The Baker's Canvas (ZirconSubway's Art Thread)

[ZirconSubway]

Hello to all who are currently reading this. My name is ZirconSubway, and as of writing this, I am indeed new to posting on Smogon. I am, however, not new to pokemon, it’s competitive aspects, or even smogon itself, and have been ‘lurking’ around many parts of the forums for awhile now. My recent decision to start posting content to this website, was mostly in response to two parts of the smogon forums; the first being the CAP community, and the second being here, Smeargle’s Studio! I have been a reasonably active artist across the internet for two to three years, and as active pokefan and ‘illustrator’ of the series, I feel as if I have a lot to contribute to the studio and others who wish to view what I create.

(tl;dr): I am new here, however not a total noob, and would like to share my artwork. Yay.

(Note: Hi past me!! Anyway, to you readers out there, all stuff in this OP that is written in post/edited will be written in Blue, because saying that edited things are edited is dumb, and blue is nice. Back to you, past me.)

So, this is my art thread, and here is some of my past (and current) work:

Digital Stuff.

All (most) of these above, were made digitally, using an app some of you may be familiar with known as Colors! 3D, on a Nintendo 3DS. (Hence why the image quality is not so great.) In addition, I've also a few sketches to display:

Traditional Art/Sketches

Everything above, was made 'traditionally' so to speak. The first two pictures were random Fakemon sketches, however, the third and fourth images were timed practices for an attempt at creating CAP-esque Pokemon designs. As I will try to be participating in the CAP community process in addition to this, sketches of this style may come and go on here pretty often.

And that’s all I have to offer for now. As a brief footnote, I’ve done a fair amount of artwork in a lot of different forms of media, however most new things being posted here will be ‘traditional’ forms of art, with possibly the occasional ‘digital’ piece made in Colors! 3D, or a sculpture or something. Any criticism/suggestions are more than welcome, (though preferably constructive) and feel free to comment, elaborating upon your most honest opinions. Thank you for your time, and be sure to tell me you think of it all!

 

[Regime]

these are cute! they have nice poses, vivid colors, nice shading. For starters, like in the Xerneas one, try shading the ground with dropshadow, as this gives a sense of its being physically IN the picture. Also, your line art is nice and neat, so thats a plus. Just keep doing art, and take a look around the studio at ppl's art and fine a style you love, then maybe join it with your own, creating your own unique flavor.

Good luck!

 

[ZirconSubway]

these are cute! they have nice poses, vivid colors, nice shading. For starters, like in the Xerneas one, try shading the ground with dropshadow, as this gives a sense of its being physically IN the picture. Also, your line art is nice and neat, so thats a plus. Just keep doing art, and take a look around the studio at ppl's art and fine a style you love, then maybe join it with your own, creating your own unique flavor.

Thanks, Agous! Your feedback is very much appreciated. Yeah, I was kind of trying to go with Xerneas emitting some sort of fairy-esque light, as back when this was made, was back before X 'n' Y were out, therefore leaving him dropshadow-less. Looking back on it though, it kind of detracts from the picture. Regardless, thank you for the reply! Also, sorry for not responding to this sooner, however, I felt as if I should probably have more art to upload before I responded to your reply.

On that note, new stuff!

Pancham.

This happens to be a picture of Pancham I did around the same time as Xerneas and friends, at the time, still pre-XY. Not to brag, but I mean. Hey. 'S pretty legit.

Colored Sketches.

And of course, the actual important stuff. So, between now and Friday, I finally managed to get some new 'art-ing' supplies, including semi-good materials to finally be able to color with. The first of these two sketches, happens to be a sketch of the Baker trainer-class from Black/White, which I've been associating myself with for my avatar and such. For these reasons, it also now serves as my new icon. And the second of these two sketches, was some concept art for TRC.'s concept submission for the CAP 18 process a few days ago. This concept didn't end up winning in the latest poll, however this still served as good practice for future art submissions I plan to do in the CAP process.

As usual, feedback please, if possible! Until next time.

 

[Regime]

hmm. In the style of those colored sketches, can you draw me a Murkrow wearing a rouge scarf? Thanks in advance

 

[ZirconSubway]

So, wow. Yeah. I've had literally no time in the past two weeks-ish to do anything thread or even generally art related, so... BIG update ahead. Well, fairly big. But still, large.

New Sketches. (Colored)

New stuff! One problem I've been having lately, after looking at the majority of my work in post, is the matter of fact that most things I've made recently are just... things. If I were to decide to draw an Electabuzz, for example, it would just be an Electabuzz, nothing more, nothing less. No text, no flavor, etc. This was something I tried to correct in the new stuff above, as you can see. Mind you, most of these still have no backgrounds and such, but hey. Progression.

CAP Things.

For those of you interested in the CAP project and other related things, the typing for the new CAP was announced very recently, this being Fire/Water. In addition, the art portion of this CAP just launched, meaning that I submitted some stuff, and that would be what you're looking at above. What I submitted, happens to be based off of the animal known as the Mantis Shrimp, seeing as it's attacks, (IRL, mind you; and yes, this was specified in the art section itself) involve it snapping it's claws, which can sometimes result in an expulsion of a heat equivalent to thousands of Kelvins. And yes, that was inferred from Wikipedia. Anyway, yeah, feedback appreciated.

hmm. In the style of those colored sketches, can you draw me a Murkrow wearing a rouge scarf? Thanks in advance

You're welcome in present.

 

[ZirconSubway]

So, assuming my math is correct, it has now been about three weeks-ish since the last update to this thread, something that will likely be happening more often seeing as of to how little traction this thread so far has gained. Regardless, while I have both been sick and gone on vacation during my period of absence, it's basically been CAP 18 month over in the CAP forums, meaning that I have some updates since last time, in regards to my art submission:

(By the way, fairly new at formatting image files here on smogon in general, figure I'll keep images all big and such if I have less then three of them in an update.)

So yeah, Mantis Shrimp. The first was a big transition I sort of had to make from the original design from awhile ago, so as to make it seem more character-esque and unique, while also keeping it's body shape able to stand out from the crowd. Thanks to some feedback, (mostly from Quanyails, thanks friend) this ended up being what I stayed with as my main design, and after some shading, (i.e. Image #2) Image #2, in fact ended up being my final submission for this project. Hopefully it gets some votes (though I kind of doubt it will), however, participating in this project so far regardless, has been very enjoyable and helpful, learning-wise, as an experience. So, yeah. This has been fun so far, and this is everything I have to show from it as of right now.

Again, that's all I have right now, some supporting art I've made for submission will likely be here soon as well. See those of you whom occasionally view this thread, soon!

 

[Kingriolu]

Hi zircon :). I really like your mantis shrimp(too bad it didn't win). As for requests, can you maybe draw a picture of plusle and minun?