This week we're featuring another Laptop artist - Clementine ! (Clem's icon was made by Syrinix)
Hi Clem, nice to meet you! For those who don't know you, how would you introduce yourself?
Hey! First and foremost, thanks for having me. I'm Clem, or Pujo, a 23 years old French artist, rands player and Pokemon lover. I've been playing Pokemon for close to 20 years at this point, and I've been active on PS & Smogon since late 2018. I'm a French Room Owner & Global mod on PS, and I mod a few things on Smogon, mainly some RoA subforums & Smeargle's Laptop :]
Yooo Pokemon since 3 or 4 years old!! So you grew up on the franchise :) what game did you get first? And glad to have you of course!
I first got Fire Red for Christmas of 2004 with my older brother, and fun fact, I started learning how to read with my older sister just so I could play Pokemon without needing my brother to read everything I still play through FRLG more or less once a year? I probably know a bit too much about the game at this point, and I don't think there's a single mon I haven't used to beat the game after all these years
Awesome story, and really cute at that. Clearly with learning to read with your sister, it being a game you played by yourself at such a young age, and being a Christmas present on top of that, it was definitely really important to you. And playing it once a year testifies to that lol. So now that we know how you got into Pokemon, how'd you get into art?
I used to spend hours in middle school drawing in class, I wasn't very good at it but a bunch of friends & I drew some stuff and made a story out of it, and I was rly inspired by everything I was into at the time, so mainly Pokemon, Inazuma Eleven and mangas such as One Piece or Fairy Tail. I unfortunately lost my very first notebook, so I don't have my very first attempts at drawing anymore, but I still have some old stuff at my parents'. I'll gladly go through my drawings from when I was 13 to see if there's anything worth sharing haha! I got into art on Smogon around early 2020, and I spent my time during COVID lockdown trying to do Custom Avatars, cause I really wanted one. I kept doing it for some time, and then some people told me what I was making was good, and asked if I could do something for them, and a few years later, here we are, I make custom avatars on a daily basis for people to use on PS!. I even got to work on Teamtour Avatars, which was definitely a goal of mine when I first started.
Aye seems like you had a lot of fun drawing when you were younger. Hoping to see what you made if you can find some of it :o. I can relate to you in the covid aspect, staying at home meant too much free time, but for the better artisticly. And it's great to hear you improved to a level that allowed you to achieve your goal and create things that could be used on the sim c: Do you have any future goals or current goals which you're planning on or working on now?
Well it's been months since I've actually updated my art thread and I've been meaning to do it for quite a while so I guess that's a current goal of mine... Jokes aside I really want to work more on making characters from scratch so I can stop turning down commissions from people wanting an anime character as their custom avatar, and more importantly, make my own customs without having to rely on other artists :]
Good luck! I'm sure with all the time you've spent working with other sprites, you've certainly gotten a knack for what the Pokemon sprite style looks like. It's just a matter of time and practice now. And then you can make some $$$ with that hehe Aside from art, do you have any other hobbies? Including randbats ofc
I'm very much into music, mainly french hip hop and 2013 tumblr girl stuff and I've studied the piano for 17 years, although it's been quite a while since I've actually played it. I really really like cooking & turning my kitchen into a mess anytime I'm hungry, and of course if you know anything about me, you know I'm a huge beer fan, so please send me recommendations, especially if you're from Europe.
I can only recommend water and orange juice because I'm 16 but enjoy. I'm sure someone has some good beer recommendations But I can probably resonate with piano and food a bit better :^). What's your favourite song to play on piano and your favourite thing to cook?
It's probably a very easy answer for anyone who knows how to play Joe Hisaishi stuff but Innocent from Castle in the Sky is always a no-brainer whenever someone asks me to play something. Everyone knows this song, and everyone's always impressed by how loud I can play LOL As for my favourite thing to cook, I'm always down for some 1am risotto, it's super easy to do, very good, always impresses whoever I'm cooking for, and it's some great comfort food: pretty much everything I'm looking for when I'm cooking :]
OOO Castle in the Sky is amazing! And unfortunately I've never had risotto but it does look really really good. The skill to cook is also a great (and necessary) one that a lot of people don't have so good on ya. Other than hobbies, do you work or study anything?
