Just Another Squid Blog

On Feb 18th 2023, I drew my back up dancer girls for the first time... On Jan 11th 2024 and December 3rd 2024 I gave them two different reduxes.. It's been TWO YEARS. AND IM FINALLY DOING ARTFIGHT AGAIN. So... POLYKILL V4!

It's a trip to go through my art and see how much 3 years changes a guy. But I'm really proud of how they've developed.

Check em out in their fic here (UPDATE FINALLY COMING SOON)!

Thanks for the support everyone!

Thank you for asking! Pokemon gijinkas were my bread and butter in like middle-high school so doing the same with splatoon ocs scratches the same itch. Translating designs really makes me think of stuff like color, silhouette, design motifs etc that I can carry over.

I think while the pokemon I use for inspiration will have an impact on the design, a lot of the time I will have a character idea/concept first and then select a pokemon that feels fitting. On the other hand, sometimes I will choose the mon and then a character concept will start to form. Let me see if I can break down specific designs:

(give me any excuse to talk about Kinoga) Courtesy to @igneouskit for helping me develop their character and provided the inspiration. so obviously Kinoga is based on Breloom. The tentacle shape and placement of the suckers is based on breloom’s mushroom cap. The soles of their shoes and their red clawtips are directly from breloom’s red clawtips. Their scarf is derived from the neck ruff. The little chain dangle charm is the shape of the bulbs on breloom’s tail. Their overall silhouette is consistent with Breloom’s: big head, wider on the legs, which is why I gave then wide pants. Breloom is quick and punchy so I gave them the dapple dualies because they’re quick and punchy. In order to distinguish Kinoga from looking precisely like a gijinka I add more colors. Their pants are a darker green to distinguish from their tentacle color. Black on the tank top and shoes add some balance. Gold on their earrings, glasses, and chain adds the final touch to their palette. And all this is separated from their initial concept of “someone from Trito’s past in the domes who he meets on the surface” in terms of their personality and the way they carry thenself. The pokemon influences the design but largely does not inform the personality, which I think helps keep them distinct characters.

I want to break down Kanu’s design also because I had a lot of fun with him. A lot of people guessed his inspiration when I initially posted him. His silhouette is pretty consistent with Tinkaton’s especially in the hair. I really wanted to mimic the little pigtail situation so that was easily translated to tentacles. Tinkaton’s hammer became Kanu’s tentacle prosthetic arm, which he crafted himself, much like Tinkaton. His pink shirt is equivalent to the main pink on the pokemon’s body. Tinkaton’s eyelash is translated into Kanu’s eyemask shape as well. His back tattoo references Tinkaton’s love for hunting Corviknight for scraps. Again, the same strategy I used for Kinoga is done to round out his design and inform more of what he does. His apron, goggles, pants, and boots are all darker colors of his existing palette and are there because he’s a weapons mechanic and lives in his workshop. On top of all this, Tinkaton is an all-female pokemon so I was like okay..obviously he’s transgender.

So yeah! In general I take into account the silhouette, colors, shapes, etc but all this can be changed and adjusted based on ideas I already have for the character. I also sparingly add some completely different colors like in Ugam’s case mainly because her tentacle pattern was already super on the nose for his inspiration:

people in the comments will be like "okay but we could at least get rid of ticks and mosquitos because those spread disease."

we actually CANNOT get rid of ticks and mosquitos. not only do we plain lack the technology to lead a pointed extermination effort against them specifically without taking a score of other species down with them, but if we developed that technology and did eradicate mosquitos and ticks, it would be the catalyst of utter ecological collapse the likes of which i think people are not quite comprehending.

the problem is not the existence of bugs. the problem is that our current global systems ensure that specific Peoples in specific places are disproportionately impacted by zoonoses (illness spread between animals and humans).

those same populations also disproportionately lack access to preventative tools & PPE (down to things many of us take for granted so simply as effective bug spray), and crucially access to medical treatment.

the goal should not be an eradicating effort against bugs which would quite literally collapse entire ecosystems, but equitable access to healthcare, investment in medical research to improve preventative and acute treatment for zoonoses, and the destruction of systems which are currently rapidly increasing the threat of zoonoses worldwide (climate change!)

i am not defending the existence of bugs because i think they're cute and because i don't care about the devastating suffering zoonoses cause millions and millions of people.

i luv n miss them