It's time to kick up another Art Contest in the studio, and this time, we're gonna tackle something that has been pushed aside for long enough: illustrating new images for Smogon's front page!
The Pokémon currently shown are all from the Black and White glory days (Volcarona, Thundurus, and Ferrothorn), but since the XY/ORAS metagame has been up and running for quite some time now, it's time to put some of the new stars on the front page to reflect this new age!
What we need:
Three images featuring prominent Pokémon and Mega Evolutions introduced during XY and ORAS.
Being a competitive Pokémon site, the Pokémon decorating our frontpage need to be proven successful in high level play, and thus all three Pokémon need to be good choices within or close to the OU tier. Even though we all have our favorite Pokémon far down in the usage lists, we ask you to be reasonable and only make use of our following recommendations.
Pokémon that have been proven to be good or decent in OU are: Talonflame, Sylveon, Diggersby, Dragalge, Klefki, Hawlucha, and Chesnaught. Furthermore, here are some Mega Evolutions that either are OU or perform well there: Charizard X & Y, Venusaur, Altaria, Metagross, Gardevoir, Gyarados, Lopunny, Sableye, Diancie, Scizor, Manectric, Medicham, Heracross, Gallade, Pinsir, and Slowbro. Choose any of these Pokémon or Megas as your final submissions. All participants may make as many images as they want, but we'll only be using the three best images from each winning artist.
Here are some more specific guidelines on what these three images need to contain. Make sure to read through them before you start completing your submission!
- All participating artists must draw three pieces of colored lineart, each of a single pose of a single pokemon on a white background. So to be redundantly clear - three pictures from each participant, of three pokemon. Not one picture of three pokemon together. Not three poses of the same pokemon. Three individual pics.
- The entire pokemon must be in full view, and no part of the pokemon can be cropped or obscured by any design elements other than parts of the pokemon itself. While artists may choose to depict this Pokemon however they like within the contest's ruleset, also know that visual recemblance to the official art will be considered when judging the final submissions, so avoid straying too far from their official designs!
- It must consist of the Pokemon on a plain white background. The Pokemon may not be shiny. No additional background detail or settings may be included. No additional background colors or patterns are allowed.
- It must have a distinguishable outline on the entire subject in contrast to the background. No part of the design can be blurred into the background or blended into the background.
- No props, action effects, move effects, environment effects or additional objects can be rendered on or around the pokemon. If a prop is part of the pokemon's basic design, then it is acceptable.
- It must be no larger than 640 pixels on either axis, no smaller than 320 pixels on either axis, and must be in a compressed digital format. It must be a digital rendering or a scan of a traditional drawing. 3D media or camera pictures are not allowed.
- It must be an original artwork by the person making the submission. Lifts, swipes, copies, or alterations of other artists' work are not allowed. Users who are guilty of this will be infracted and banned from further participation in the contest.
- While the current icons have colored rings around them, you do not need to place the rings in the final submission yourself, we'll handle that part ourselves. However, since they will be within a circle, do avoid making the drawing either too wide or too tall, as that will make the image harder to feature. And, while not required, see if you can make each image fit within the given color schemes: red, blue, and green.
Here are the current images we have now, illustrated years ago by Chou Toshio, giving you an idea of how things may look in the end. The submitted images to this contest must obviously be bigger than this, and not circled with a colored ring (we'll handle that part).
The rewards:
- Having your artwork featured on Smogon's front page! Three complete sets from three different artists will be elligible for this reward, and the pictures will rotate on a regular basis.
- The artist with the finest images will be awarded with a free art request from Bummer (other artists may be included later).
- Layell and princessofmusic will provide competitively flawless, battle-ready Pokémon for the three winners! The artist with the best submission may choose 3 Pokémon, while the runner-up and third place artist may choose 2 and 1 Pokémon respectively. Here's a complete list of the available choices:
- 5IV Adamant HA Talonflame
- 5IV Modest HA Dragalge w/ Haze and Toxic Spikes
- 5IV Timid HA Greninja w/ Toxic Spikes
- 5IV Jolly HA Lopunny w/ Encore and Fake Out
- 6IV Jolly HA Crobat w/ Brave Bird and Defog
- 5IV Impish Sturdy Skarmory w/ Brave Bird, Stealth Rock, and Whirlwind
- 6IV Jolly HA Breloom w/ Bullet Seed and Drain Punch
- 5IV Timid Keen Eye Chatot w/ Boomburst, Defog, and Nasty Plot
- 5IV Impish Sturdy Aggron w/ Stealth Rock
- 5IV Timid Flame Body Volcarona w/ Morning Sun
- 6IV Timid Keen Eye Pidgeot
- 5IV Bold Sturdy Shuckle w/ Knock Off
- 5IV Jolly HA Salamence w/ Dragon Dance
- 6IV Jolly Intimidate Staraptor
- 5IV Jolly Mold Breaker Haxorus
The deadline for this contest is July 31! Have fun!
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