How to Make Pokeart

[Monbrey]

WELCOME TO THE ART SECTION!

The URPG is finally embracing the old adage "A picture is worth one thousand words". So instead of writing or roleplaying for your Pokemon, come and draw us one instead!

The Art Requirements:
The difficulty of capturing a Pokemon through art is... complicated. So here I'm going to do my best to explain it.

Firstly, the Art section uses a points-based system. Each piece of art you submit will be given a score out of 100 by one of our Art Curators, based on a variety of subjective factors. Each tier has higher quality requirements, as listed below.

• Easiest > One piece of art featuring the attempted Pokemon scoring 25 or higher.
  
• Simple > One piece of art featuring the attempted Pokemon scoring 40 or higher.
  
• Medium > Two pieces of art featuring the attempted Pokemon scoring 50 or higher.
  
• Hard > Two pieces of art featuring the attempted Pokemon that scored 60 or higher.
  
• Complex > Two pieces of art featuring the attempted Pokemon that scored 70 or higher.
  
• Demanding > Two pieces of art featuring the attempted Pokemon that scored 80 or higher.
  
• Merciless > Three pieces of art featuring the attempted Pokemon that scored 80 or higher.
  
• Stupefying > Three pieces of art featuring the attempted Pokemon that scored 90 or higher.
  

Make sense? For a Magikarp, one piece scoring 25 points will get you that floppy fish. For a Porygon-Z, you're going to have to pull out three amazing 90 point pieces. Only a single Pokemon can be captured per-piece.

Types of Art and How We Score It:

We're open to pretty much any art form you can think of. Drawing, Painting, Sculpting, Modelling, and the wide variety of computer-based art such as 3D Models, Banners, Sprites and Animation.

However, this obviously means we can't use a standard criteria to score every piece of submitted art. We have decided not to make distict categories, as it effectively isn't a competition. Curators will give your piece a score, and provide a list of reasons why you recieved or lost points, which will vary depending on the art form. This reasoning is intended to help you improve your current or future pieces of work.

Below is some general advice on what Curators look for in each of the art forms, to help maximize your score.

Drawing:
To obtain the highest amount of points with these techniques, we would need to see at least half of the desired Pokemon if it is the main focal point, if not, it needs to be completely visable. A clear light source, or sources should you have more than one, should be included along with shadows. You should also use various line thickness and shading technicques to give your artwork depth and dimension. If you're drawing with a penicl, don't smudge the lead. This is smudging, not shading. If this is the effect you want, use a tortillon or tissue/toilet paper. Color is not needed, however, if you decide to use color, it needs to be used in the shading as well.

Painting:
As with drawn art, paintings also need a light source, shadows, and shading. The paint needs to be smooth along the contours of what is being painted. If only one colour is selected, a minimum of three shades/tints of that colour is required. There should be little to no white spaces and the transition while blending should be near impossible to tell.

Abstract:
Abstract art that represents a Pokemon would have to go by ALL of that Pokemon's colour scheme. It would also have to be in the style of another abstract artist. At least five of the seven elements of art would have to be depicted and directly correspond to the desired Pokemon. For example, shape. A Charmander would be a bunch of curves and circles, NOT a bunch of corners and squares. This is the hardest form of art to grade, and will therefore be graded the hardest.

Proving Your Work:

We expect to see some form of "proof of work" in every piece. For drawings and painting, this is can be as simple as a signature. The same applies to photoshop-based work such as banners. For photographed work, sign a piece of paper to be included in the photo. You get the idea. The internet has plenty of ways for us to detect plagiarism, so don't.

Feedback:

If anyone has anything to say, contribute, or just generally praise other people's artworks, head over the the Snooty Art Discussion thread and make yourselves comfortable.

Special Thanks:

For their huge help in making the decisions involved in setting up this section
Kai-Mei
FrozenChaos
EmBreon
Alaskapigeon