Suggestions My Pokemon Artwork

Hi, this is just to show off my Sugimori style artwork and to recieve crits and suggestions to make then better.
At the moment I'm doing artwork for my new game and so are not taking requests at the moment, but any ideas for new pokemon for my game are welcome and if I like it then I'll make a Sugimori style piece and a sprite. If you want to find out more about my game, take alook at my 'Calling All Spriters' thread in the Pixel Art section.
Here are the new and improved pokemon that I've done thanks to Kratos Aurion's advice:
Tregaur, my fire stegosaur

My new Pinsir Prevo

and any pokemon that I haven't been able to upload to TCoD will be in my gallery on Deviant Art
http://lorddoodlebob.deviantart.com/gallery/#My-Pokemon-Art


Any suggestions are welcome

Re: My Sugimori Stlye Artwork

Well, let's see. I don't pretend to be an expert at emulating Ken Sugimori's artwork, but since it's something I've been experimenting with I think I can find a few things to suggest.

Okay, so... they aren't bad, although I wouldn't call them "Sugimori-style" if only because your drawing style doesn't look much like his at all. Don't be afraid to reference bits directly from official Pokémon every once in a while. If you're really trying to emulate Sugimori as closely as possible (and is it really necessary? There's nothing wrong with having your game's "official artwork" in your own style) then that's what you should do. He has a certain way of drawing certain body parts like clawed feet--try looking at Charmander or Cranidos as a reference for the raptor, for example, or at Meganium for the sauropod.

The coloring and shading are actually fairly good, but you've shaded the raptor's leg incorrectly. As with sprites, the light source in most Sugimori artwork (at least the most recent ones, I don't remember if that's the case with the old school watercolor-style ones) comes from the top left. You've done that for the most part, and since it's your art you could have it coming from another direction if you liked, but you need to pick a direction and be consistent with it. The shading on the leg closest to us has the shadow on the upper left, while the light is coming from the upper left everywhere else in the image. You've also constrained the shadows and highlights to the edges, when in reality (and in Sugi art) they curve around objects and give them depth. Just shading along the edges still leaves them looking rather flat.

Sugimori also uses slightly duller, less saturated colors. Don't go for the brightest version of the color you want to use--add a little gray to it. Not so much that the image looks washed out or nearly grayscale, but you'll notice that the vast majority of his Pokémon are not brilliantly vibrant. That, or you can do what I do and cheat after you've finished coloring by just using your program's Hue and Saturation adjustment. I don't know exactly where that would be in Photoshop Elements or Paint.NET or whatever you said you were using, but look around for it and try lowering the saturation to about -5 or so.

Don't ever use flat black or stark white for a main color--or at all, if it can be helped--try to constrain that to the pupils and irises of the eyes. You'll notice that no Pokémon, even those that the Pokédex defines as "black" (although I think the Pokédex's color listings are pretty dubious anyway), are that dark. Use a fairly dark gray instead; it's easier to see in general, and it's also easier to see the shading on it.

The lineart is a little on the thick side. If you're drawing directly in your art program, try using a thinner brush.

The anatomy isn't bad, for the most part; the only one I have any real problems with is the sauropod. It looks like you got a little shaky on the tail, first of all. Try to give it a more consistent taper. Where is its rear right leg? Sometimes a quadruped can have legs thin enough to be obscured by something else, but I really don't think that's the case with a big, bulky dinosaur. The front leg farthest from us doesn't look as though it's positioned correctly--it seems shorter than the other leg and doesn't look like it's connected at the same shoulder area. You were probably trying to make it look farther away, but unless it's nearly doing a split the difference would not be that drastic. And then there's the head: it just looks flat and anatomically awkward. See if you can't do anything to make it look more rounded, for a start--try drawing it at a different angle instead of a direct profile view. The lower jaw might be a little too large, as it should be slightly smaller than or flush with the upper jaw unless you're deliberatly going for a sort of Aerodactyl or Granbull-esque underslung jaw look.

The eyes of the raptor and the sauropod thing should probably have highlights; the whale should probably have them as well, but I can't even tell whether or not it has eyes in the first place. Is that big blue and white thing an eye, or is it just a spot?

Try searching deviantART for Sugimori-style coloring/shading tutorials and looking at the work of the better Sugi artists on there--a lot of them really have the style down. Emulating the lineart will take more than that, I'm afraid--you just have to check official images as references and ask yourself whether or not something would really look like that on an official Pokémon.

tl;dr: As I said in the beginning, they're good, but they aren't Sugimori; putting one of your images side-by-side with one of his would show that they aren't alike at all. Unless you're willing to put a little more effort into emulating the way he would actually draw certain things, I'd just go ahead and draw them however you like instead of feeling like you need to have "Sugi art" for official artwork. Nothing wrong with your own individual style.

Hopefully that fearsome wall of text was at least a little helpful; if not, I can try and clarify later.

Re: My Sugimori Stlye Artwork

Yeah thanks alot for all the advice. I wasn't trying to do them exactly like Sugimori, I just couldn't think of anything better to describe it as.
About the raptor, sorry about the shading on the leg, I didn't realise that and also all the ones that I've done at the moment have been made from sprites, like the killer whale, the eye thing is just what was on the sprite.
I'll change my outline thickness down a bit but I'm working on one right now and I've nearly done all the whole outline and so I'll change it on the next one I do.
Concerning the Sauropod pokemon, sorry that it's pretty weird but I did it very late at night and was too tired to change it.
Lastly, just so you know I only found a tutorial for doing this the day after yesterday and all these were done yesterday except for the Sauropod which technically I did this morning (1-2 o'clock).

Hi, I tried doing of the stuff suggested and here is the result, it's Tregaur, the fire stegosaur. Crits and suggestions please

Hi, I just finished my new pokemon art piece, it's a T-Rex pokemon which I might be using as the full evo of my fire starter for my game. It's a fire/rock type but unfortunately it won't allow me to upload it to TCoD albums cause it's to big (not pic size but amount of bytes) and so I uploaded it to my DeviantArt and here's the link,
http://lorddoodlebob.deviantart.com/gallery/#My-Pokemon-Art
Please tell me what you think and any suggestions to make it better

Hi, my new pieces are in the first post, I just finished my new Pinsir Prevo.