Yeah but I feel old saying I'm not a student anymore :frowning: I have a biomedical engineering masters degree, and I currently work as a consultant in some big French consulting company. I'm mostly doing HR stuff though, I'm waiting for an opportunity to work in the healthcare department but 2023 was a big mess for my worklife. Still love my job tho, I have lots of free time and the client I work for is lovely.
Ayyye biomedical engineering is a great degree. I hope you can eventually get into the healthcare department and hopefully contribute your best efforts to it to improve the overall quality of life for your area, France and maybe even the world - who knows? What was your favourite part of the course/what made you want to study it?
I appreciate that :] I've actually always wanted to be a medical doctor, especially back in high school, but the French school system kinda sucks and being a medical doctor means giving up 2 (3) years of your life with no guarantee of succeeding, and since I was quite young and lacked maturity, I decided to go for an engineering degree instead, which always offered the possibility of working in the medical field afterwards. Favourite part of the course was definitely the end-of-track project I had to work on, it was a big paper on age-related macular degeneration (basically, how you can turn blind with age because of spots in your vision). I learned so, so much through research and experimentation, and my art skills were actually quite useful for this, as I made a gif showing the evolution of the disease after some medical image processing. I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well, but basically, we had to identify spots on eye scans through a given time period, highlight those "blind spots", and do some image processing so the only thing that appears is the blind spot. After doing all this processing, I put everything together to show how the spots grow through time.
I was able to find the gif in my old puter, so here's what it looks like if anyone's curious.
Really really interesting. I'm assuming it starts off with smaller blind spots that then build up into larger blind spots as time progresses, as the retina deteriorates. Quite sad, which is more the reason why we need to analyse these things and hopefully find preventative measures for them. It's quite sad that the school system sorta blocked you from being a medical doctor, school systems need to improve in general. At least you're on the way to doing something great! Here's something I totally forgot to ask: What are your favourite movies and games atm? Or media as a whole, including books and so on
You're absolutely correct, the main point of the project was to pinpoint exactly when the bigger spots appeared, and how fast the growth actually was. That's a very interesting question! I don't watch lots of movies, but one of my favourites is definitely Baby Driver by Edgar Wright, I love how well music is incorporated into the movie and how important it is. As for games!!! I've recently beat Persona 5 Royale and oh my god was it good. This is probably the best game I've ever played if we're talking objectively. There hasn't been a single day since I've beat it without thinking I should just replay it immediately. Other games I like include: • Celeste: Celeste is my favorite game of all time, soundtrack is absolutely incredible, gameplay is addictive, characters are lovable and also trans rights • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: great storyline, great soundtrack, environments are breathtaking, characters are interesting and lovable, and combat is really fun as well, game might be a bit long to beat but it is worth it. Also for anyone who's played it, does your therapist know about Chapter 5? • the Inazuma Eleven series as a whole: gameplay is great, games are fun and characters are goofy and likable and very "shonen-like" but in a very good way.
Unfortunately I haven't played any of those except Celeste BUT I know a lot of people here in Smeargle's have played Persona and I'm sure they'll be excited to ask questions about it! Also know a couple of people who've played too much Xenoblade and I might just drag them to answer your question lol. Might check up Inazuma Eleven because I'm a massive Shonen Jumphead so I'll probably like it! As the interview comes to an end, is there anything you want to add or ask?
Not much that hasn't been said before, I'm really glad to see the direction Smogon has taken for spriters and custom avatar artists, with the fresh new QC team & the new custom submission process. I'm very happy about the interview as well, if anyone wants some music or nice indie games recommendations feel free to ask! It's been a pleasure Kiwi, thanks a lot for these great questions :]
No problem! Glad to have you and excited for the questions!
