Pilosophos' Circle (Art)

The Arms of Henry Whalley

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

After I made the coat of arms for another one of my roleplay characters, Winston Archambault-Brewer, I got into a Harry Potter RP and decided to make arms for Henry Whalley, the father of the character I’m playing. Henry is a Cartomancer and Games Merchant with a shop on Diagon Alley called Giddy Goblin Games, which has been run by the Whalley family for generations.

Henry’s son, Theodore, is not very distinguished and does not have a coat of arms of his own, and since Henry is very much alive, he has yet to inherit the arms you see here. He would however, be entitled to use these arms if differenced by a label of three points, which would indicate that he is the first son of the bearer of the original arms.

Blazon

Special thanks to u/The_Failord on Reddit for suggesting a blazon when I posted the design on the Heraldry Subreddit.

Arms

Argent, on a bend Sable between two wands of the same bendwise tips to chief and to base two horse heads conjoined of the field.

Crest

On a wizard’s hat Gules, a raven proper contourny.

Motto

MANUS TUA NUMQUAM MONSTRANDA. This Latin phrase means “Never show your hand”.

Symbolism

Two horse heads

The two horse heads represent chess knights, in reference to the business of selling games. They are mirrored so as to resemble the face cards in a playing card deck.

Two wands

Representing cartomancy and the merchant’s profession, the two wands represent the Tarot card, the Two of Wands, which depicts a merchant with the world in his hands.

Bend Sable

The diagonal bend represents Diagon Alley.

Crest

I had this idea that among Wizards in Britain that the pointed hat would be standard helm, instead of a knight’s helm, and that the bearer would change the color of the hat based on the house they were sorted into. Red (Gules) for Gryffindor, Blue (Azure) for Ravenclaw, Or (Gold) for Hufflepuff, and Vert (Green) for Slytherin.

That being the case, I’m not sure what the Raven is for, because I originally put that in to represent Ravenclaw. I thought maybe the crest would be determined by the house of the person the arms were originally granted to, but that would all British wizards use one of only four crests and that’s not exactly interesting.

Too much water!

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I drew this for Bulbagarden Forums’ Pokémon 30th Anniversary Bingo. There was a community Bingo card with a bunch of themes like “Strange Friends”, “Favorite Character”, and “Going Home”, and users would collectively fill it in by drawing art or writing a fic with that theme. The theme I chose was “Too much water!”

I wasn’t originally going to post this outside the forum, but after I drew it, I figured… it was just too adorable not to!

Winston Archambault-Brewer (Pixel art ver.)

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

TODO: update image description

I had one of those melatonin thingies an hour and a half ago and I am now way too tired to write anything intelligent about this illustration right now.

Raichu Green (commission)

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

This was a commission from a client, who requested Green(f) in a Raichu costume, kinda like her Pikachu costume. Thanks for the commission!

If you’re interested in commissioning art from me, see my Support Me page!

Green is one of my favorite Pokéspe characters (next to Diamond), and I had an absolute blast drawing this one. Green’s design is based off of some post-ORAS chapter illustrations, after she starts wearing a black dress again. Her hair’s a little bit rounder, and her boots a bit pointier. It’s a subtle difference from her original design.

By the way, ORAS chapter was originally released online, chapter by chapter, by Shogakukan, from December 2014 to September 2016. After being released this way, either in magazines or digitally, Pokémon Adventures chapters for that arc are collected into volume releases, which may contain extra chapters, story changes, and bonus illustrations. The volume releases are how we’re used to reading manga in the West. (Source)

It turns out that, 10 years after its original release, ORAS chapter is still trying to put together Volume 65, having been delayed for multiple years.

I’ve only read the magazine releases (and that was a long time ago), so if I ever start reading the volumes, I might be in for big surprises! Whenever I go on the Pokéspe subreddit and see ORAS chapter stuff that I’ve never seen, I always wonder if I hit my head and lost all memory since I originally read it. This is why.

