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CAP 25 - Part 6 - CAP 25f Art Submissions

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Final Submission

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This is a smokey-bear design that I tried to use during CAP 21, but that didn't work out very well at the time. I hope this one's better.
 
Made a bunch of changes according to Discord feedback!

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  • Made him grumpy rather than crazy (G-Luke).
  • Gave him a bigger walking stick/bone (Warren685).
  • Simplified the shagginess on the mane (Kyrads?) and tail.
  • Cleaned up some outlines.
Also thanks to: Golurkyourself, Jordy, Mova, paintseagull, and Reiga for feedback. :)

Bonus sketch: "You kids get off o' my Grassy Terrain!"
 
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Final Submission
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This design's theme is "Icarus" and "phantom thief". Icarus is, of course, that figure who flew too close to the sun and fell as the wings he wore broke down.
I'm picturing this monster's life cycle as starting off airborne, but evolving into this form releases enough energy to burn its wings and extremities. Ground, the Earth, can be thought of as the opposite of Flying, the sky. So that's how it gets that typing.
At first, the design was a straightforward quadruped Griffin, but going with a Japanese trope theme this ended up as a phantom thief pigeon, complementing the Grass-type magical girl (I'd be lying if Arsene's more recent RPG monster incarnation isn't an inspiration).
The final product is simply a merging of the two.

Technician doesn't have any obvious trends with its bearers, but I figured a design that's dextrous and crafty would be a good fit.

Rear:
 
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WIP

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Major updates on the wyrm worm! Got some new colors, a new tail, and thinner to fit Technician a lot better. I'd like to thank everyone who has helped me on Discord, but I'll list the names in the final!
 
WIP
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Ended up changing my entry a lot, but wanted to keep it as a dinosaur. Goodbye Pharaoh Spinosaurus, hello dual-wielding monk Raptor.
 
Final Submission

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Fire Ram concept progress
Starter Trio

My fire submission is based on volcano Paricutin, shaolin monks and a ram! This pokemon spouts lava from its head, but its not reckless- it uses skill to beat its opponent. They train in groups on the side of active volcanos to hone their skills. I aimed to give it a nimble and humanoid body in order to give the correct feel for technician. You can see the monk influence by its red and orange coat, feet resembling training boots and moxibustion burns on the forehead. I wanted to do a zodiac mon in order to add some extra rules/challenge to the design and Im pretty happy with the result overall!

May add additional references if it makes it to later polls!
 
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Final Submission
MAIN DESIGN
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This is my CAP 25F Design entry, based on the Jackrabbit with a heavy inspiration on the Dust Bunny.

SUPPORTING MATERIAL
Design Justification

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Flaming boots are the main Fire type visual cue for this design, as the final evolutions of Fire Starter Pokemon so far tend to incorporate an actual flame on a certain body part. The Ground typing is mostly supported by the fact that jackrabbits as a species tend to live in deserts and that the Dust Bunny is literally a clump of dirt and debris.

As a design quirk, I wanted to give a jobclass theme amongst my starters, much like what has been done on the Gen 6 and 7 ones. This design in particular follows a Dancer-class aesthetic, which the Dust Bunny inspiration helps bring out. They adorn the body like a muffler, a veil on the waist, and a head cover that resembles headphones.
Stats and Abilities
Technician is mainly supported by the Jackrabbit's Dancer jobclass theme. Dancers are stereotyped as a support class, however their dance skills usually has devastating effects and when combined with tricky-to-use weapons on their arsenal such as daggers and whips, fit perfectly with Technician's nature of buffing usually underwhelming moves to respectable ones with amazing effects.

88 HP / 116 Atk / 67 Def / 88 SpA / 78 SpD / 97 Spe
My design looks nimble and offensive-oriented, and as such I believe it will fit just alright with similar stats to base Blaziken (80/120/70/110/70/80) and the like, albeit not that much on the SpAtk stat due to the design specializing on kicks, in exchange for more Speed.
Supporting Art
ABC D E

(A-B) Initial Iterations, (C) Blaze Kick, (D) Proposed Size, (E) Starter Group Pic (click image for hi-res version exceeding 500kb)

CLOSING REMARKS

CAP25 is definitely one of the more exciting CAPs to date. 25F in particular is the "passion project" of the three designs for me, because ayy I'm a filthy waifumon sperglord. That and as I was scouring googlesearch for fire rabbit fakemon, I'm actually surprised to see that nobody has done a Flaming-Boots-Rabbit yet. NOBODY. Unbe-fucking-lievable. I just had to do it, nuff said. And here we are, lol. Thanks to everyone in this thread and in CAP Discord for all the feedback and support given to this design. Good luck to everyone~!
 
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Final Submission

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Supporting sketches:
All right, finally got old man hyena submitted!

