Speculative Biology? Yes please.

110610-gloom

Illustration by pc-0.

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Wow…pickins are slim for a realistic gloom. Now, that may be in part because its name is an actual word, which jumbles up the search a bit…but yeah, this was the best I could find.

As a painting, this is delightful. It’s well rendered, the composition is simple but strong, and while it doesn’t really meet my normal definition of “realism”, it’s still delightful to look at. Hope you all agree!

Real Life Oddish

Illustration by Too-many-of-us.

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Most photo-manipulated “real pokémon” images are…well, honestly, complete crap. To be fair, photomanipulation is skillset that requires a lot of practice to make a convincing image, and since so many pokémon have at least one or two features in their anatomy that are completely outlandish…so making them convincing is really tough. I won’t say that this image here looks like it could jump off the screen and onto my keyboard…but I won’t say it doesn’t either. Oddish is simple, and lends itself well to this medium…so, in this case…

Thumbs up.

Bat out of Hell…

Illustration by Joshua Dunlop.

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Rendering a golbat’s mouth in a way that looks believable as anything other than a cartoon character is a tricky thing to do…but I think Joshua here has done a decent job. His description (follow the click-through link) is pretty interesting as well.

Yoshi Hatchling - Polymer Clay Egg Sculpture

Sculpture by sexyghoul84.

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Just one word…

Daaaaaaaaaaw!

.::. Real Pokes XVII

Illustration by JESGRAD07.

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Jiggles and wiggles are…confusing creatures to begin with. I mean, wigglytuff has always pretty clearly been based on a very fluffy rabbit…so it’s safe to assume that jigglypuff is a similar creature with shorter ears…but either way, it’s difficult to make them convincing without completely reinventing them or turning them into beings of abject horror (seriously…just go type in “real jigglypuff” on deviantART. I’ll wait.)

The point is, JESGRAD07 has done a delightful job, keeping the original flavor of the creatures alive while still portraying them in a way that’s more naturalistic. Brava!

Biology of Pokémon, No. 038 - Ninetales

Illustration and analysis by James. R. I. Cady (me).

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I did this one in January of 2009, and I still think it’s one of my more successful projects. I’m particularly proud of my explanation of the fire- breathing, as well as the “curse” of the nine tails.

Hope you enjoy!

Vulpix

Illustration by Kobey Matsushige

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An interesting interpretation of an old fan-favorite. I understand why the artist decided to portray it (quite convincingly) as a Pomeranian, as particularly in the animé, vulpix comes across as kind of high-maintenance. I myself would (er…will)probably go with a fox kit when the time comes, but this is still a very successful interpretation…and sooooo cute!

…I hate myself for that.

Kremling

Illustration by Darren Calvert.

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A lovely reimagining of the most basic enemy of the Donkey Kong series, the Kremling! Oft overlooked, and arguably a creature of the Mario series, I say kudos to darren for tackling what are essentially the Koopas of the Donkey Kong series. Bravo, sir.

Also, note that it would seem he approached them from the pirate theme of “Donkey Kong Country 2”…though I guess the theme of the first game was fairly ambiguous…

Starstruck

Illustration by Silverbirch.

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I…am not quite sure how much this looks like clefable…and generally when I go about analyzing things like pokémon, I try to take as few artistic liberties as possible…but when this image popped up in my search for “Clefable”, I couldn’t help but check it out. Well done, Silverbirch. Well done.