Cretacerus Art

Cretacerus

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Whoops, seems like my art thread almost slipped to page three, so it's high time for an update! :P

MAC: No. 3:
The "Monthly" Art Contests are one of the most enjoyable community projects here on the forums, in my opinion, and the most recent one in September had a particularly interesting theme to boot. The concept of day and night just begged for the fossil Pokemon from Kalos, the (at that time) most recently released daytime-based evolutionary pairing, and when none of the participants seemed to share this view I knew I had to jump in myself. Surprisingly, the lighting in Aurorus' side of the image ended up being more challenging despite it representing night, so I decided to cheat a bit by forgoing the shading on the sails and in the eye. For Tyrantrum, it was mostly the perspective that called for additional attention, since I wanted both subjects to face each other diagonally in to save space and create a more dynamic setting, and drawing dinosaurs from behind is definitely one of the weirder and more unconventional angles, at least for me. In the end, I'm actually quite satisfied with how both sides of the image turned out individually, though I have to admit that they could have been connected somewhat more naturally and elegantly. :/

Aurorus3.png


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Smeargle's Studio's Seventh Annual Secret Santa:
The SSSASS last year confronted me with a rather unique and interesting request by Hulavuta, which involved a trainer inspired by Michaelangelo's David accompanied by his Pokemon. This basically meant working with a classical piece of art as reference, something I haven't really done before and was definitely an enriching experience. So thanks, Hula! :P
Byron ended up being the Pokemon trainer choice, as he matched David's physique rather well and could give that iconic posture some context by holding on to his cloak. This is also the first piece of art where I tried to utilize a slightly more realistic rendering and shading, something I had previously shied away from due to the lack of flexibility when drawing with the mouse (coloring and erasing multiple times would completely ruin the texture, for example). Having a detailed reference certainly helped a lot in this regard!
I should mention that the background was not drawn by me but instead taken from here, since it suited the atmosphere and theme of the image rather well. ;)

Byron_combined.png

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A Beginner's Guide to Cutemons:
Here's a recent article from FellFromtheSky which I really enjoyed, and I'm glad that I got the opportunity to provide the art for it. I decided to go with a simpler and more colorful style than usual for additional cuteness points, though I have to admit that drawing this kind of Pokemon isn't exactly my strong suite. If you haven't had the chance to read through the article yet, I highly recommend you check it out! We can only hope that one day the Smogon Staff will give in and endorse this amazing metagame. ^^

Cubone.png

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Finally, I got an art request from Integer Mova a while back, asking for a cute Clefairy (more like an art trade, actually, in return for the amazing Cranidos avatar I received). Unfortunately, the following attempt just proves how unskilled I am at drawing those pink round Pokemon archetypes, especially when it comes to their faces. Hope it doesn't creep you out too much, Mova. *_*

Clefairy.png
 
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As I've stated during some of our previous PMs, the Clefairy's adorable! I'm glad you tried to get out of your comfort zone for these cutemons. They're not creepy at all. :)
 

Cretacerus

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Dragonite fossils are popular exhibition pieces in museums, so here's my take on one. I took some inspiration from archosaurs for the skull, though the species seems to be more closely related to lizards overall and shows amphibious traits as well. Requested by Loki669, hopefully it is to you liking!

Dragonite3.png
 
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Cretacerus

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Hey guys, it's time for my very first tablet drawn image!

As recommended by FellFromtheSky a long time ago, I finally got myself a Wacom drawing tablet complete with the drawing program Corel Painter Essentials, and it definitely lives up to my expectations. It's amazing how intuitive the program is to use.



To get a first feel for the program, I followed the video tutorial by artist Aaron Blaise, which provides a great overview and demonstration of the various tools and functions available (though I might have gone a bit overboard with the feather texture on the body, my brand new stylus is half gone already). The reference picture for the drawing was the calender on my desk. :P
 
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Cretacerus

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A quick drawing of Larvitar getting ready for the upcoming holiday! I did this one entirely digitally on Corel Painter, from sketch to finish. Hope you like it, nv!

Larvitar_Easter_avatar.png


Larvitar_Easter_small.png
Larvitar_Easter_avatar.png
Larvitar_Easter_nv.png

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PS: Also got a few pictures of my Larvitar figure from Japan, so expect more Larvitar content in near future. ;)
 
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Max. Optimizer

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Good gracious!

I guess I'm speaking for all of us when I say that your picture of that bird catching the fish is absolutely of immaculate authenticity!