This was the last of the designs I figured out. I waited until after Ability was chosen to determine what the base animal would be. A physical Ground-type Pokemon with Technician would benefit from Bone moves, so I thought about animals that were scavengers, since, like Mandibuzz, they have a natural affinity with bones. Additionally, bones fit well with Ground, if you imagine dry, dusty land, where there's nothing left but bone, or if you imagine dogs burying bones in the ground. :P

At the same time, when wadusher0 posted his(?) Fire/Ground design for feedback, I gave a suggestion of a fiery mane like that running down the back of a spotted hyena. I thought that was a great way to fit Fire onto an animalistic design. :) Spotted hyenas have the impression of being "dirty", so that's another plus for designing a Fire/Ground 'mon around one!

I started by exaggerating the mane and going with a lanky build, to better fit a 'mon that uses wits over brute force. I also wanted to make it bipedal. All of those design choices led me to create an Igor-like character--hunched back, scheming, and a total toady to his genius master. I felt like I could push the design more, though, and... well, a bone as a walking stick fits a hunched-over figure! And from there, the design evolved to be more of a grumpy old man than a madman. I think it's better fit for a starter, especially taking their "roles" into account. :D

Don't underestimate this old codger in battle. He might not be as strong as he used to be, but he's got experience on his side! That walking stick of his doubles as a club, and he knows exactly where to hit you with it.

For CAP 25f stats, this design looks is frail from age (physical defense), but he can chase after those young'uns good and give them a good smacking. (physical attack/speed).
 
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WIP

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Sketched just today and shown off in the Discord chat, this fearsome beast is based on a Longma, or Chinese dragon-horse! Forgive the quality of the photo, I don't yet have scanner access but will fix everything as soon as I can scan the pic in. ^^;

The initial pitch in my head was a fire-breathing Longma, because I wanted to abide by the Chinese zodiac fanon rule for the Fire starters, specifically the Horse. This was then combined with samurai-style armor and traits of rhinos (which are rather closely related to horses), whose bulk and armored hide justify the Ground typing. Feedback from the Discord however led to the idea of armor like terracotta clay scale mail, similar to the famous Chinese terracotta statues. It took me quite a few attempts to get a good result and I'm still not entirely sure what to do with it, but the amount of detail in the armor means I'll have to make the flaming mane, leg tufts, and tail tip (also seen on some depictions of the Kirin, a related creature that's a fiery dragon-headed horse) much simpler. The clawed front feet and beak-like snout are also nods to hippogriffs, while the cloudy things on the hips and shoulders are actually dust trails in a manner akin to the "wing-tufts" seen on artwork of Chinese dragons, in a bid to telegraph the Ground typing. There's a few things I may have to change up before the coloring stage, but this is another pic I largely nailed on the first shot, so I guess that counts for something.

There isn't a strict theme to Pokemon that have Technician as far as I can tell, but many tend to be svelte and graceful, so I made sure to have My Not-So-Little Dragon-Horse follow suit despite having armor. I think he looks quite spiffy this way!
 
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Final Submission
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Blacksmith Lava Dog!
These fierce and loyal Pokemon are master crafters. Their hardened lava apron gloves protect them from sharp metal objects they like to work with.
 
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WIP

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Take two on the Longma concept, drastically overhauling the design with tons of stuff trimmed down. Apparently the previous version was an overdesigned trainwreck and cleaning it up was too much work, so I redrew it with the need for more simplicity in mind. The back feet now have a single toe again but the front ones retain their three claws. Not just because of the hippogriff connection (the beak is still there mind you) but also because this thing also takes a few cues now from the chalicothere genus, Moropus. Chalicotheres were prehistoric relatives of horses and since my Grass and Water subs were also based on prehistoric creatures, it couldn't hurt to complete the triad with one more. The fire is also much less complex, without "tufts" on the hips, elbows, and ankles, and the shoulder tufts have been combined with the "choker" on the previous version to form a magnificent collar of fire. The horn shape has also been changed into the form of a guandao, a Chinese traditional bladed pole weapon. The color scheme is somewhat loosely taken from Vulpix, which does have a rather clay-like color scheme, but the dark color of Vulpix's "boots" is the main body color here while the body color is translated to the front feet, the rim of the scales, and the "helmet" upon the head.

I think this should be good for a finalized lineart at least, and all that's needed for a final sub now is the addition of shading and support artwork. Time to at long last round out this starter trio!
 
Final Submission
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Pyroclastic flow Pyroraptor monk! His wings are weaponized, taking inspiration from a form of Wing Chun involving dual butterfly swords. If I've got time I'll try to add some supporting art.
 
