When The Pokemon Company announced in October last year they would be holding an art contest where the winners may have their art turned into a trading card, as both an artist and a long-time fan of Pokemon, I was in. I ultimately submitted two entries, and although I didn't make it past the first round of judgment, I was glad I entered.
The prompt for this contest was to draw a Pokemon going about its day. Vague description, but those give you plenty of room to play. They had certain Pokemon you had to choose: Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charizard, Arcanine, Scizor, Greninja, Cramorant, or Galarian Rapidash. You could submit up to three entries total, which could be all different Pokemon for each or all the same one. But the Pokemon you chose for each entry had to be the main subject of the image.
If I remember correctly, the contest was announced in September 2021 and then opened in October and would remain open until the end of January 2022. Unfortunately, I half-forgot about the contest until sometime in December and then got to work. In the end, I submitted two entries.
I chose Greninja as a subject because it's one of my favorite starter Pokemon and because I thought Greninja would give me a lot of fun movement options. As an anthropomorphic frog, I imagine it could run, jump, and swim well, but while I think jumping could've been cool, I thought climbing or wall clinging would be a unique take. Thus, I set this image in a forest by a river. Greninja would be clinging to a tree and swinging himself out to peek around for a better view.
I tried to add bits of water to give the impression he had recently emerged from the water. I also lowered the opacity on the webbing of Greninja's hands and feet.
Maybe I put a little more work into the background than I intended, with the river reflecting the land above it. If you look closely, I tried to add a few more Water Pokemon swimming in the river: the lilypad tops of two Lotad and the buoyant tail of a Marill. That stone tower was a landmark I thought of to give the background some extra depth. It's sort of based on a stone tower in the woods near my home, but I wish I had gone with something with a little extra flair.
Back when Pokemon Sword and Shield were new, I was inspired enough to draw a picture of Ponyta's then-recently-revealed Galarian form, trotting through a dark forest (its apparent natural habitat in Pokemon Sword and Shield). I chose to draw Galarian Rapidash as an evolution of that older image, literally.
I really wanted to emphasize color with this image. This form of Rapidash is a rather colorful Pokemon, with white fur for its body and soft pinks and mints for its mane. Using certain powers or certain attacks may also cause its horn to glow a soft yellow, with its mane flowing with the color during use. I figured the glowing horn could also be a source of light for Rapidash in their dark forest environment (I don't know how good Galarian Rapidash's eyes would be in the dark).
Speaking of the forest, I also wanted to make sure the forest got a chance to shine. The area where you find Rapidash's unevolved form Ponyta in the Galar region is the Glimwood Tangle, a forest illuminated mainly by the glow of mushrooms. Thus, I wanted the shine of these mushrooms to play a part in the lighting of this image, which would also add additional color. I probably could've done better with this aspect of the image, but I'll get to that below.
If I gave myself time to draw a third one, btw, I was torn between drawing Arcanine or Scizor, because I figured those two could've been interesting to draw but maybe less popular choices. However, an Arcanine drawing ultimately won the contest, so what do I know there? Still, an Arcanine drawing is now on my to-do list (Kantonian, anyway. MAYBE also Hisuian form another time.)
1.) Compared to some of the higher-ranked images, I still have a way to go.
2.) If you can, narrow down a theme for your images for extra pop. My favorite picture which ranked high in this contest was a Greninja picture, but they used a lot of high-contrast colors for everything: a light gray sky, black grass, dark images representing Greninja in its earlier stages; it was a cool effect.
3.) Start on your images early. Maybe if I started in October, I would've had time to make a third one.
4.) Exercise some flexibility in your pose. Admittedly, my poses may come off a bit generic. Kinda wish I went with a jumping Greninja, maybe leaping off the water and causing a splash.
5.) Practice lighting! I think I had a decent idea with Rapidash, but I still need to figure out how things should be lit with multiple sources. Especially with that pink mushroom; I wonder if things got too dark from that "pink glow"?
Anyway, I hope you enjoy these images. Please also check out the ones which succeeded in the contest. And I'll talk to you later.
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