Hi Clem, nice to meet you! For those who don't know you, how would you introduce yourself?
Hey! First and foremost, thanks for having me. I'm Clem, or Pujo, a 23 years old French artist, rands player and Pokemon lover. I've been playing Pokemon for close to 20 years at this point, and I've been active on PS & Smogon since late 2018. I'm a French Room Owner & Global mod on PS, and I mod a few things on Smogon, mainly some RoA subforums & Smeargle's Laptop :]
Yooo Pokemon since 3 or 4 years old!! So you grew up on the franchise :) what game did you get first? And glad to have you of course!
I first got Fire Red for Christmas of 2004 with my older brother, and fun fact, I started learning how to read with my older sister just so I could play Pokemon without needing my brother to read everything I still play through FRLG more or less once a year? I probably know a bit too much about the game at this point, and I don't think there's a single mon I haven't used to beat the game after all these years
Awesome story, and really cute at that. Clearly with learning to read with your sister, it being a game you played by yourself at such a young age, and being a Christmas present on top of that, it was definitely really important to you. And playing it once a year testifies to that lol. So now that we know how you got into Pokemon, how'd you get into art?
I used to spend hours in middle school drawing in class, I wasn't very good at it but a bunch of friends & I drew some stuff and made a story out of it, and I was rly inspired by everything I was into at the time, so mainly Pokemon, Inazuma Eleven and mangas such as One Piece or Fairy Tail. I unfortunately lost my very first notebook, so I don't have my very first attempts at drawing anymore, but I still have some old stuff at my parents'. I'll gladly go through my drawings from when I was 13 to see if there's anything worth sharing haha! I got into art on Smogon around early 2020, and I spent my time during COVID lockdown trying to do Custom Avatars, cause I really wanted one. I kept doing it for some time, and then some people told me what I was making was good, and asked if I could do something for them, and a few years later, here we are, I make custom avatars on a daily basis for people to use on PS!. I even got to work on Teamtour Avatars, which was definitely a goal of mine when I first started.
Aye seems like you had a lot of fun drawing when you were younger. Hoping to see what you made if you can find some of it :o. I can relate to you in the covid aspect, staying at home meant too much free time, but for the better artisticly. And it's great to hear you improved to a level that allowed you to achieve your goal and create things that could be used on the sim c: Do you have any future goals or current goals which you're planning on or working on now?
Well it's been months since I've actually updated my art thread and I've been meaning to do it for quite a while so I guess that's a current goal of mine... Jokes aside I really want to work more on making characters from scratch so I can stop turning down commissions from people wanting an anime character as their custom avatar, and more importantly, make my own customs without having to rely on other artists :]
Good luck! I'm sure with all the time you've spent working with other sprites, you've certainly gotten a knack for what the Pokemon sprite style looks like. It's just a matter of time and practice now. And then you can make some $$$ with that hehe Aside from art, do you have any other hobbies? Including randbats ofc
I'm very much into music, mainly french hip hop and 2013 tumblr girl stuff and I've studied the piano for 17 years, although it's been quite a while since I've actually played it. I really really like cooking & turning my kitchen into a mess anytime I'm hungry, and of course if you know anything about me, you know I'm a huge beer fan, so please send me recommendations, especially if you're from Europe.
I can only recommend water and orange juice because I'm 16 but enjoy. I'm sure someone has some good beer recommendations But I can probably resonate with piano and food a bit better :^). What's your favourite song to play on piano and your favourite thing to cook?
It's probably a very easy answer for anyone who knows how to play Joe Hisaishi stuff but Innocent from Castle in the Sky is always a no-brainer whenever someone asks me to play something. Everyone knows this song, and everyone's always impressed by how loud I can play LOL As for my favourite thing to cook, I'm always down for some 1am risotto, it's super easy to do, very good, always impresses whoever I'm cooking for, and it's some great comfort food: pretty much everything I'm looking for when I'm cooking :]
OOO Castle in the Sky is amazing! And unfortunately I've never had risotto but it does look really really good. The skill to cook is also a great (and necessary) one that a lot of people don't have so good on ya. Other than hobbies, do you work or study anything?