Final Submission
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Based on a mole with influences of an armadillo, pangolin and porcupine, with the theme of an oni/ogre utilizing mud armor. Typing-wise, the apparent flames and lots of brown bits is what I'm winging on, while Technician being its ability doesn't really put much of a toll on its design specifications. Like my water one, I didn't really build it with specific stats/moves in mind, but did place precedence on it being more physical-looking with its bulky muscles.

Supporting Art:
Different Views
Size Comparison
 
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Final Submission

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Supporting Material:
Side view and attacks
Proposed scale chart

Rounding out my starter trio subs, this fearsome beast has come quite a way since the initial sketches over the course of mere days, I wasn't originally planning to submit to the Fire starter art subs but in the end I'm glad I changed my mind, and I'm rather proud of how he turned out! :D

Looking at the fan-theory of the Chinese Zodiac theme for the canon Fire starters, I noticed that the ones remaining are the Ox, Rabbit, Snake, Horse, and Goat, in that order. Since the Rabbit, Snake, and Goat have already been done by multiple other submissions, that left me with either the Ox or the Horse. The Hidden Ability being decided as Technician led me to pick the Horse due to its more graceful, agile nature, in league with most Technician users being rather svelte in figure. This led me to think of two mythical equines from China: the kirin, a unicorn-like creature which is said to have a fiery mane and pierces the hearts of the unjust, and the longma, a winged hybrid of a horse and a Chinese dragon with scales and a draconic head. To this end I combined the two to form a scaly, horned horse with a flaming mane and tail like Rapidash. The original version was far more detailed than this but feedback from the CAP Discord led me to make several changes to simplify it. First, the mane isn't as complex as with Rapidash, being more stylized but with some squiggly tongues of flame in a manner akin to depictions of fire in Chinese traditional artwork; the longma's wings also translated to a pair of fiery shoulder tufts which were combined with a collar-like stripe at the base of the neck to form an impressive fiery collar to further distinguish him from Rapidash. Second, the scales are diamond-shaped and colored like baked clay, a reference to the sculpted scale armor of the famous Terracotta Army soldiers. There were horse statues there as well, so that fits, too! And third, this design's fearsome horn, shaped like the blade of a Chinese guandao, is placed on its nose, because horses are related to the rhinoceros family, which have sometimes been suggested as the inspiration for unicorns. That sword-like horn and the big claws on its stompy front feet are excellent weapons for a physical attacker as suggested by the current slate of stat spreads, and being horse-like, it's also got right the physique for a high speed stat that can put these weapons to use!

Additionally, the front feet were originally taloned and bird-like in a reference to hippogriffs (which is also why there's a beak at the end of the snout; there were also tusks but I simplified them to jagged mouth corners like with Skarmory), but I reduced the detail in the revised version, and not just for simplicity, either. Since both my Grass and Water subs are at least partly based on prehistoric creatures, I figured it'd make sense for this one to follow the same trend. Part of this design's inspiration is Moropus, a genus of chalicothere which were a group of prehistoric mammals related to horses. There was a previous iteration of this design which had a sloping chalicothere-like back, but I decided to make it straighter to keep the overall body shape more horse-like. Also of note is that since the most recent batches of starter Pokémon seem to have uniting themes such as cultural nationalities (Unova), fantasy classes (Kalos), or occupations in entertainment (Alola), I figured it'd make sense for the three starters I'm subbing to this contest to follow this trend. In this case, there are three different themes related to all three designs: prehistoric life, Asian mythical creatures, and Asian styles of media. As the Grass one is a therizinosaur/Tibetan dragon/tokusatsu monster, and the Water one is a eurypterid/ushi-oni/kabuki performer, so is this one a chalicothere/longma/clay sculpture. Genera/species of all three prehistoric creatures represented are also known from Asia, which ties back to the other themes and would make an excellent set for a region inspired by China, Tibet, or possibly even Hong Kong - but I'm probably getting very much ahead of myself with the speculation. XD

Best of luck to everyone in these three contests, and it's been a pleasure participating! And special thanks to everyone on the Discord who helped me bring out the best in this design: Quanyails, Sunfished, Golurk, Plazzap, paintseagull, Gun6, TwilightWing, Kyrads, and Magistrum!
 
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Final Submission

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Supporting Material:
Vision
More supporting material to come.

Snakes are great, and what better time to adapt one!

Fire/Ground gave this creature a lot of flavor options. For Fire, some snakes such as pit vipers and boas can "see" the heat signatures of their prey, leading to stealthy and accurate attacks. Its fiery tail references the Feathered Serpent and rattlesnakes in general (especially relevant as they could see into another world, according to the ancient Mayans). For an easy visual representation, this design has a special membrane that resembles a pointy pair of glasses. With them, 25f can detect prey from miles away!

The coloring of its scales reference thermography, a visual representation of body temperature. Other "snake-vision" cues include the heat-detecting pits and forked tongue.

