#extensionalart

Here's my submission for @n0rtist 's FT500 fakemon design challenge! Meet Ceparrypod, the fencing Ultra Beast who comes at you dancing with a vengeance.

I'm gonna explain my design process since that was a cool format for my ability forms last time n0rtist did a challenge (if you remember my Escavalier ability forms or saw them show up in n0rtist's video, you're a real one!).

So for this challenge I wanted to be self indulgent. I wanted to make a Pokemon I'd personally be a big fan of. Whilst the challenge is sort of geared for you to come up with a competitive gimmick and then make a design around it, I actually did the opposite. I thought, "what do I like?". Immediately, I thought: the color yellow, squids and "dexterity duelist" weapons (rapiers, parrying daggers, bucklers). So I had an idea to make a cuttlefish who was, at the same time, a parrying dagger with a buckler. But when I started thinking about the design, it started to become weirder.

It started to make sense that it'd be an Ultra Beast. And this fit into my idea of being self indulgent - I love Ultra Beasts! So I decided to go weird with it. Around this time was when the competitive gimmick started forming in my mind: a Pokemon geared towards defense being the best offense, like how DnD Swashbuckler rogues can make an enemy focus them to keep attention off their allies (oh hey, that's why Ceparrypod gets Follow Me!).

Then the final design piece clicked into place: it had to be a dancer. One thing I love in videogames is when swordfights feel like a dance. So why not make the swordfighter a dancer? Ceparrypod positions its tentacles in such a way that it looks like a coiled sword or a flamberge, but also a dancer striking a pose and spinning around.

Here's the original sketch for its concept:

So, with the final design, the idea is that it is a vengeful spiritual entity from a ruined Ultra Space that lives inside a metal body (although it doesn't possess it - it's not that exactly the kind of ghost type that's the ghost of a dead thing). It heats up the metal from inside with its anger to move it around like tentacles. Its dance-like way of moving is a way of keeping up movement even when cold. It seeks enemies and seeks to cut them down to make itself stronger, and is one of the Ultra Beast that becomes most aggressive upon falling through a wormhole. Its body resembles a rapier with a buckler and a parrying dagger attached to it, capable of moving around to suit its mobility needs.

Kit wise, it gets Follow Me (already explained), Shell Smash (a classic for a being with a "cuttle", especially with the whole gimmick of it heating itself up), Bitter Blade (a classic vengeful spirit move) and Poltergeist (the idea here is that, since it is made up of 3 weapons made for parrying, it can use the enemy's own weapons against them - Poltergeist can be seen as a sort of parry). Its ability is Beast Boost, of course, since it's an Ultra Beast. Its stats are also all prime numbers, because that's how Ultra Beasts handle stats.

The gameplay idea for it is also meant to tie into the self-indulgence. I like both bulky defensive stall Pokemon and fast physical sweepers. I decided to have the best of both worlds: Ceparrypod can choose to Shell Smash and use its White Herb item to compensate for the defenses lost, to then try to sweep with Poltergeist and stay alive with Bitter Blade. However, it can also go defensive and use Bitter Blade for survivability whilst also using Follow Me to take hits instead of its partner. White Herb Shell Smash can also help in the defensive mode to make Bitter Blade stronger.

Very gimmicky, I know, and far from OP, but I decided to lean into the "get creative with how the kit fits the Pokemon" part of the contest than with the "make a winning OP Pokemon" part of it. It was fun! I'm glad I chose to do it this way.

This hybrid approach makes the submission form a bit awkward though. Is it a support or not...? If you're reading this n0rtist, maybe it's not the best place to ask, but would you classify it as a support?

On a more technical note, I've been learning to properly shade lately, and I took Ceparrypod as an opportunity to try to render the spike on its buckler shield as a front-facing spike. Hopefully it looks good.

Toxapex ability forms! Let's take a look at each of them.

For Merciless, I wanted to emphasize the way in which Toxapex is a poisonous predator, and making it spiky seemed like a perfect way to do that. I also added a "vampiric" touch to its "head".

Limber is a word that confused me, but looking it up in Spanish it's "flexibilidad", so I thought, stretchy!

Finally, for Regenerator, I thought a cool visual way of conveying the regeneration could be Zygarde-esque scales and color "gradients". I think it looks neat!

I did another ability forms post! This time, another favorite of mine, Escavalier. This is a really underrated mon imo and I wanted to show it some love (same with the previous one, Shiinotic, tbh). I might've gone a little too hard on the differences but Escavalier is just so fun to build off of.

Here's some "concept art" of them:

Swarm increases Bug move power in a pinch, so I tried to make that design more "animalistic". Plus I added a swarm of Karrablasts, because that's cute. I also emphasized the "lance" part of Escavalier's arms, making the point more stinger-like.

Shell Armor protects from crits, so that'd be the "Heavy Knight" of the set. I gave it heavy thrusting swords for its arms, with some rapier-like flare, and more greyed out colors, to emphasize the steel type.

Finally, the idea for Overcoat is that since the abikity protects from weather conditions, its skin would be paler (less sun) and the armor would be rusted from the rain, hail and sandstorms. I kinda tried to mix the "Spanish Tercios Soldier" vibe with the "Western" vibe and this is what came out - with some good old Estocs for arms, and buckler-like shoulder guards, this one's a duelist.

Which is your favorite? Mine is probably Overcoat. I played around with line weight in these designs and I think that really works in its favor.

And another one! Ability forms for Cursola!

This is another one of my favorite mons, best gen 8 one for sure!

For Weak Armor the idea was to evoke the Corsola-Galar kind of coral as if it was still partly on it, like... Weak Armor (peak fiction)

And for Perish Body, I went full spooky-vibes, giving it swirls and a more intimidating ghost-face.

I feel like these are a bit subtler than my previous ones, but I like them all the same! I hope you guys like them too - Cursola deserves more love.

You thought I was done? Nope! Here's Beheeyem, an underrated Pokemon I think needs more love! Legends ZA anyone? Haha...

For Analytic Beheeyem, my idea was to make it more alien-like, and I liked the shape language I used, for no particular reason other than "looks cool and alien". It felt appropriate since it's the hidden ability too, and since it "takes time to decide its attack" due to the ability, I made it big-brain.

For Telepathy, I thought it could be the more "conventional" Beheeyem but with patterns that look more conventionally Psychic-type to read its ally's mind.

Finally, Synchronize is supposed to emphasize the FBI agent part of Beheeyem rather than the alien part: it's analytic's counterpart. I think they all turned out pretty cool!

cringetober day 7 - crossover

This time: Ceruledge

For Flash Fire, my idea was that, since it gets stronger when a fire attack hits it, its flames should be crazier. The blade which just looks like a flame looks like that because it's in movement: when it stops it calms down and looks like the wavy sword in its other hand. The idea was just "very fiery" for this one.

And then, I absolutely LOVE how Weak Armor turned out. When the idea hit me I knew I had to draw it: a Ceruledge with fire leaking out from cracks in its armor. The design really came together with the crack on its chest and with its swords coming out of cracked gauntlets instead of just from the sides.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed making them! I'm pretty proud of these two. I feel like they keep the "base design" more faithfully than my previous posts too.