Steven & Latios

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I drew this for a Palentine’s Art Exchange on Bulbagarden Forums. Everyone signs up with a list of prompts they might want to see drawn by a randomly matched forum user, which could involve canon Pokémon characters, OCs, or a mix of both.

The prompt I drew was of Steven Stone together with Zircon, the Lati@s-inspired OC by my match. I made two versions: I finished this Latios one first, then replaced Latios with Zircon for the Palentine’s exchange version.

I originally came up with this composition at a board game shop with my friends, while waiting for my turn in Power Grid. When there’s about six of you playing a board game where you have to make complex decisions, the mid- to late-game slows down to a crawl. One of my buddies, who takes the longest, adopts what I call the Game Winning Stance: when it’s his turn, he stands up and leans over the board, propped up on the table by the left arm, and a handful of pretend money in the right.

Each turn, his actions become more and more complex― his game tokens were placed all over the board, cards shuffled around, and play money exchanged in ways that would make the CFO of Enron blush. I sat with my sketchbook, glancing up occasionally to see what madness he had unleashed upon the game. A long couple hours later, the game ended.

He didn’t win the game.

Anyway, I wanted to go for a pose with really striking foreshortening, kinda like with Green in an Egg Chair. The thing that really got me onto the foreshortening thing are the illustrations in some of KIRA and Giga’s MVs, which have really punchy visuals to match the tone of the music. In the end, my foreshortening still ends up a little subdued, but I think the end result is still dramatic enough, especially with the sunset lighting.

Misty in Zapdos Magazine

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I made this artwork for a Pokémon fanart collab where they want to make posters of the final composition for charity. For that reason, I am making it available under the following license, so that the posters can be distributed, with all profits going towards Doctors Without Borders, the charity selected by the collab organizer:

LICENSE: This artwork is made available to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license, with the additional license grant:

You may reproduce and Share Adapted Material, for monetary compensation if and only if all profits of the compensation (if any) are given to the international humanitarian aid charity organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), its MSF associations, or its MSF sections.

NOTE: The additional license grant is not endorsed by the Creative Commons organization and is not part of any standard Creative Commons license.

There are two other versions of this artwork available under the same license terms:

The Arms of Winston Archambault-Brewer

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Actually, this is the full heraldic achievement, not just the coat of arms. They belong to a character I made for an RP, Winston Archambault-Brewer, a Latin teacher fervently keeping the language alive. He used to work as a Latin translator for the Royal Heraldry Office in his home country, the Dominion of Kenawac.

A bunch of people were sharing flags of their RP characters’ countries, and I thought it would be cool to make some heraldry! I usually don’t color using the pencil brushes in Krita, but it turned out pretty well and I might try using them a bit more.

Blazon

Arms

Azure, a barrel in middle chief proper, a wall embattled issuant from base Or with an arched doorway and displaying an open book proper;

Crest

A crest of a Roman Galea Gules;

Motto

MAIORES LOQUANTUR SI AUDIAS. This latin phrase means “The ancestors would speak, if you listen”.

Symbolism

Winston Archambault-Brewer’s arms contain a cant, referring to the two parts of his surname. Brewer, from his father Geoffrey Brewer, is represented by the beer barrel. Archambault, from his mother Jeanette Archambault, is represented by the arch.

The book and the crest of the Galea represents Winston’s passion for Latin, from authoring books on the Latin language, to his services for the Royal Heraldry Office of Kenawac as a Latin translator.

The motto, meaning “The ancestors would speak, if you listen,” refers to the body of Latin texts written by our forebears that can only be properly understood by learning the language.

Winston Archambault-Brewer (Injured)

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMT

I drew this portrait for a character in an RP happening on a forum. I used to do a lot of RP on forums, where in contrast to a tabletop RPG like D&D, everyone describes what their character(s) are doing with at least a paragraph or two. Since it’s quite a lot slower, it lets you take time to flesh out the characters, their actions, and their interactions with other characters, while combat takes the backburner (if it’s there at all).

Anyway, with the death of a lot of forums, I tried to find an active one and try joining an RP. My character is Winston, a 33-year-old Latin teacher at a posh school for nobility with a penchant for telling tall tales and eating sweets.