This design gets its Ground inspiration through sandworms. Like snakes, they're fast, ruthless and can thrive in arid, unforgiving environments. Not only does this design's head shape and "beak" reference a famous sandworm - the Graboid - but those earthy rings are two clitella! So you could call this design a wyrm worm.

Technician is a fitting ability on a snake; given the species' trademark sidewinding locomotion, full-body grip, slender physique and all the heat-sensing stuff above, it fits Technician's trend of being tricky and specialized. I also aimed to capture the confident simplicity of some early Pokemon designs.

This was my first art project for Smogon, and it's been very nice learning about design theory, colors, and all that good stuff. I highly recommend the CAP Discord to start, where I got help from:

Qunayails, Raptor, Reiga, Mova, Magistrum, G-Luke, Pipotchi, Paintseagull, Twilightwing, and more. (Sorry if I forgot your name!)

Good luck, y'all!
 
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Final Submission - DQ

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As you can (probably) tell, I HEAVILY changed my design

I did, however, keep a biiiiit of volcano-like features in my design in the hooves (which are based off of volcanic rocks).

It's based on a mixture of a ram and a goat of some sort. Not much else to say.

why can't i draw fire

Good luck everyone!
 
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As per this post, you have at least 48 hours until art submissions close. Remember to follow all of the rules in the opening post of the art thread if you want your designs to be included in the polls!

I've updated the opening post in the thread with the stats for CAP 25, for reference.
 
Final Submission
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A tribal desert rabbit shaman who grounds up and burns away scavenged bones to summon mystical flames!

The base animal is a desert bunny, like the real world desert cottontail, which both fits our Ground quota and the Fire zodiac theory.
As mentioned in the first paragraph, it has various shaman influences, down to its skirt, collar, earrings and bracelets of fire. This shaman association also fits into Technician, which fits it both as a nimble rabbit and as something proficient at its "job" (something seen in other Technician mons like Smeargle and Mr. Mime).
The various bones it scavanges are repeatedly burnt by it to cast wicked flames, powered by their mystical potential. These bones are in the process charred a deep black, like bone char, and even its feet and arms are covered in this soot to help summon its flames. These bones (alongside the ground up dust) help reinforce the Ground type (all the Bone related moves are Ground, and so is Marowak), alongside covering any possibility down the line of this Pokemon using bone moves.
Finally, its main weapon is the long bone it carries around, which can be used to cast fires from one end, or to stab into foes with the other end. Quite crafty!

Thanks a lot to everyone at Discord I luv u guys kisses

Supporting Material:
1. Size
2. Group Shot
 
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Final Submission


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Supporting Art
1- Size vs a 1.4m tall trainer.
2- The squad! (500+ KB warning)

Definitely the one that I ended up working on the least, and the one who would most benefit from an action pose, but I'm still satisfied with how it came out. This is a design inspired by the three-banded armadillo with some engine and car components thrown in. There's vents at its sides that show the hot magma that flows up its snout for its magma saliva and down its body to power up the engines inside its tail and back. These were done partly to follow my personal theme for the three starters, which was glowing/flashy patterns.

It can curl up and trap its tail near its body with its forelegs, allowing the stream of flames that comes out of the exhaust port at the end to speed up its spin to the point of rolling in almost a fire-wheel kirby fashion. Its sturdy scales and the plaque over its face prevent it from getting burnt from this maneuver.

I'd like to thank everyone over on discord for feedback. Although this is definitely the least-changed of my designs, your contributions still allowed me to change directions and find another good approach that remained close to my intent. Particular thanks to Pip and Snake_Rattler.
 
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Final Submission

MAIN DESIGN

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SUPPORTING MATERIAL

Link to an animation of my progress from crude sketch to finished artwork:


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OLÉ!

I call this design the Minotaur Matador. The inspiration for the design is the merging of the Matador and the Bull, which makes this a Minotaur of sorts, if you think about it. This design has a lot of influences from latin dances, like the Paso Doble (which is itself based on bulls and matadors) and Flamenco.

I also really wanted to do something that could justify a Chinese Zodiac animal, even if it's just a fanboy myth that Pokemon Fire Starters are based on the Chinese Zodiac.

I have a ton of backstory I developed as I made this design, and I will try to add it to this post, if I have time later.

OLÉ!
 
Final Submission - DQ

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So here we have the matador minotaur in his final form! Unfortunately I didn't end up having time to shade or do turn-arounds but here he is!

This mon is based on Matadors, Minotaurs, volcanic ash and magma, with the volcano motif carrying from the pants up into his jacket. Down the back he's wearing a fire/magma cape that I imagine would be thrown to the ground in a flourish of flame before any sort of battle!
 
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