Smeargle's Studio Update

Yilx's entry has everything we expect of a Yilx piece: beautiful lighting and shading, a stunning background, and a Meloetta or Kirlia featured in some way. Yilx's use of lighting and color to emphasize heroism through contrast was already explained well by ium, but I feel the choice of Pokemon themselves really adds to his take on the theme. At first glance, the use of typings seems quite obvious, with a Fighting-type rescuing a Psychic-type from a Dark-type. However, as Meloetta's base forme is actually part Psychic, not Fighting, it shows a heroic transformation to save a fellow Psychic-type. Added to this is the fact that Meloetta only changes forme in battle with Relic Song, so it risked being attacked by the Dark-type Tyranitar while still Psychic, but stayed in the battle, bravely turned into a Fighting-type, and saved Kirlia. In addition to this, their petite feminine bodies stand in contrast to the big, monstrous Tyranitar and show the small Pokemon triumphing over the large. I'm probably reading far too much into this, but it's a cute story that shows heroism really well, and even more reason why Yilx truly deserved the number one spot.

Bummer's piece is another great example of the use of contrast in lighting, with the bright lighting on Grovyle and the dull coloring of the Grass-types in the background clearly pitting good against evil. And while, as ium said, the piece is very green and yellow, the touches of red, especially on the heroes, helps stop the piece from being swamped by a green overload. And once again, I find the use of Pokemon to be symbolic of good and evil. The background Pokemon consist of a part Poison-type, a Pokemon who evolves into a part Dark-type, and a Team Rocket Pokemon from the anime—not the nicest bunch. In contrast, the hero is a starter Pokemon, a kind Pokemon that serves to assist young Trainers and stay as their partners, and it is protecting another starter Pokemon and one whose theme is that it benefits in the sun. I'm probably grasping at straws for some of these links, but these little details are fun to notice and really add onto the beautiful art that Bummer has provided.

Recently, the Weekly Spriting Challenge has undergone a few changes in structure. The strict weekly deadline has changed to a more flexible time period that can be extended or shortened depending on entries. Also, instead of weekly themes, we have two challenges running simultaneously—one by me and one by my co-host, Rodan—to give competitors more choice. Finally, our weekly winners are now just selected by Rodan and me, and winning gives you a point that goes towards an overall leaderboard. Here are a few of the best sprites from the new and improved Weeklyish Spriting Challenge.

With his humorous fusion, SubwayJ was the winner of the very first challenge, a fusion between a Pokemon less than one meter in height and a Pokemon more than three meters in height. This fusion cleverly meshes Solosis and Onix, with Solosis's body style working well on the segmented body of Onix. The sprite isn't perfect, with the line art coloring on the balls inside the sprite changing abruptly from black to a lighter shade, but is a funny, solid first winner to kick off the challenge format.

This fusion was the winner of the fourth challenge (by Rodan), where you had to fuse two alternate formes. Quanyails—well-known already as a great spriter and artist in Create-A-Pokemon—shows she knows her stuff when it comes to fusions, too. From the differences between the two, it seems a Landorus-T and Giratina-O fusion would be tricky to pull off, but Quanyails does it perfectly, placing just enough of Giratina-O's features onto the Landorus-T base to make it natural, while both of the used Pokemon are easily able to be identified.

The last sprite, again by Quanyails, is actually for one of the challenges that is open currently, a challenge of Rodan's where you have to fuse a Solrock with any number of Pokemon whose ability benefits from the sun. In this sprite, Quanyails changes Tropius from the banana dinosaur we all know and love to a cherry blossom warrior. Solrock serves excellently as head spikes, Shiftry's coat is cleverly used as a cape, and Cherrim's cherries and flowers combined with the cute, bright color scheme finishes the transformation from banana to cherry blossom. However, Quanyails can still be challenged with entries open, so head over to the thread and enter this or the other open challenge to have fun and maybe get your name on the leaderboard!

The Smeargle Card Project has been filled with many great pieces, but it's fitting that one of the best is still the one that kicked it off, from the project founder and master of painting, icepick. This piece features his trademark beautiful use of colors and brushwork to build up a rich, detailed picture without the need of line art. The background is made up of strong brush strokes, with blue, greens, reds, and whites overlapping to expertly create mountains and a cloudy sky, with the defined lines giving it a rugged look. Even the beam from Bulbasaur's back isn't a solid block of color, but lines overlapping and combining with the background, letting through its color while still clearly portraying a beam of light.

The white outline around Bulbasaur's spade-shaped bulb and the brighter lighting on his face immediately draws your attention when you first look at the picture. This shows you that it is a spade upon first glance, and then the beam of light takes your attention to the sky and background, letting you admire its beauty. The very foreground is left relatively dark, but if you look you will see little Bulbasaur both there and to the side behind the main Bulbasaur.

Finally, while the piece is dominated prominently with blues and greens, icepick uses subtle reds to provide contrast. There are reds in the mountains, in subtle lighting on the Bulbasaur, and in your immediate point of focus, in Bulbasaur's eyes. Once again, icepick has shown why he's one of the best artists on the site and given a strong start to a thriving project.

ToxicPhox's art is great in all respects, from posing to line art, but it is really exceptional in use of color, lighting, and shading. This badass Metagross is no different. The contrasting color scheme of orange/blue works really well and is perfectly executed. The background, while predominantly orange, has blues throughout giving depth, and differing hardness and style of brushes are used to create the texture of the rock. The mainly blue Metagross is lit with orange/yellow light, alternating between soft lighting and the strong yellow highlights, clearly showing Metagross as metallic.

For the Metagross itself, its strength and power is shown clearly through its hulking pose, placement in a harsh, rocky environment, and little details like the cracks in the ground around its legs. The bright red of its eyes stands out against the blue/orange color scheme and brings focus on the Metagross.

ToxicPhox certainly delivered this Christmas, and lucky CyzirVisheen for getting this beautiful Secret Santa gift!