For his design I looked at a young Stephen Fry (I was watching a lot of Fry and Laurie at the time), who has that kind of posh look without seeming unapproachable, as well as Remus Lupin’s from the Harry Potter movies, whose design centered around making him a quintessentially English wizard. Winston isn’t English, but it seemed like the right direction to take.

I initially created a couple sketches, one that looked like someone’s 45-year-old dad, and one that looked about the right age but way too smug to be the affable teacher sort of guy. Both of them were relatively plain, not incredibly handsome but not bad looking either.

Then I looked again at the character portraits submitted by the other RPers, and seeing post after post of flawless anime-esque characters, I realized I had to make a change. I didn’t want to make Winston very flashy, since he’s not a wealthy man himself, so I modeled his face off of the handsome Kristoph Gavin from Ace Attorney, and gave him Stephen Fry energy, as one might put it.

On a whim, I decided that he would have a broken left arm due to a skiing injury before the term started.

Maxine

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Here’s a little sketch I did today! I’ve been playing Life Is Strange recently, a game which I saw all the time on the Xbox 360 Marketplace but never got to play until now.

This would be the second time-travel multiple-endings game I’ve played since Steins;Gate forever ago. I do love me some story-driven gameplay and branching paths, hence my love of visual novels, so I’ve been enjoying the game so far.

The main character is Max Caulfield, an adorable but meek high school girl who loves photography. She’s cute, but so embroiled in the dramatic high school environment that she lacks the self-esteem to see it.

She kind of reminds me of Riki, the main character in Little Busters (my favorite VN of all time), since she’s got a shy personality that’s often overshadowed by the dominant personalities of those around her. Riki would deny it, but he’s also pretty adorable.

Life Is Strange’s controls feel a bit sluggish (I’m playing on a Nintendo Switch) which discourages me from interacting with the environment, even though I’m the kind of guy who taps on every single little object in the Phoenix Wright investigation segments. Same with the time travel, which is unfortunate; part of the fun of visual novels is exploring all the different choices and routes, but Life is Strange is a 3D adventure game, so you can’t really go back and forth to try new things as fluidly as a VN.

I’m on Episode 3 of the game, and it kind of worries me that no matter what choices I make, I’m still being railroaded through a set storyline with Chloe and the disappearance of Rachel. For instance:

Life Is Strange: Episode 2 spoilers

Kate’s story feels more like a momentary distraction from Chloe and Rachel’s main storyline. Regardless of the outcome of Kate’s subplot, it seems like you will discover what happened to Rachel sooner or later, because that’s what the game is setting you up for. If Kate dies, the story just kind of moves on.

What would sadden me a little is if, for all the emphasis the game places on chaos theory and the consequences of choices, the endings are just slight variations of “you solve the mystery” and “you fail to solve the mystery.” So rather than reaching Kate’s Good/Bad Ending, you end up at Rachel and Chloe’s Good/Bad Ending no matter what you do, with a footnote about what happened to Kate and the other characters. Compare this with Fallout 3:

Fallout 3 spoilers

Despite Fallout 3 having hundreds of ending variations, the only one that really matters is the main story’s. Regardless of whether you choose to blow up Megaton is largely irrelevant to the search for Dad and Project Purity. As far as the ending is concerned, all it does it change a few slides of the final montage. The number of endings are due to combinatorics, not because there are actually hundreds of deep plotlines.

Maybe I’m just spoiled by the many storylines of the visual novels I’ve played.

Cheerleader Green

Wed, 24 Dec 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I originally did the sketch for this drawing all the way back in October. It was supposed to be for this big thing where Green contemplates what costume to pick for Halloween, and a cheerleading outfit was one of them. Anyway, it would have taken a lot of time and I’d have had to squeeze it all between work, school, and the commission I had taken on shortly after I started it.

My friend looked at the sketches I had, and she really liked this one. Since I didn’t have any big illustrations published for this month, I thought I’d do the lineart and coloring before the year ended.

