Alchemator - The Adventures of Line

[Alchemator]

Hello and welcome to my second art thread! My first had, basically, zero comments so I decided to start a new one with a different focus and a different tone!​

After viewing some of the drawings created by one of my good friends and mentors (who unfortunately does not frequent the Smogon Forums, even less this sub forum) I began to become interested in drawing onto real photos - and so with permission from Doomsday I have created a new thread to catalogue my (hopeful) development in this field :D​

I also felt that my older drawings were somewhat plain, but I couldn't exactly place why. I then looked to who I deemed the 'masters' of art at Smogon - Cartoons, Lorak, BugManiacBob, Rocket Grunt, Fossil Hunter and Cyzirvisheen (\o/) AND KOA WHO IS PROBABLY THE BEST ARTIST ON SMOGON! among many others. After perusing their threads and examining each piece of art that they submitted I came to a conclusion as to what my drawings lacked - a good use of line. This led me to explore a new style of drawing and rendering, the results of which can be seen here.​

This is the first (and sadly the only as of yet) of my drawings onto real photos. When visualising drawing onto photos I was originally going to go for a more comedic approach, making fun of the current headlines by mixing the realism of photography with the comedy of cartoon images. However, being a teenager and very depressed, I decided I wanted to try my hand at creating a spooky and somewhat scary scene from a real image. Absol, being the disaster pokemon, was my choice for the focus of this particular drawing - sitting quite calmly in the middle of disaster, horror and unhappiness. Staring...

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My Second drawing! Requested by Fuzzberry:

Damn thing won't size down!

Another requested by myself:

P.S. I did mence pretty badly on purpose

My old nemesis has come back and called out to me to draw it (him?) again! Some of you might know what I'm talking about. Personally I don't really like this but hey, I'm here for a second opinion. I'm making this into an avatar for Joel 22 if Iaza decides to work.

Aggron is great in competitive battling and STILL manages to look amazing (even with my less-than-perfect drawing skills).

What? I can't see? Voltorb USE FLASH

SSSSSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.... I should have come to victory road.
(P.S. Yeah I can't resist dark scenes with red eyes xD)

Avatars
Some avatars I've drawn, but not for specific people. If you use one please put "Avatar made by Alchemator" in your sig :)

Remoraaaaiid

Zwei Flygonnen

​

My Other (Older) Art
All of these are free to use if you give credit, but be warned they're very big :O
Venusaur Charizard Blastoise Butterfree Arcanine Alakazam Gengar Hitmonlee Gyarados Machamp Slowbro Starmie Tentacruel Vaporeon Dusknoir Clefable Dugtrio Electrode​

tl;dr I guess eh? xD​

 

[Raikizen]

You! I know you as that awesome guy who uses Plusle and Minun; and now as the guy who does the weird wobbuffet sprites.

Charizard is definitely one of my favorites, as is Venasaur. Venasaur just made me lawl. Going to go out and say that Vaporeon is by far the best, though.

 

[bugmaniacbob]

I also felt that my older drawings were somewhat plain, but I couldn't exactly place why. I then looked to who I deemed the 'masters' of art at Smogon - Cartoons, Lorak, BugManiacBob, Rocket Grunt, Fossil Hunter and Cyzirvisheen (\o/) among many others.

Wait, what?

Anyway, just so you know, the links to Dugtrio, Clefable and Electrode do not work, since the links are the same as the one next to them. On topic, that Absol is quite impressive; I like the idea of fusing drawings with real images, and those two different ideas compliment each other very well indeed. I also like the cartoony feel of your other drawings, they are well drawn and shaded.

Good luck with the new thread.

 

[Alchemator]

You! I know you as that awesome guy who uses Plusle and Minun; and now as the guy who does the weird wobbuffet sprites.

Charizard is definitely one of my favorites, as is Venasaur. Venasaur just made me lawl. Going to go out and say that Vaporeon is by far the best, though.

Summary: Awesome, Weird, Good Vaporeon Artist. Hey yeah I can live with that :D Thanks for stopping by!

Wait, what?

Do you want the full story? I'll tell you anyway. When I first came to Smeargle's studio I wasn't too keen on your art (I believe your skills were in their fledgling stages at such a point) and gravitated more towards the Lorakian fanbase (and quite rightly so, he's amazing :O) but after becoming enthralled in Art (spending too much time hanging around Lorak's thread and not posting, and yes I do like brackets) and buying a graphics tablet I began to realise just how fantastic your art was and the effort you put into it - I don't think my art will ever match yours.

3 stars on your thread? I would give it 5, or at least I should come to some sort of compromise at 4 :D

Thanks for the compliments! I was aware that the links don't work for Dugtrio (not missing much here) Electrode (Well it's Electrode) and Clefable (Which is probably a better one actually) but haven't been able to edit my post for some reason (this computer is really slow nowadays, teaches me for downloading stuff never using it and never uninstalling it). I'll try again now.

EDIT: Well you can tell that I can edit now. I'll try to fix the links
Also to anyone I can probably do requests but with school starting again in two days and the huge amount of homework they give right from day one I might not be able to get onto it.

EDIT2: Links fixed (hopefully). Also if you're interested type 'Disaster' in Google Images and see if you can find the one I used as a base for the drawing

 

[Fuzzberry]

Why hello there, Alch. X3 I saw your post over in the spriting thread and decided to drop in.

Your drawings have a unique charm to them. =) I got a good smile out of all. The Absol gives off a creepy feel, too.