In addition to making it considerably aesthetically pleasing, you also managed to make it look life-like to great extent.
Despite the fact that it's a still image, the picture still feels very vivid and dynamic.
I also like how you placed great emphasis on the details! (wings, feathers, scales on the feet, shiny eye etc.)

Since I'm far from being an artist myself, I unfortunately can't tell you if you went a little overboard with the feather texture.
However, what I can tell you is that I definitely like what I'm seeing!

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing you update your art thread with more pictures like this in a foreseeable future.
You've come a long way and your pictures sort of visually document your development as an artist over the course of time.

Keep up the fantastic work!
 

nv

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A quick drawing of Larvitar getting ready for the upcoming holiday! I did this one entirely digitally on Corel Painter, from sketch to finish. Hope you like it, nv!

View attachment 80469

I have already told you via VM (and a bunch other people) that I appreciate this so much as it is a wonderful piece and it shows Larvitar can appreciate any holiday no matter how little he may be :D

I do have to say I am glad to have friends, such as you and FellFromtheSky, who shower me with love via your art and I appreciate all you do for me. I feel bad sometimes just because I feel like I never end up giving you guys anything in return (since I am not a great artist lmao nor a great "player" in the sense of official-ness), but aside from that, I am glad to have such wonderful friends n_n
 

Cretacerus

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Here are the Larvitar pictures I promised! Got it from a vending machine at the Tokyo Pokemon Center on my last Japan trip. ;)
Since I quite enjoy collecting interesting rocks I find in my holidays, I decided to include some of them on the photos as well to spice things up a bit.
(please excuse the lacking quality and weird angle in some of the pictures, my phone camera and the lighting weren't perfect for close shots..)

And with no further ado, I present you ... Larvitar's culinary journey!
Larvitar1.1.jpg

Here's Larvitar exploring a fossilized coral. Found a huge fossilized reef in an offside cliff of the northern alps, which was full of marine fossils from the early Jurassic period.
You can easily recognize the individual polyps of the coral since they formed large calcite crystals giving them a lighter color.

Larvitar2.1.jpg

Looks like Larvitar discovered an ammonite fossil from the early Cretaceous (northern Germany)! As you can see, many ammonites took on weird non-spiraled shell forms during that time period, giving them the name heteromorphs. As far as I can tell, this particular specimen belongs to the Genus Scaphites.
Interestingly, the surrounding limestone is almost white and practically void of fossils, so it's likely that it formed in an environment far away from the coast which only provided nutrients in the uppermost water layers.

Larvitar3.jpg

Here's Larvitar closely inspecting a very special and distinctive rock around my home town: suevite. This rock originates from a meteor impact only 14,5 Ma ago, which shattered and partially melted the underlying country rock. The various rock fragments and molten components were intermixed and distributed over a diameter of almost 100 km before eventually accumulating and forming these rocks.
You can still see the many different lithics in this rock held together by fine glass and ash material. Another defining property is the high porosity, giving them excellent isolating properties as a building material.

Larvitar5.jpg

Larvitar striking a dynamic pose on a piece of mica shist from the central alps, that actually dates back to the Precambrian time before any complex lifeforms existed on earth. The mineral mica developed through metamorphic conditions during the orogenetic processes that formed central Europe and much later the Alps, and gives the rock its beautiful gloss. Due to the high fluid content of the sediments, the metamorphic rocks are full of especially large and idiomorphic Garnet and Hornblende crystals, which you can easily collect from the nearby rivers in large numbers (the rocks in the river all have a stunning silvery shine due to the mica, too!).

Larvitar6.jpg

And it seems as if Larvitar has already found the most unique rock in my collection! This piece of rock was originally just a normal coral oolithe from the Jurassic time period, where fractured pieces of coral were encased in carbonate and lumped together by diagenetic processes. In the late Jurassic, however, it was apparently unearthed and fell into an anoxic ocean basin, where an exotic ecosystem based on chemosynthesis has established itself. Consequently, the entire surface of the rock was covered in tubeworms which feed on the chemosynthetic bacteria, and was preserved as part of a bigger boulder until I eventually found it in a pit in central Germany.

Larvitar7.jpg

Here's another image of the fossilized coral, since you can see the surface structure of the rock a bit better here.

