient sky, the sun sitting up high and the canyon that fits most of it. There are few lines that separate the different areas from the canyon, the sky and the sun. There are some thin lines, but the majority of the separation comes from the use of contrast with lights and darks. The places where lines do exist, the work is thin and similarly colored to the other parts of the surfaces. On the other hand, Heliolisk stands out because it has a solid black line surrounding it. Because the rest of the scene appears lineless, the black lines set it apart and it feels as though its floating on the rock rather then placed on top of it.

Something i like to do and will start doing is coloring my linework, even if its not the same color, any color is going to be better then a straight black. The black only sees fit to detract and pull away from the immersion of the scene for the viewer. It would also give a bit more dimension to your Heliolisk and help in those areas where it appears flat and pasted on. I would highly suggest using colors either just a little darker then the colors next to the lines or color picking those exact colors and messing with your lighting and shadows to get a better effect if that makes sense.

There are also some areas where the darker lines used to separate the different sets of the canyon could instead be a lighter color as they would be directly hit by the sunlight.

Technique:

There is a lot of going on here when it comes to the different styles of shading you’ve employed to bring this piece together. Most of the background appears to be painted whereas the subject, Heliolisk, is a mixture of that and cell shading. I enjoy the contrast between the two styles and I believe they fit really well, bringing the focus more towards Heliolisk. The only issue would be the line work on Heliolisk as I mentioned before, which brings me into the subject of textures. I don’t have much to say here, but i’d like to that the textures you created on its skin that at the same time can be taken for shadows are fantastic. It really adds to the detail you’ve added to Heliolisk to make up for what would be a rather bland area along its back. You even incorporated that same look to transition between the dark brown from its claws to the yellow on its legs and again along its tail.

But there are a couple of things I’d like to point out in the best way I can:

IM SORRY

As you can see there are areas circled in red in the image linked above and its because with the sun raised as high as it is, i figure more areas would be lit up with as bright as it is. You can see some clear shadows from heliolisk from where it is, so it makes sense that areas closer to the sun would be hit with some light along their edges. As far as the shadows go, I think the majority of them are placed well, though areas like the back of the rock on the left side should be a little darker as you go down. Speaking of which, a lot of the same colors are used throughout and I believe some of the areas where the shadows would be darker would benefit from a little more red being added into them. You had a little up on that same cliff actually, so it would make sense there would be more the further down and further away from the sun it gets.

Lastly, moving back to Heliolisk one last time, the shadow cast by it looks fine and I applaud the range in shadows you use, but i can’t help but feel the shadow on the tail would be further right because of the angle the sun sits at. Other then that, the shadow its cast is on point and i like how it lightens up the further away it gets. I’d like to add that to help alleviate any hovering issues, making showing some moved dirt by its claws or some kicked up dust near its claws would help to ground its front legs a bit more. The little electric shock at the end of its tail was also a nice touch to this scene, showcasing its an electric type.

Overall:

Overall, this is an amazing scene you’ve shown us Velo, and I enjoyed really talking a closer at it and even learned a few things myself on shading some rocks. I specially enjoyed your talk on realism with this pokemon and such a highly detailed background to go along with it. With that said, this piece well deserves a PASS, meaning Heliolisk is captured!

Super sorry this took so long! orz

 

@Sou thanks a bunch for the curation! It's worth the wait haha; I can tell you put a lot of thought into it! I liked that you took the time to go in and point out the problem areas visually - it showed me the places where my shadows were wonky really quickly, where I didn't notice them at all before, as you can tell. XD And yup, you'd be right on Heliolisk's anatomical basis; I tried not to go too wild with stylizing, but I threw a lot of frilled lizard at the construction of this one. I definitely agree on the scales thing, too. I tried to imply some more scales with the shading, but I think that lines would have definitely been better to drive the point home. Lesson learned there. Claiming my sweet sweet hopefully not useless in the URPG meta lizard!

By the way, can I claim money for the July themes? I believe this fits heat and relaxation, though if you disagree, I'm all ears as to why.

 

i actually forgot about that LOL rip, yes i'd say it applies here, so go ahead and claim that 5k~!