Yeah but I feel old saying I'm not a student anymore :frowning: I have a biomedical engineering masters degree, and I currently work as a consultant in some big French consulting company. I'm mostly doing HR stuff though, I'm waiting for an opportunity to work in the healthcare department but 2023 was a big mess for my worklife. Still love my job tho, I have lots of free time and the client I work for is lovely.
Ayyye biomedical engineering is a great degree. I hope you can eventually get into the healthcare department and hopefully contribute your best efforts to it to improve the overall quality of life for your area, France and maybe even the world - who knows? What was your favourite part of the course/what made you want to study it?
I appreciate that :] I've actually always wanted to be a medical doctor, especially back in high school, but the French school system kinda sucks and being a medical doctor means giving up 2 (3) years of your life with no guarantee of succeeding, and since I was quite young and lacked maturity, I decided to go for an engineering degree instead, which always offered the possibility of working in the medical field afterwards. Favourite part of the course was definitely the end-of-track project I had to work on, it was a big paper on age-related macular degeneration (basically, how you can turn blind with age because of spots in your vision). I learned so, so much through research and experimentation, and my art skills were actually quite useful for this, as I made a gif showing the evolution of the disease after some medical image processing. I'm not sure I'm explaining this very well, but basically, we had to identify spots on eye scans through a given time period, highlight those "blind spots", and do some image processing so the only thing that appears is the blind spot. After doing all this processing, I put everything together to show how the spots grow through time.
I was able to find the gif in my old puter, so here's what it looks like if anyone's curious.
Really really interesting. I'm assuming it starts off with smaller blind spots that then build up into larger blind spots as time progresses, as the retina deteriorates. Quite sad, which is more the reason why we need to analyse these things and hopefully find preventative measures for them. It's quite sad that the school system sorta blocked you from being a medical doctor, school systems need to improve in general. At least you're on the way to doing something great! Here's something I totally forgot to ask: What are your favourite movies and games atm? Or media as a whole, including books and so on
You're absolutely correct, the main point of the project was to pinpoint exactly when the bigger spots appeared, and how fast the growth actually was. That's a very interesting question! I don't watch lots of movies, but one of my favourites is definitely Baby Driver by Edgar Wright, I love how well music is incorporated into the movie and how important it is. As for games!!! I've recently beat Persona 5 Royale and oh my god was it good. This is probably the best game I've ever played if we're talking objectively. There hasn't been a single day since I've beat it without thinking I should just replay it immediately. Other games I like include: • Celeste: Celeste is my favorite game of all time, soundtrack is absolutely incredible, gameplay is addictive, characters are lovable and also trans rights • Xenoblade Chronicles 3: great storyline, great soundtrack, environments are breathtaking, characters are interesting and lovable, and combat is really fun as well, game might be a bit long to beat but it is worth it. Also for anyone who's played it, does your therapist know about Chapter 5? • the Inazuma Eleven series as a whole: gameplay is great, games are fun and characters are goofy and likable and very "shonen-like" but in a very good way.
Unfortunately I haven't played any of those except Celeste BUT I know a lot of people here in Smeargle's have played Persona and I'm sure they'll be excited to ask questions about it! Also know a couple of people who've played too much Xenoblade and I might just drag them to answer your question lol. Might check up Inazuma Eleven because I'm a massive Shonen Jumphead so I'll probably like it! As the interview comes to an end, is there anything you want to add or ask?
Not much that hasn't been said before, I'm really glad to see the direction Smogon has taken for spriters and custom avatar artists, with the fresh new QC team & the new custom submission process. I'm very happy about the interview as well, if anyone wants some music or nice indie games recommendations feel free to ask! It's been a pleasure Kiwi, thanks a lot for these great questions :]
No problem! Glad to have you and excited for the questions!
~ Please feel free to ask Clementine any questions by replying in this thread! ~