Who knows, maybe I’ll finish them all in time for Halloween 2026. No promises, though.

The outfit originally had a generic design in the sketch, but I changed it to a Starmies outfit after the baseball team in the anime. We don’t see a lot of Baseball cheerleaders in the West it feels like, but they are an actual thing in Japan.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Val in the Lab

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Valentina is the character I played in my friend’s Pokémon TTRPG. I haven’t drawn her much since we abruptly stopped playing several months ago, but I have a soft spot for Val and I couldn’t just let her be forgotten.

I actually started sketching the Val you see here while I was drawing my second Witch Crys commission, in order to get a bit more practice with wrinkles in cloth. I hadn’t originally intended to draw her Totodile, Kyle, or the background at all.

After coloring in Val, I had a conversation with my violinist friend about what makes art resonate with people. What separates us from an LLM that spits out simulacra of art? Why do we keep creating when the computer can synthesize an image that wins the Colorado State Fair art competition?

One of the reasons we came up with was that people want context. With context, people can relate more to what they’re experiencing, and knowing there’s a flesh-and-blood artist putting effort into art that means something makes the feeling all the more powerful.

For me, fanart makes life seem a little less lonely. “Someone out there likes what I like, and their expression of that fact made its way to my eyeballs,” is a nice thought.

So anyway, that’s why I added the ever-crafty and excitable Kyle, and the rest of Prof. Ivy’s lab where Val worked before going on a study broad in the TTRPG’s setting. The lab is how I imagine how an actual research lab would look like in the Pokémon world, and my head canon is that Ivy’s lab is part of Orange Islands University. Her three lab assistants in Poké Ball Peril are grad students or postdocs or something.

By the way, the OSHAwott Job Safety and Health poster is based on one of my old works that I since turned into a sticker you can buy!

When I finished drawing and coloring, the whole thing kinda reminds me of some of the illustrations in picture books I read as a kid, though I’ve forgotten all of them. Maybe it’s the greenish color scheme and the slightly sketch-like lineart that makes it feel like there should be some Times New Roman that says “It’s almost lunch! See Kyle run! The little Totodile would run a mile across the tile for oodles of noodles!”

Witch Crys commission #2

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I was commissioned for Crystal in a witch costume again! Thank you so much! If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the last Witch Crystal comm, which I enjoyed drawing very much.

With this piece, I started thinking a bit about my style again and doing some tinkering. The way I draw has been in a lot of flux over the past year, maybe because I started earning money for my art. I’ve started to really ask myself, “how can I make my art better?”

My conclusion is that I have to try new things to see what suits me. I have to try different brushes, new techniques, or studying some other artists that I like and incorporating those elements. Get out of my own head.

I’ve previously written about how much I love Endou Okito’s style, and I’ve been trying to figure out why it speaks to me. He makes everything feel so delicate, and maybe part of it is how detailed and precise he renders cloth. The many creases and folds makes it feel like the clothes his characters wear are substantial― that if you touched it, it would move and shift.

I’m not as good at it as I’d like to be, but I wanted to be more deliberate about the clothes in this drawing, and making sure things aren’t too smooth. I want them to scrunch up and crease and fold up.

I also looked at some WWII plane nose art, many of which convey motion really dynamically, and the idea of Crystal flying on a broom reminded me of it. I like that the wind catches Crystal’s skirt a little, but maybe I could have done a little bit more, like having her huge witch hat be a little more off kilter or the Great Ball candy basket swing more wildly.

Actually, the Mario Strikers art does a really great job at super dynamic, exciting sports action! While I don’t quite want to emulate that style, it does give me a lot to think about when I practice drawing motion.

Black Trenchcoat Camille

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Maybe it’s not really a trenchcoat― I’ve never seen any trenchcoat with that mantle looking thing on the shoulders. But I thought I’d do a bit of an alternate costume for my Shadowrun character, Camille, more fitting for the black trenchcoat Shadowrun playstyle. Less bright, maybe a little more discreet (though it’s hard to be discreet with that robot arm of hers!).

By the way, how do you like the digital pencil style? Before I could afford a drawing tablet, I did art pretty much exclusively with pencil and paper. The pencil brush I’m using in Krita is alright, but I’ve resigned myself to knowing that it will never feel quite the same. Somehow, dragging lead across paper just feels right.

Witch Crys commission

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 GMT

It’s October, and that means the Halloween season is upon us! Someone recently commissioned a drawing of Crystal from Pokéspe in a witch costume! I’ve drawn her in a steampunk outfit before (which is also available as a sticker!), and she always looks so cute in different outfits.

Opposite sides of Shadowrun's playstyle spectrum

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I drew Camille in two different styles for an art challenge on Bulbagarden forums, and then I thought the style dichotomy might be good to illustrate the Black Trenchcoat/Pink Mohawk playstyles in Shadowrun.

Chibi Camille

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I drew a chibi Camille for an art challenge on Bulbagarden forums, where you have to draw in styles other than what you’re used to. I never do much pixel art of chibis, and this is the result.

Byte-sized

Fri, 19 Sep 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I wanted to do a bit of a background and it ended up looking like a book cover, especially once I added the text. At some point I had actually wanted to write a collection of magical cyberpunk stories but the only one I ended up finishing was North Downtown Station.

By the way, here’s a fantastic video about the Sony AIBO, a little robot dog released in 2000, which made me want to add the robot dog. Man, now I really want one.

Bunnysuit Attorney 2

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I drew Mia Fey in a bunnysuit again!

Apparently Mia’s attraction to Lana (which, according to Ema is purely “intellectual attraction”) happened because of a localization thing, so to Japanese viewers her reaction is going to seem completely random.

Also isn’t mouse Maya so adorable? I wanna hug her omg.

Emmy (Art Fight)

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I managed to remember that Art Fight exists this year and participate. It’s this fun little thing where you draw other people’s OCs, and others draw art of your OCs also.

This illustration features dubiousdisc’s Emmy, who is a Hatterene gijinka who’s usually moody and on edge.

The style of this illustration is inspired by the visualizer in the MV of Moe Shop’s Silhouette, which I was listening to at the time. I think it’s turned out pretty nice!

Saseum (Art Fight)

Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I managed to remember that Art Fight exists this year and participate. It’s this fun little thing where you draw other people’s OCs, and others draw art of your OCs also.

This illustration features Nerikaen’s Saseum, who is a Shadowrun character with antlers implanted into her skull. For this one, I decided to look at some fashion photography magazines to look for some cool poses, like the Jojo manga artist does, and I think the aloofness of the pose I settled on really suits her.

Paisley (Art Fight)

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I managed to remember that Art Fight exists this year and participate. It’s this fun little thing where you draw other people’s OCs, and others draw art of your OCs also.

This illustration features sleepwick’s Paisley, a Pokémon trainer from the Galar. I’ve not played Sword and/or Shield, but when I think of Galar, I think of Wooloo and trains, and this advertisement kind of just popped out.

“See Britain by train” is an old British Rail advertising campaign as seen on this poster (archived link), and “We’re getting there” is an old BR slogan as seen in this TV ad.

What always amuses me about “We’re getting there” is that it implies BR isn’t very good and it’s like them saying “really trying you guys!”

Francisca Forgisto (Art Fight)

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I managed to remember that Art Fight exists this year and participate. It’s this fun little thing where you draw other people’s OCs, and others draw art of your OCs also.

This illustration is my first ever Art Fight attack, and features purpurosea’s Francisca Forgisto, who interns at a police station and whose superpower is being able to liquefy anything by touching it, into a sort of putty-like consistency.

A decker and her equipment

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve drawn Rosy before but I didn’t go into any of her equipment at the time, since I actually decided on a character design before I started going into equipment. I decided to rebrand the cyberarm from Ares to a Yamatetsu I found in the SR2 book. I thought it would be more in-theme for her, since everything else is from a Japanese vendor anyway.

For this illustration I decided to try cell shading, which I stopped doing for a while, but I think this turned out really well! What do you think?

Morrowind character commission

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Someone commissioned an illustration of their Morrowind character recently!

It’s a bit of a struggle trying to interpret what’s going on with the low-res, original Xbox-era clothing textures of Morrowind, but I think I did good here.

Unova Battle Subway

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT

After visiting NYC I envisioned the Unova Battle Subway as an actual mass transit service, and started working on this drawing. It’s sat unfinished in my hard drive for nearly a year now, and I’ve finally just decided to just go ahead and finish it.

The Unova Battle Subway isn’t too different from the MTA; either way, someone will eventually challenge you to a battle with an oversized rat he keeps in his pocket.

OMNY is the name of the NYC MTA’s train pass. Apparently there’s a scam where students would sell their free Student OMNY passes and then declare them as stolen to invalidate it and get a new one from their school, then rinse and repeat.

Bunnysuit attorney

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I have the biggest crush on Ace Attorney’s Mia Fey. I went to the Capcom store in Shibuya PARCO a couple years ago, and imagine my disappointment when there’s no Mia Fey merch (or any other Ace Attorney merch for that matter).

If anyone at Capcom merchandising is reading this, you should make one of those Staples that was easy buttons except it says “Objection!” when you press it. Also make some official Mia Fey 1/8 scale figs, thanks!

Camille Grey

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I finished drawing my shadowrunner from earlier this month, who I’ve named Camille Grey, a decker who is extracting data from a Cray supercomputer being used as nightclub seating

Shadowrun story below, if it interests you:

Just before being laid off, Vic Dayton, a former Ares Macrotechnology project manager, stole the backdoor keys to a line of autonomous Ares security drones. Now living out of his brother’s nightclub, Vic starts negotiating for the sale of the keys with two rival companies, both of whom suspect that he’s secretly dealing with the other. Preferring not to let the keys fall into the hands of the other company, both hire shadowrunners to track him and his keys down.

After investigating Vic’s Matrix accounts and even his room above the nightclub, Camille’s team have ended up with absolutely nothing to show for their search efforts. Just as they were about to give up, Camille discovers something crucial: around the same time Vic had been fired, the nightclub had purchased a set of seats from a vintage store for an unusually expensive price.

These seats were, in fact, vintage Cray supercomputers, and Camille suspects that Vic hidden the keys in plain sight within the club seating.

Returning to the nightclub, and she slowly extracts the keys from the Cray’s ancient hard drives, which weigh several dozen kilos.

Right in the middle of the process, the rival shadowrunner team arrives to search the club discreetly. To stall them, Camille stirs up a panic at the disco by using one of the backdoor keys on the club’s Ares bouncer drones to fire restraining nets into the clubbers, while hacking the AV system to blast a scary message.

When the extraction process is over, they smash the hard drive platters and hightail it out of the club, leaving in their wake a crowd of distressed clubbers, rogue drones, and a financially ruined Vic Dayton.

Over There

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Did some digital painting to try out some interesting colors (rather than finish my other drawings like I said I would).

Green Travels

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

A while ago one of the comments I got on the drawing I did with Green at the Battle Subway was “aww blue would definitely post about her travels like she’s an influencer.” So here she is traveling in Hoenn.

Substitute Teacher

Tue, 25 Mar 2025 00:00:00 GMT

I have a little substitute doll which I sometimes put in front of my webcam if I go AFK in a zoom meeting.

Originally when I got the doll, I was at one of the Pokémon Centers in Tokyo, where I overheard a middle-aged lady say to another, “what the heck is this Pokémon supposed to be anyway?”, which was how I found out where all the substitute dolls are.

Witch Window Sitter

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Someone on tilde.town IRC gave me the idea to sketch a witch window sitter, so here we are.

Polaroids of a Long Lost Love

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This will be the cover of my new japanese alt rock album (as soon as I learn to produce music).

Bulbasaur Yawn

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Drawn for the Pokéearth collab celebrating the 20th anniversary of Bulbagarden, which hosts Bulbapedia.

Bulbagarden was originally a forum called Bulbasaur’s Mysterious Garden Forum, named after the anime episode, Bulbasaur’s Mysterious Garden. The forum is actually still going, but with the sad decline of forums and the rise of Discord, it’s not nearly as active as it used to be.

Green in an Egg Chair

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT

For some reason Green changes shoes between the RBGY chapters, one of which is a pair of go-go boots which were popular in the 70s, and by association reminded me of those egg-shaped chairs in Men in Black designed in 1968.

I’ve never sat in one of these chairs, but they don’t look all that comfortable to me.

Platinum Christmas

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Diamond’s POV: you’re baking poffins for Christmas with Platinum when she shows up early at your kitchen window

I wish all you CommonerShippers a very happy new year hehe

I made a sketch of something like this in April but I decided to make a colored, Christmas version. I intended to finish by Christmas, but life does life things. Hey, at least it’s in time for new years!

Tilly

Sun, 24 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

On the ~tilde.town modded Minecraft server, I built the Tilde.Town Transit railway network using the Create mod, which lets you hire mobs to drive your trains. Tilly is the mascot of the 2 Line between Spawn and ~Nebula Stations, inspired by the copious mascots characters that exist for just about everything in Japan.

Go Gopher playing Go

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The Go Programming Language has a funky little blue gopher mascot who I love, and I was really surprised that nobody had already a pun on the game of Go.

Townshend

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

On the ~tilde.town modded Minecraft server, I built the Tilde.Town Transit railway network using the Create mod, which lets you hire mobs to drive your trains. Townshend is the mascot of the 1 Line between ~Nebula and ~Pilosophos Stations, inspired by the copious mascots characters that exist for just about everything in Japan.

Lady in bed

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

There’s a really great manga artist (who draws a lot of NSFW), Endou Okito, whose style I really admire because he makes everything look so delicate and refined.

I tried to emulate his style with desaturated colors, hatching, and adding some detail and texture, but I’m not sure it’s quite where I want it to be. The lines feel a bit too heavy maybe. I still think it came out quite nicely, though.

Steampunk Silver

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Shortly after I drew the steampunk version of Crystal, someone whose username included “Silver #1 fan” commented on one of my posts, so this one’s for them.

Lain in Go Gopher PJs

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Some avid Go programmers introduced me to Go a while back, which has this adorable little blue gopher mascot. Then I remembered Lain wearing her signature bear PJs, and I giggled the whole time while drawing Lain in Go Gopher pajamas.

Someone please make them a real thing.

ECTO 121

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I drew this for Witchtober 2024, where you’re supposed to draw a witch every day (or two days, etc.) of October, each day with a different theme like “recipe” or “broom”. I lost interest and stopped after 4 drawings. I originally intended to do a running theme where everything was a course offered by a school of witchcraft.

Now, I’ve never actually seen Ghostbusters (*gasp!*) but I do think the proton packs are pretty cool. Also huge shoutout to the Poltergust in Luigi’s Mansion. Love that stuff.

ALCH 335

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Philology is the study of historical texts, so you could imagine trying to read a busted up old alchemical codex and brewing up an ancient potion or something.

Steampunk Crystal

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I sketched some steampunk versions of the Johto trio, and I like it so much I decided to draw a cleaned-up and colored version of Crystal. I also ended up drawing a steampunk version of Silver.

Oshawott at work

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Did you know? the American occupational safety agency is called OSHA. There’s a pun to be made there, but I can’t imagine wott…

Automated Spinosaurus Entertainment

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Someone commissioned me for a set of Discord server icons based on various esoteric names, like “Automated Spinosaurus Entertainment.”

Spinosaurus are 94-100 million years ago that could have weighed up to 7,400 kg.

What’s funny to me is that a lot of dinosaur fact pages will list the dino’s weight, which is always an absurdly large number that I can never fully put into perspective. Once you get to four or more decimal places all I can really say is, “Yep, that sure is a heavy dinosaur.”

Enraptured Athoracophoridae

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Someone commissioned me for a set of Discord server icons based on various esoteric names, like “Enraptured Athoracophoridae.”

