Little Sea Dragon

Okay, so the first entry took around four hours to complete, and man did my hand hurt XD I wish I had my tablet--I think it'd look less choppy if I still had it. Nevertheless, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out.

Steps for "Bubblebeam"

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Entry:

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Medium used: Fire Alpaca computer program with mouse

Steps for "The Dragon's Garden"

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Entry:

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Medium used: Colored pencils, blood, sweat, tears and a blistered thumb

Pokemon to catch: Horsea
Level: Hard
Points to acquire: 60/100 [x2]
No. of drawings: 2

 

“Bubblebeam”

DETAIL, CREATIVITY, AND DESIGN

Firstly, I have to mention that you have a pretty good painting right here. I really liked how this piece has a certain, momentous feel to it—a Horsea had risen out of the water and unleashed its Bubblebeam at some unseen foe. This makes the painting more dynamic, and thereby making it more realistic to some extent. Depicting movement makes art more lifelike and less static, so you get plus points for that. The lines radiating from the Horsea’s body (which I presume to be rays of sunlight) is a really nice touch because it puts emphasis on your subject; furthermore, it adds a powerful feeling to your painting by making it appear as though this was Horsea’s finishing blow, in semblance with scenes from cartoons and animé. Your lines are neat, and judging from your preliminary sketches, I can see that effort has really been put into this illustration. Overall, I must say that this is a well-polished piece, which tells me you have good skill for mousework.

However, I feel the need to bring up how the Bubblebeam was done. The streaks of water look fine as they are now, but the actual bubbles appear, well, a bit off. Compared to the rest of the picture the bubbles seem a bit rushed. Making their outline a lighter color, perhaps the same color as the one you’ve used in the light coming out of the Horsea’s snout, could make them look more bubble-like. I like how you made the bubbles oblongate instead of just a bunch of circles, though, since that makes them look like they’re being fired at a very fast rate. I do like how you made the bubbles ‘nucleated’ instead of just being hollow spheres as the animé would usually portray this attack. It reminded me of Suciune’s Bubblebeam as shown in this picture.

Design-wise this is a really good piece. I love how the image evokes a really powerful feeling, and your colors are great overall. This image also comes with a story, albeit a simple one, but that’s better than just submitting a drawing without one.

SHADING AND COLOR CHOICE
Your color choices are fine; the background colors make the image look fresh and vibrant, and the Horsea itself had been colored accurately (with the exception of the eye, as official artwork depict Horsea as having a redder iris, but this is really just nitpicking and I don’t mind it being pink at all). It’s also great how you’ve made your subject more pronounced by coloring Horsea’s outline.

Your shading I also have no problem with, though from that angle and with light radiating from behind the Horsea, I feel like there should be light streaks of pale yellow or orange being cast down its sides.

POKÉMON ANATOMY
Your Horsea is anatomically correct for the most part, though I can see that you’ve modified it a bit (not that that’s a bad thing, though, in fact I quite liked your additions myself). You made its ‘cheek’ more pronounced, so that it resembles a gill, and you’ve also added those nodes lining across its spine, which I found cute. Its fin is positioned a bit awkwardly, though, and should probably be more rounded than pointed towards the end.

THE VERDICT

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The amount of effort put into the creation of this work deserves, I think, a score of 64. Like I’ve said it’s a really strong piece, and would probably score higher if you were to modify the bubbles.

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“The Dragon’s Garden”

DETAIL, CREATIVITY, AND DESIGN
I loved this picture off the bat. Beeing the biology nerd that I am, I really like illustrations portraying Pokémon in their natural habitats, and this one is no exception. The detail on this drawing is amazing, too. You have, I think, four major components to this piece, which I have briefly commented on below:

a.) Focal Point: The Horsea
When submitting PokéArt for the URPG, it is crucial that the Pokémon you are trying to catch should, in one way or another, be the focal point of your piece. For this piece, the focal point would be the Horsea. Usually, incorporating too many components or concepts in one piece could easily lead to the focus being lost. But that’s not the case here. You’ve done a really good job at maintaining the focal point. If you don’t mind me vandalizing your work, here’s a little trick I learned from my Arts teacher to determine whether or not you have an effective focal point:



Here I have drawn what are called lines of focus, which are basically lines showing how a piece’s components are directed towards the focal point. It may look forced and ridiculous, I know, but it really isn’t. It’s like there’s this subconscious impulse to direct things towards the focus of your piece when you’re drawing (though you probably intended the sunlight to be directed at that angle). Lines A, B, C, and D show how the rest of your picture is directed towards the Horsea. Line E does this job too because the dull colors of the Remoraid provide contrast against the brightly colored Horsea.

b.) Anti-focus: The Tentacruel
Now anti-focus I completely made up, but that’s what I’ll be calling Tentacruel for the purpose of this grade. The Tentacruel here helps maintain focus by being the opposite of the focal point. It’s nearly as large as the Horsea, but it’s not the first thing that catches my eye whenever I look at your drawing. This is, I believe, due to it being shaded relatively darker to the Horsea. Those purple(?) lines you’ve made to simulate the shadows of its tentacles are really effective, and the fact that the Tentacruel’s looking at the Horsea maintains focal point. Good job.

c.) Foreground: The Seabed
The Seabed here functions as your foreground, effectively giving the piece depth and dimension. Those two are really important elements of art, without which most drawings would look flat and boring. Details are spot on for the Seaking, Corsola and Magikarp. I appreciate that Shiny Corsola too, because it breaks up the stretch of pink nicely.

d.) The Background
You have a really detailed background too. I have nothing to complain about in this area, though I think that mass of yellow on the upper left corner is a bit out of place. I’m not sure if that’s supposed to be the sun, but if it is, that would be weird since this is an underwater scene.

SHADING AND COLOR CHOICE
Overall shading is great. I loved the hatching on the Pokémon and on the seabed. It’s also nice that you used yellow to highlight the Pokémon; so that they look like that the sunlight is really hitting them (super effective!). The way you shaded the Horsea’s snout made it look convincingly hollow and tubular.

Your color choices are brilliant. The way you’ve colored everything really makes the piece worthy of its title: It’s like the Horsea really has a colorful garden of Pokémon. You’ve colored some minor parts differently than what official art portrays, but that’s not really a flaw in this case.

POKÉMON ANATOMY
The Horsea’s anatomy is well drawn, so nothing much more to say than that really.

THE VERDICT

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This wonderful illustration deserves more than a passing grade, so I give it a solid 75 out of a hundred. That’s two pieces scoring higher than what you needed, so that means Horsea is captured! Have fun with that little sea dragon, as you’ve called it. Hope to see more of your art!

By the way, I really didn’t mean this grade to come off as harsh, but this is for a Hard-level Pokémon after all

@TheProtobabe;

 

Thanks a lot Morru! Those were awesome grades o_o And yay horsea!