As for a request...hmm. I dunno if you've been around the spriting thread long enough to know of my Buizel fetish, but I request a Buizel. =D

 

[Lord Jesseus]

Ok...

I think these are terrible, in an awesome sort of way.

Does that make sense?

 

[Toaster]

good luck with your new thread :),your art looks quite decent.

 

[Alchemator]

Why hello there, Alch. X3 I saw your post over in the spriting thread and decided to drop in.

Your drawings have a unique charm to them. =) I got a good smile out of all. The Absol gives off a creepy feel, too.

As for a request...hmm. I dunno if you've been around the spriting thread long enough to know of my Buizel fetish, but I request a Buizel. =D

I do know of your Buizel fetish, I read through the spriting thread long before posting in it :D I'm pretty sure I can do a Buizel but you'll want it more cartoony than scary I suppose xD I'll get onto it later today (Last day of summer hols :O)

Ok...

I think these are terrible, in an awesome sort of way.

Does that make sense?

Terrible as in Evil? Thanks :D

good luck with your new thread :),your art looks quite decent.

Thanks!

 

[Alchemator]

My sincerest apologies for all this bumping, after losing the first drawing I decided to re-do it (saving every few seconds :D) and the result can be seen in the OP.

Whenever I add new art I will add a post and edit it into the OP to make it less cluttered. I'll probably also send a PM to whoever requested it saying it's done. Enjoy!

 

[Fuzzberry]

YES. X3

I laughed out loud. You, sir, are amazing for that.

 

[TVboyCanti]

I can't really see what's going on in the first picture, other than two red eyes.

 

[Alchemator]

YES. X3

I laughed out loud. You, sir, are amazing for that.

*Takes bow*

I can't really see what's going on in the first picture, other than two red eyes.

Try turning your brightness up :D

 

[Alchemator]

Updated the OP :D

What's with all these great artists coming back all of a sudden? I'm scared I'll be outclassed :O

I'll be working on a Swords Dancing Ludicolo when I get time (school work <.<) avatar size is 400x400 pixels isn't it?

 

[Teh_1337ness]

You have some good non-sprite art :D They're all pretty cool.

Avatar size IIRC is 100x100.

 

[KoA]

At your request, I decided to pop in and offer you more critique.

Like I said in your last thread, you need to still work on your anatomy and proportions of your subjects. You've certainly imporved a bit since last time, but there's still plenty of room for improvement. Might I suggest keeping a reference of the pokemon handy next time you make a pic, so you have a fresher image to go off of.

I rather like the focus of art on photographs, and with some more refining, you can certainly improve this style alot more and make it your own. At the moment, I think you need to focus on trying to make it look more natural as opposed to just "slapped on" there, if you can understand that.

Aside from that, I see some issues you have with lightsources and general shading. Do realize that pokemon don't have flat bodies, so the shading should be appropriate to the contours of their skin so it looks more 3d and natural.

Hope this helped.

I then looked to who I deemed the 'masters' of art at Smogon - Cartoons, Lorak, BugManiacBob, Rocket Grunt, Fossil Hunter and Cyzirvisheen (\o/)

oh :(

 

[Alchemator]

At your request, I decided to pop in and offer you more critique.

Like I said in your last thread, you need to still work on your anatomy and proportions of your subjects. You've certainly imporved a bit since last time, but there's still plenty of room for improvement. Might I suggest keeping a reference of the pokemon handy next time you make a pic, so you have a fresher image to go off of.

I rather like the focus of art on photographs, and with some more refining, you can certainly improve this style alot more and make it your own. At the moment, I think you need to focus on trying to make it look more natural as opposed to just "slapped on" there, if you can understand that.

Aside from that, I see some issues you have with lightsources and general shading. Do realize that pokemon don't have flat bodies, so the shading should be appropriate to the contours of their skin so it looks more 3d and natural.

Hope this helped.

oh :(

Thanks for the critique! And... you aren't in there? *Reads again* DAMN! It was late at the time, you're definitely one of my biggest idols :O I'll edit it in lol

EDIT: Very subtly fixed ;)

 

[KoA]

lol very subtle indeed. I did want to mention that I liked the Absol piece, but it is very hard to distinguish separate parts of the picture and it all seems to just lump together. :(

 

[Wombat Sky Forme]

Alch- To resize, go to Iaza. It can do anything with your images. Like so: sorry If i used you image as an example, don't sue me please.

note:THIS IS NOT MINE! PROPERTY OF ALCHEMATOR! There. Nothing legal to worry about.

 

[Alchemator]

HOW DARE YOU INFRINGE MY COPYRIGHT AND WHATNOT AND WHATEVER AND yeah :D

Updated the OP

 

[Alchemator]

GRRRAAAAAARRRRRHHHHHH!!!!

 

[Nik S D]

The Aggron has to be your best. The Absol looks great too. Ludicolo looks pretty good-it's mostly the expression (I'm gonna beat you down, fool!). Buizel and Salamence seem a little sub-par, though. That's just my opinion, though.

If you are taking requests, can you please make a Swampert on some sort of marshland or lake picture?

 

[TVboyCanti]

What are you using to make your art? Is it all completely digital or do you sketch it first?

 

[Alchemator]

Completely digital in Photoshop, why?

 

[TVboyCanti]

I suggest you sketch it out on paper first, and then scan it in, then your lines will be a lot smoother. It's much easier to make create smooth lines with a pencil than it is with a mouse (or even a tablet). Use multiple pencil strokes for each line, penciling in softly, cleaning up the line, and gradually darkening the line as you go.

 

[Alchemator]

Don't worry art thread - I'll save you! D: