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Hi everyone! For those who don't know who I am, I go by the name of aXl or Falgaia or jadeVelocity depending on where you know me from. Smogon was actually where I got started doing art somewhere around six years ago, and even though I'm not a big competitive battler, I seem to keep coming back here for one reason or another. I've done a lot of terrible art in my time, but over the past year, I've been keeping myself occupied by helping to keep pixel art on the Smogon Servers relevant as of Pokemon X and Y. It's a great project led by great people, and you should drop by to check it out.

I also do other non-pixel forms of art, although who knows me for that? Anyways, what with hitting 900 postcount and all, I figured it was finally time to start up an art thread. Some of the art drawn below was made using a 3DS painting app, so excuse the poor resolution.

Before continuing, let me warn you that I am a beginning Architecture major, so while some of this art is Pokemon related, a good deal of what I'll be posting up here over time will be coming from my various studio projects. Will I stick with the major? I have no idea yet, but I managed to struggle through the first semester without killing myself, so I think I have a rare gift. Anyways, onto the art.

Some fanart I made of Mega Banette to test out my neglected tablet in Photoshop, since I had to buy Adobe CC for ARCH 1001.

My Secret Santa submission, requested by Nerina. Made using a 3DS.

A gift I made awhile back for the XY Sprite Project's co-leader, princessofmusic; made using a 3DS.
These were created using a scan of a previous project and copying and editing the original primitive to create something unrecognizable from the original. This was essentially a final project of sorts, and I had to make multiple as the photomanipulations were supposed to contain "one large space, several medium spaces, and many small spaces in a linear arrangement." The second one accomplishes this much better.

and a 3D interpretation of the second one was also created as part of the same project.

This was created as part of an Architecture Project where we were tasked with showing a state of conflicting adjectives, such as a Loud Silence. Of course, because I came up with a cool idea, I went overboard with it and it came out subpar as a result. The intention was to interweave magazine pieces into the page, and have them sporadically appear as a way to make the white of the page seem oppressive the the subject, thus a "loud silence." But apparently the repressed magazine cutouts staged a rebellion. Below is a scan of the backs of these, to give some more context of what I did.


Also I made a Reuniclus collage awhile back that, while not new work, is still probably worth showing here.


I have a lot more stuff to show, but I still need to upload a lot of it before I can post it. Either way, I thought this was goo enough of an introductory post. I plan to get back to this soon, and hopefully before the second semester's classes begin.

Anywho, glad to finally have a spot here. Feel free to comment or critique my art in the comments, especially the ARCH work, as those are somewhat more important to my current lifestyle. +)

Sláinte!

 
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I like this one, how did you create it? It looks like you made a patchwork composite out of multiple negatives.
The original piece I used for this one was a scan of another piece I had made for a previous project, basically just placing in on a flatbed scanner and covering it as best I could with another piece of paper. The overall scan quality was fairly poor, thus the weird background lines.
The second one was made with a higher-quality scan and that's why it looks a bit cleaner, but as for the first one, I basically just made about 50 or so layers of the above scan and adjusted the opacity, size, dimensions, etc in turn. Probably around 50% of the pieces have their colors inverted to create a stronger black white contrast, and I started using a small section from the middle of the scan rather than the whole thing as I began to work on the left. I also adjusted the value levels in the original scan to better showcase the details of the ripped edges, which is noticeable on the feathery-looking areas. It was fun to create, although it didn't meet the assignment's criteria so I had to remake it. Even so, I used it for the cover of my portfolio at the end of the semester, so it was still useful for me to do in the long-run. +)
 
Ok, so I just got finished uploading the most infamous project from ARCH 1001 to my alt dA account. The project was a Term Drawing Project, also known as the bane of any first year art student. I have 49 drawings for this, done in "1 hour" time periods (read: anywhere from 30 minutes to 1.25 hours) over the course of mid September to early November. I don't have the patience to link all of these here, and you probably don't want to see all of them, so here's what I'll do. The better ones will be posted below in all their low-quality-scan glory, and anything else you can find at the below link if you want to watch my progress.

