NormalDex

Here's a peek behind the curtain on what we lost:

#621 Druddigon

Hey, idk how long it's been, but I've been cooking! I've always thought Druddigon was underrated, as many fans bemoan its lack of flying ability, general competitive incompetence, and ugly design. (Hey, it's ugly, but a realistically designed world is going to have some ugly animals.) Anyhoo, I think it's pretty neat. Move below the fold:

#147 Dratini #148 Dragonair #149 Dragonite

Psuedo-legendaries are always fun to do! This is an odd one for me, since I can give a rough estimate of how long this took to do. Given I started in March (conceptualization), roughly ten months. Let's see some Dex entries!

It doesn't feel like feel like it's been that long since a WIP update post, but wow, it was in August! I'm nearing up on finishing a BIG upload, so let's see if you can guess what WIPs I have and guess which one is the upload:

This Pokemon has a regional variant. I will be doing a Japan-inspired design based on it, though I probably would be forgiven for doing something much more basic with it. No Gen 1 Gym Leaders use this Pokemon.

This Pokemon is used by an Elite Four member, and many fans are confused as to its biology. I enjoyed getting to design essentially new Pokemon for this submission.

This Pokemon's natural habitat isn't super clear in its debut games, but I'm designing something that lives in caves

These Pokemon are cuter than they have any right to be. This sprite may be Crimson in reference to a Magic card.

#453 Croagunk and #454 Toxicroak

I've been busy as all get out recently, but I'm happy to present Pilowog and Croakshanks.

"Pilowog use their thick insulating hairs to protect themselves against fluctuating temperatures. They also hide as rocks to avoid predators." Pilowog is based on the hairy frog, but without the abilities that gave them their Wolverine moniker. The red fingertips were kept as if to imply bones pressed against the skin, ready to escape. This sprite uses parts from Growlithe and Eevee, but the colors come from Pansage and Fearow.

#438 Bonsly and #185 Sudowoodo

I don't recall which came first: the decision to make Sudowoodo into a Hidebehind or the decision to turn the Hidebehind into one of these. Either way, there was a lot of hemming and hawing about whether to turn Sudowoodo's sprite into the Hidebehind itself or the tree. I thought it'd be really neat to make a biological being that had an anatomy that just coincidentally had the same size and shape as Sudowoodo. I did trial runs with both, and having it be the animal doesn't really work (to my knowledge): sprites are two-dimensional objects that exist in the plane, so hiding it behind a tree would mean (due to congruency) that it would just disappear. However, making a believable animal to stick behind the tree also proved difficult. I was doodling one day and started by drawing hands that'd be wrapped around the tree. I realized that I didn't need to construct the whole animal, just the parts that'd be seen. Hinting at the animal would probably be more interesting; I hope you agree. If these were in a game, I'm sure the PokeDex would make comments about how nobody knows how they really look, how they're often mistaken for shadows, etc.

Bonsly being a Baby Pokemon means it has a lot of weirdness innate to its design. The idea for this one is that Normaldex Bonsly are attracted to well-manicured bonsai and that nobody ever *asks* for one. Designing the animal for this one was what I tackled first and it was measurably easier to conceptualize and do than the "pot." I originally wanted it to be a lot more polygonal, but................. In fact, I wanted it to be anything but Bonsly's the whole time. I got so desperate, that I even used the bag sprites for incenses (It looked pretty dope, but the view was head-on rather than angled). I looked at pictures of actual bonsais and figured, y'know, stubby feet would probably be fine.

Bonsly's animal has parts from Smoochum and Happiny, and colors from Smoochum. It's pot is colored as Bronzor and that's where the stubs originate.

This one is going to be wild and I wouldn't mind GF making a Pokemon based on this idea. This is a two-staged line, and the lower version is practically done, but the evolved form is just killing me. That said, the lower version isn't even close to feeling to "complete," and I don't have a clue as to what it's "missing." I could post the lower version without feeling like I need to wait for both in the line.

A two-stage line: I know exactly what I want for the lower form, but no clue what I want for the upper form. The lower form is easy enough to do, and it's almost complete, but I don't think there's a sprite that'll do what I need it to do, so I'm walled. When I post the unevolved form, I can imagine people being disappointed, but ultimately going "Yeah, that makes sense." This is a gen 1 Pokemon.

This two-stage line changes types in the game. I would imagine nobody doing their own Normaldex would go with the idea I did, but once I publish it, I feel people will understand why I did. The unevolved form needs recoloring, but there is a technical issue that prevents the evolved form from being finish at this very moment. This is an idea that hasn't been explored in Pokemon, and I don't think it ever will.

This two-stage line is being interpreted in a way that strays far from its inspiration, but stays in line with the theme. Some may argue the way I'm doing the evolution is more Digimon-esque than Pokemon-esque, but I'm having fun with it. That said, I don't think what I'm doing with the evolved form will ever be done in canon Pokemon. I'm finished with the unevolved form, but don't want to publish this line in pieces. The evolved form has two parts: One is done, but the other part requires I do something that is not currently in my wheelhouse, and so they won't be finished until I learn that skill (woohoo!). These Pokemon are cute in their original forms here, and they're cute here too, though their eyes may make you feel some kind of way.

#098 Krabby and #099 Kingler

I have a handful of more complicated WIPs in the pipeline, so I figured I should try to churn out an easy one. Krabby and Kingler are the only actual crabs in gens I-V, and as such they seem to be the only suitable candidates for land crabs. However, I didn't know they existed, so when I found out they did, I thought it was a Normaldex slam dunk! From a distance, land crabs and sea crabs look quite similar, so there wasn't quite a need for much modification. However, I did want to switch up their colorations. I originally wanted to color Kingler as J. lagostoma, but there are other more interesting colorations, such as the Halloween crab!

#255 Torchic #256 Combusken #257 Blaziken

If I were to rename these, they'd be Glabillus, Mogallus, and Gapillus, respectively.

Glabillus/Torchic is based on a featherless chicken. Mogallus/Combusken is based on a chicken that just happens to be really really fluffy, wherease Gapillus/Blaziken is based on a Silkie.

I would imagine these having Snow Cloak as a hidden ability. Their non-hidden ability would go Dry Skin -> Big Pecks -> Fur Coat.

I like this line to come back on because it really served as an exercise in figuring out what to cut and what to add without making things too involved.

You know how Sandslash slashes and has an affinity for, well, sand? Until it moves to Alola, where it swaps out sand and rock for snow and ice. So why do we call it Sandslash? (Beyond them being the same species, natch.) However, I'm not beholden to the whims of the Pokedex or to the game, so I think renaming some of these monsters makes sense.