The Art of Design

Hey there. I thought I'd combine a comparison of my old and new works with a little insight into the re-design of my Halloween submission; this is both to help out those who struggle with design and to give people a look at how I work when I'm making Fakemon designs. I'm always looking for ways to improve on my work so hopefully I'll be doing something similar again as I develop.

Halloweed: Design
I always wanted Halloweed to be innocent and child-like, both as an appeal for a first stage design and to represent the childhood glee of trick or treating on Halloween. The head stem is designed like a curl of hair and I added a single tooth, both of which are a recurring theme in cartoon children; the colours are kept quite bright, since Halloween decorations are usually nicely coloured and the eyes/lights are yellow. This was to represent the fire of a Jack o Lantern and to keep the colour quite warm and friendly without being too creepy.

Halloweed: Updates
The core design of Halloweed remains the same, though there are some significant differences. The eyes were once blue, but yellow is more traditional for fire, so I switched them. The leaves around the pumpkin head were a little too detailed in the older version, since my newer style opts for the less is more approach - you can easily hint at leaf detail and depth with shading and colour rather than drawing each little vein. The body was indistinct in the 2011 version: is the material made of cloth? leaves? who knows! In the 2014 version I made the body obviously leaves which themselves hint at a sheet ghost approach. The same was done for the stem hands and lower body and they were made more clear in exactly what they were and what they are made out of.

Hallowicked: Design
Hallowicked was designed to be mischievous and naughty, much like the tricks played by children in the Halloween season; it's designed to hide amongst pumpkins and jump out to scare passers-by. It was always supposed to be a little more threatening than Halloweed since evolutions usually appear more battle-worthy so I added sharper shapes and designs in the thorns on the body. Hallowicked's eye design is a little more creepy than its pre-evolution too.

Hallowicked: Updates
This design needed some major work to make it more like my latest style. The 2011 version had a witch-style hat in the pumpkin stem and design, but the brim looked off and out of place; I replaced it with the pumpkin stems forming devil horns, keeping in the theme of Halloween and mischievousness. I used more of an Autumn pallette, with more washed out and darker colours not only to represent the aging of plants in the autumn season but also to show the maturing of the Fakemon. The leaves around the pumpkin are replaced with dead leaves and the grass 'sheet' body of Halloweed is replaced with a blanket of dying leaves for Hallowicked. The body on the 2011 version was less like it's pre-evolution and I try to keep visual progression in design lines - I kept the thorn idea and made spiky roots for limbs with a knot of tendril-like roots for the lower body to keep a floating appearance.

Hope you enjoyed reading!