ALL 49 DRAWINGS
Each picture's title links back to my student-work dA account in case anyone wants to ready my dumb descriptions of any of the pieces presented here. Hope you all enjoy, and, as usual, feel free to tell me how I'm doing. Even though the project's over, I still have plenty of room to improve. +)
 
So recently ARCH 1002 started up, and I've began uploading assignments to my Architecture DA account. The image links to my DA account, since I know I was having trouble getting previous images to expand underneath hide tags.


Pictured from top left clockwise are "Current," "Stagnant," "Unnerving," and "Prolonged Urgency." These four comprise attempts 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the first Architecture project of the new semester, which was to try and capture the form, space, and motion created by a moving crowd using gestural strokes (e.g., not looking at the paper but at the crowd.) We were told to use Conte for these, so I went the creative path and ground up two sticks of Conte to create finger-pigments. The drawings were created with one "dusted" hand while the other held a stick in order to represent moments where the people in the crowds started to meander. Overall I was pretty impressed with the way these four came out.

Also, I made a cardart for the Smeargle Card Project, so I'll post that here too. Thi was Banette/Mega Banette, representing the Queen of Clubs.


Hope you guys like them! If you have any critiques or questions, feel free to comment below.

Slainte!
 
this is what happens when you need sleep and still have to edit pictures of an insect to showcase form space or whatever the hell have you.

what am I doing with my life

anyways, this was created as part of a current assignment where we had to take pictures and edit them/create illustrations of an insect in order to showcase something that a mere camera couldn't capture. My sketches were largely anatomical mixed with a few "action shots" where I liked to see if I could picture how a Lethocerus Americanus moved when it was alive, but the photomanipulation above I think does a better job of portraying its, animated features.

Sketches down below. Something that isn't an ARCH 1002 project should be coming soon. As always, click the pictures to be taken to the DA hostings, since I don't trust the image rescaler on Smogon from personal experience.
 
Been doing some more tablet experimentation as part of my personal "Don't Break the Chain" challenge, whose goal is to create art on a daily basis for either Architecture coursework, personal enjoyment or otherwise. So far, I've been keeping the chain up since last Monday, but there's only really two pieces from the exercise I'd like to share here, as the others are in-progress Arch assignments or other WIP's I am saving for later.

The PS! Art Room is a great place for getting inspiration, as I've recently learned. This was drawn for the PS! user "Floette" as a response to their art request on the inaugural day of my DBTC challenge. I tried using a different method for creating an outline here, using a photographed, level-adjusted sketch for the outline rather than my tablet. As a first attempt, it didn't turn out half bad, but I think it'd look better if I had inked the sketch first. The piece took about 90-odd minutes to complete, so I'll probably revisit this style later.

This piece was also created for the PS! Art Room, created in around 40-minutes for a Daily Draw where we were prompted to roll a random Pokemon and draw it in an unsettling way. I like how the shading came out in this one, but I think I could have chosen a more sickly tone of green for the outlining sketch. I enjoyed creating this one a lot partially due to rougher quality of the piece. Good style for quick art, imo.

Also, as part of a joke I made with TrainerSplash, I drew Serena with a giant hat, specifically, a giant Mismagius hat and clothes to match. Your move, TS.
Next update will likely be ARCH related, so fair warning there.
 
That's such a cute Floette. I'm really fond of your choice of colors for shading.

EDIT: Apparently, this is my 300th post.
 


Oh hey look an update. How rare!

"Managed to finally get around to finishing this piece. I created it in a fit of energy a few weeks back and its been sitting in a near-finished state on my laptop until today. Glad to have it done. +)

Decided to try out an older style of mine with this one, notably using the idea of using the base sketch as a texture of sorts for the overall piece while throwing out solid lines. I quickly remembered several of the issues that come with working with this style, but it was still fun and it's cool to see how much better I've gotten comparing this to some of my older works. Might continue making more art like this, as I've always liked the style a lot, and now that I have Photoshop I can apply it better than I could in Colors!3D."


I'd update with more ARCH projects but those have recently been being less photogenic than my earlier pieces. I'll look into getting more art posted here sooner rather than later lol.
 
That Gallade looks absolutely incredible, Axl. And that's a lot coming from me, because I hate Gallade's design. Like, a lot. Bottom 10, easily.
I just love how it all flows. And I love the eye. It looks kinda cool having the eye as the one detailed point in the otherwise motion-blurred image.
 
oh wow my thread's on the second page
code ARCH, I repeat, code ARCH


these were made as part of my ARCH1002 final project, made using photographs of an earlier project transcribed square-by-square in isolation. The top two were created using watercolors, the bottom two 2B pencil. it only took around 5 days glad these are finished. +)

More pokemon artwork coming soon now that exams are almost cleared.
 
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Seriously, the "Roserade crossed with Mega Banette" is super cool. The shading has gotten much better, and it seems like you've used fewer lines this time around.
 


A piece I made a few weeks ago that I've been holding up on posting, partly because I didn't want to spoil the surprise over on the Smogon Facebook page. This marks my first ever non-sprite contribution to the Smogon website, and I'm happy to finally be able to share it with you all. +)

Anyways, here's one of my favorite legendaries, Virizion! It was really fun creating this painting using the techniques I practiced in Black Rose. Virizion was painted entirely on one layer, which was an interesting challenge as well.

Also, in case you all might have missed it, I also posted some artwork over in the Collaboration thread as part of an Art Room challenge, so you can check that out if you haven't seen it as well. +)
 
This is like my third time telling you this, but please go make an artist application with the two previous things itt and the Serena-Mismagius )':

I really enjoy seeing lineless works in general and the colouring style employed in the last two is very edgy and awesome. Virizion is a cool 'mon as well. It's a shame that you didn't post the collab pieces here directly because whatever that green blob is, it's hella cute.
 
guys
upload_2015-7-7_12-50-38.png upload_2015-7-7_12-51-56.png upload_2015-7-7_12-52-46.png

I LEARNED HOW TO THUMBNAIL


Diancie - Made for Smogon's Front Page Art Contest.
Lines done in pencil first, inked over, and then photographed with an iPhone and isolated in Photoshop. Colors done completely in Photoshop.

Megampharos Masked - Leisure art I made based on an old concept I had. Also used to play with shading.
Original shapes and forms made using Colors!3D, a drawing program for the 3DS, then imported into Photoshop and shaded/scaled up.

Untitled - Some Colors!3D art I made for a potential Floraverse OC.
Made entirely using Colors!3D.
 
Hey I was wondering can you do a free drawing for a winner of my teambuilding completion
Currently I have a lot on my plate, so I'll have to decline for the time being. I actually have another contest prize drawing that's still pending from a contest that just ran in SS last month, and I'd prefer to not have these things stack up too much with college about to break into session again in another month or so.

also, here's some more new art for Chesnaught for the front page competition. Click the thumbnail for full-size.
upload_2015-7-11_21-6-26.png
 
aXl, first, let me just say that this is beyond amateur. I especially like Mega Altaria.

Second, do you take requests? If so, you're about to get the weirdest fucking request you will ever get.

A Diancie trying to hug Dark Pit.

yes that's my OTP sue me
 
I like a whole lot of what you've done here, but I can say one less positive thing about altaria's eye. Then again maybe it's because I just hate altaria's design. All your works look really good so I don't really see anything I feel remotely qualified to criticize.
 
hey look, top of the front second page! time for a fresh post.



Made this for the Facebook page awhile back. Enjoyed it a lot, even if it was sort of a last-minute measure due to no one reserving Bisharp. Especially nice considering I had just gotten my wisdom teeth pulled and it gave me something other than pain to focus on.




Another FB post, this time made using a bit more of an experimental style. Originally had a rougher look to it that you can find here if that sort of thing tickles your fancy.




Made for probably the only Smogon Article I'll have a chance to contribute to for awhile. I personally feel like I could have done better on this one, as it was more or less a trainwreck trying to finish it off, but I managed to salvage something from the miserable affair that is at least OK. Shading with purple was interesting at the very least. +)

It's worth mentioning that I've been a lot more active on my tumblr's as of late in terms of posting art, simply because college stepped in and I mostly just have time for sketches which I don't feel like posting up everywhere every time I finish one. If you want to go check them out, you can find my blogs at http://semiaquamatic.tumblr.com/ and my sketch and other assorted stuffs blog at http://okayrathskeller.tumblr.com/

Have a nice day!
 

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