:leaves: Torram Starters :fire: 2.0! :droplet:

Good day or night everyone!

Today I wanted to share what I’ve been working on for the past few days. Torram’s starters have a new look!

I wanted to get back into drawing art for the region again. To be completely honest, the only Torram line I was proud off until now was the Potatoink line, and I wanted to change that.

Starting with… the starters!

No individual ‘dex entry’ type art for them yet! The layout needs a change as well. For now, I’ll simply discuss them as a trio.

There were three main issues I had with the previous designs: the shapes, the colours and (lack of) personality. I found the old designs to be too round. It made them look very stiff, and I wanted to change that with the redesigns, so I made the shapes more dynamic while still trying to convey the fact that these are starter Pokemon. The colours, in my opinion, weren’t vibrant enough. With the shapes being as they were, lighter colours were very overpowering. Furthermore, I didn’t like the overly complicated way I rendered them. I changed up the line brush and simplified the shading. Next I wanted the personality of the Pokémon to shine through. The new shapes and colouration helped a lot with this. I made it a point to give each of them distinct eye shapes this time around, which I think helped a lot. The way I shaded them last time made them look too similar, which stripped them of their character.

These are some observations I made about my process.

Cubbud was a favourite amongst my friends due to it being a cuddly bear. I didn’t want to change that, and instead tried to make it even more bear-like. I’m really happy with how it turned out, which goes for all of these designs. I wanted it to look a little fiercer too as a nod to its wild caveman/bear inspiration. This line will change quite a bit, so I hope you’ll look forward to it.

I wanted Snakeg to be snakelike, but I think I had trouble with the shape the first time around. Its sparkler/firework design wasn’t conveyed properly either. There wasn’t even any fire! That’s what I wanted to change most with this redesign. Take its concept and show it off properly, as well as make it cuter. I think I succeeded! I plan on taking more of my original inspiration into its evolutionary line as well.

Lastly there’s Sternbord! …wait, what?

Yeah, the first stage of this line in particular I was really unhappy with, so I scrapped the idea and gave ‘Calidrip’ a complete design overhaul.

What are the Netherlands known for, next to their cheese? Their relationship with water! Albeit nautical exploration, the building of dikes, etc. And what did I do with ‘Calidrip’? I based the line on old Dutch royalty and knights who don’t even go out to sea! So yeah, in hindsight I really disliked this line. Sternbord is based on sandpipers, as well as the (s)tern (we call them sterns, I don’t know why the English language removed the ‘s’). Its name is a reference to ‘starboard’, as well as ‘bord’, which means plate in Dutch but *plank* in Norwegian. Yeah, I’m going full pirate with this line. The base stage is a little cabin boy though. It runs over deck doing tasks its ‘captain’ asks of it. And when enemies draw near, it strikes with its razor shell beak! Take that!

Anyway, I hope you like these goons! Their evolutions will come as soon as I have more free time on my hands.

See you again soon!