Larvitar8.jpg

And here's Larvitar hiking on a rather weird rock from the northern alps. Silicate concretions like this one are actually quite common in limestone, but it is the location that makes this rock so special: after climbing up a 100 m high cliff I found it in a formation that has long been considered to not contain any "proper" silicate concretions, so it seems like this particular area represents a local anomaly in the depositional environment that allowed these kind of concretions to grow. Just goes to show how unpredictable to geology of a region, even when well explored, can actually be.
Interestingly, these silicate concretions can alter the ground chemistry in a way that lets completely different plant life flourish than in the more carbonate-dominated areas, so you can actually use the local flora to find these rocks. ;)

Larvitar9.jpg

An here's one rock that Larvitar has apparently taken a special liking for due to its size. This fossilized shell of Inoceramus is from the same location as the Scaphites fossil in one of the previous pictures, which is weird due to its large size in an environment that apparently supported almost no other lifeforms. According to Wikipedia, the larger size and therefore gills may be a special adaption that helped it to survive in oxygen-deficient waters, but this still doesn't explain where the nutrients would have come from, since the surrounding limestone distinctively lacks organic matter. Supporting the low-oxygen-theory, however, are small spiral-markings on the shell, which must have originated from tube worms which helped decompose the organic matter after the creature's death.

Larvitar11.png

For its dessert, Larvitar has chosen a particularly delicious looking pumice stone from the canary islands, which are well known for their fluffy texture and a density lower than that of water. The special thing about this one is that it consists of two different types of Lava with very different histories, which can be clearly seen in the contrasting colors. The dark parts have a very primitive source that probably originated more or less directly from the earth mantle, while the lighter areas consist of more derived lava that has accumulated and cooled down in magma chambers in the crust for a much longer time. Somehow, these different lava sources must have connected and mingled over a period of many thousand years, in order to create this fine pattern in the pumice.

Larvitar10.png

And this is my crappy attempt at using a special close-up lense on my handphone camera, which in turn sadly limited the depth of field. However, it allowed me to bring out the colorful light effects on this obsidian glass a bit better. They are quite common in volcanic fall deposits, so nothing really special, so it's mostly just here to justify making use of that special lense, haha. ;)

L+O4.jpg

Ahh, yes. The Larvitar figure actually came complete with an own Substitute doll, so I had to include it as well! Here they are trying to replicate the official pose on the packaging. ^^

I also tried a vending machine for Gym badges at the same Pokemon Center, and ended up getting the Boulder Badge. It actually fits quite well thematically, so here are some more pictures with the badge.
Orden1.1.jpg


L+O1.jpg


L+O2.jpg


L+O3.jpg
 
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FellFromtheSky

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Hey guys, it's time for my very first tablet drawn image!

As recommended by FellFromtheSky a long time ago, I finally got myself a Wacom drawing tablet complete with the drawing program Corel Painter Essentials, and it definitely lives up to my expectations. It's amazing how intuitive the program is to use.



To get a first feel for the program, I followed the video tutorial by artist Aaron Blaise, which provides a great overview and demonstration of the various tools and functions available (though I might have gone a bit overboard with the feather texture on the body, my brand new stylus is half gone already). The reference picture for the drawing was the calender on my desk. :P
You would not believe how jealous I am of your skills here. This must have taken an incredible amount of patience. The texture of the bird's feathers and talons are supremely well rendered and convincingly life-like. It's absolutely gorgeous.
 
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Bummer

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Hey guys, it's time for my very first tablet drawn image!

As recommended by FellFromtheSky a long time ago, I finally got myself a Wacom drawing tablet complete with the drawing program Corel Painter Essentials, and it definitely lives up to my expectations. It's amazing how intuitive the program is to use.



To get a first feel for the program, I followed the video tutorial by artist Aaron Blaise, which provides a great overview and demonstration of the various tools and functions available (though I might have gone a bit overboard with the feather texture on the body, my brand new stylus is half gone already). The reference picture for the drawing was the calender on my desk. :P
A quick drawing of Larvitar getting ready for the upcoming holiday! I did this one entirely digitally on Corel Painter, from sketch to finish.

View attachment 80469
Remembering how rough my own transition to tablet was, I'm just blown away by how comfortable you seem with this method already. Almost being borderline unfair, but that bird is a piece of beauty, although if you could share that reference pic to give us an idea of what liberties you've take would be nice too. I definitely like that smug Larvitar too, the colors and lighting makes the image come alive and the highlights running paralell with the lineart is also a method I like to use as well. The grass lacking lineart and instead painted on directly with colors works in this case, although I'd have suggested to have some tufts of grass with black/dark outlines in there somewhere so that the Larvitar and its egg doesn't clash too much with its surroundings.

Impeccable work as always.
 

Cretacerus

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Thanks for the feedback and kind comments, everyone! I'll keep practicing and experimenting with the new medium as far as time allows. ;)

Here are a few sketches that I might use for future paintings when the opportunity arises. Did them about half a year back for my former petmod "The Lost Word", which also explains why there is a random Magikarp among all those fossil Pokemon, haha. Gen 6 came to a conclusion before I could finish them, though, but who knows: perhaps they'll find some use in Gen 8 upon the arrival of new fossil Pokemon (one can only hope...).

Fossils1.png
Fossils2.png
 
Thanks for the feedback and kind comments, everyone! I'll keep practicing and experimenting with the new medium as far as time allows. ;)

Here are a few sketches that I might use for future paintings when the opportunity arises. Did them about half a year back for my former petmod "The Lost Word", which also explains why there is a random Magikarp among all those fossil Pokemon, haha. Gen 6 came to a conclusion before I could finish them, though, but who knows: perhaps they'll find some use in Gen 8 upon the arrival of new fossil Pokemon (one can only hope...).

View attachment 81780View attachment 81781
Your Cradily design looks better than the official one. I'm a fan.
 

Cretacerus

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Well, here comes the first dinosaur painting! Done for a comprehensive guide about Dinosaur Pokemon FellFromtheSky and I have been working on.
I still have much to learn when it comes to dynamic lighting and coloring without lineart, but the advantages brushes hold in terms of texture already make a huge difference.

Rampardos7.png


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I decided to get some more practice in the Studio's BFFA thread as well, so here's my rendition of Groudon's worst nightmare. I went for a more realistic lineless style at first, but since my art program crashed during the finishing touch and most of the progress was lost, I opted to integrate the lineart into the second version to save time.

Enton3.png
 

Cretacerus

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such slowpokes

But seriously, are you using your Wacom tablet now, rather than Paint.NET? These unaware elfs Pokémon look great.
Thanks, Mova. I've been using the drawing program Corel Painter Essentials for my recent images, as it came in a bundle with my tablet and provides a nice variety of life-like brushes to complement it. ;)

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Also, here's a little singing bird I drew for the talented singer princessofmusic. I'm still having some trouble with coherent brush strokes, so Swablu's wings in particular were a good practice.

Swablu_small.png
 

Cretacerus

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With the recent return of Houndoom to OU, I decided to do a quick drawing of it for our resident Loki fan, Recreant. I tried giving Houndoom green eyes as requested, but it ended up looking a bit distracting so I added a green background instead. The helmet was drawn according to a reference image from the internet.

Loki_avatar4.png


To improve on my lineart, I avoided using multiple smaller strokes this time, and instead attempted to draw the lines with larger continuous brush strokes. Unfortunately, a lot of the original brush textures (especially on the highlights) became unrecognizable after shrinking down the image.
Loki_avatar2.png
 
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Cretacerus

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Congrats on your tenth page! The Loki Helmet Houndoom looks kinda grumpy. Was that intentional by chance?
Well, I actually went for Loki's super serious and focused expression from the Ragnarok trailer, though I can see how it might have accidentally crossed into unamused territory in the drawing progress. At least I still have the excuse that grumpy is Houndoom's default expression in official media anyway. x_X

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And since this is my 888th post, here's a magical fish to match the magical number. Ever since I became a professional Magikarp trainer, the astounding jumping power of this Pokemon has me won countless contests and ultimately my heart. This particular one is loosely based on Terakarp, the presumed ancestor of modern Magikarp. ^^
Terakarp_small.png

"Maybe in ancient times, it was really strong.
That's what the rumors say, but they're probably wrong...."
 

Cretacerus

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Somehow, I forgot to post this artwork of Mega Salamence, which was done for a Facebook spotlight post back in June. I decided to experiment a bit with perspective in this to bring out the Pokemon's speed and size. Used this artwork by The Mega Lotad as reference, since his sense for perspective and dynamic poses is absolutely stunning!

Mega-Salamence.jpg


Other than that, I didn't really have the opportunity to do much art in the past few months besides some smaller sketches for various forum projects. I'm posting them here mostly for documentation purposes.
 

Cretacerus

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Krookodile for the Facebook Giveaway, enjoying the sunset together with Sandile! Unfortunately, the shading was a bit rushed due to the deadline and is therefore somewhat inconsistent throughout the image, especially around Krookodile's head.

Krookodile2.jpg


And here are again a few quick drawings for forum projects. ;)
 

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