Athoracophoridae (commonly knowned as leaf-veined slugs) found mainly in Australia, New Zealand, and other islands in Oceania.

Erudite Australopithecus

Wed, 17 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Someone commissioned me for a set of Discord server icons based on various esoteric names, like “Erudite Australopithecus.”

Australopithecus are a genus of extinct hominids closely related to humans, whose first remains were documented in 1925 in South Africa.

The infinite monkey theorem states that given an infinite amount of time, a monkey in front of a typewriter will eventually type all the works of Shakespeare.

Obviously, monkeys are not immortal, so I propose that we start a multi-generational monkey-typing experiment where we keep raising the same monkey family to type on this one typewriter, each continuing the work of the previous monkey. How many generations of monkey will it take before a monkey types something that is recognizably the text of Hamlet?

Further confounding the issue is that, over many generations, the monkeys might evolve into beings that are successively more capable of typing Hamlet. But at that point, are they still monkeys anymore?

Goldfinger starring Gold

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

Out of the six James Bond x Pokéspe parody illustrations I’ve done up to this point, this one is definitely my favorite. I even ordered it to hang up in my own apartment!

It’s based off of this Goldfinger movie poster.

Selfie Sketch

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I drew this to practice stylizing people with bold line weights and stuff. To be honest, I think I might be a little timid with my lines because it doesn’t feel all that different from how I used to draw.

The Trainer Who Loved Me

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT

The fifth in a line of James Bond x Pokéspe parodies that I drew, based on The Spy Who Loved Me.

The parallels between The Spy Who Loved Me and the RS chapters of Pokéspe are uncanny:

Both of the main antagonists steal a submarine, which serves as the MacGuffin.
Both feature modified sports cars― one is Q’s submersible Lotus, and the other is Wallace’s flying convertible.
Both have an opposite sex main protagonist pair who are ideologically opposed but have to work together.
Ending spoilers for both
Both main protagonist pairs canonically fall in love with each other by the end.

Kirlia And Totodile

Sun, 10 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I asked the DM of my Pokémon TTRPG if there were any restrictions on what my trainer’s Pokémon should be other than being 5th level, he just said “nah restrictions are lame”

Then when I presented Kyle the Totodile with 492 EVs and Dragon Dance, he laughed a big laugh and now I have to justify Kyle’s power.

So now Kyle takes dance classes for university credit as part of his backstory.

Someday he’ll earn a BA in Modern Dance.

Valentina Cedar

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT

A character I made for a friend’s Pokémon tabletop RPG.

She’s a 1st year PhD student at Orange Islands University studying abroad. Val always carries an Up Ramen so that her Pokémon, Kyle the Totodile, can use Scald and make an instant lunch. This is, of course, only a last resort in case she is unable to find any free food on campus.

Dr. O

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

The fourth in a line of James Bond x Pokéspe parodies that I drew, based on this poster for Dr. No.

The Pokémon League chapters of Pokéspe have this wonderful panel where Green uses her Blastoise as a friggin’ jetpack, and it always astounded me how she manages to fly in every way imaginable without a flying-type Pokémon. I’d take a Blastoise over a Walther PPK any day.

Dr. No features several ladies wearing Cheongsam (sometimes simply known as a Chinese dress), which is one of the most common alternate costumes in Anime for good reason, because it’s so damn pretty. I originally intended to draw a more complicated pattern for Green’s dress here, but I lost patience at some point.

Diamond is Forever

Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:00:00 GMT

The third in a line of James Bond x Pokéspe parodies that I drew, based on this poster for Diamonds are Forever.

I saw this movie just before drawing the poster, and I thought it was… pretty alright. Entertaining enough, but not very memorable. I like the scene where Q explains his slot machine cheating device and then gets ignored in the middle of his explanation. I love that guy.

Everyone's favorite bounty hunter

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 00:00:00 GMT

I looked at some pictures of her actual spaceship to draw her chair, although I don’t remember from which game anymore. Not that anyone’d really notice.

Bunny Cecilia

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 00:00:00 GMT

Infinite Stratos is really one of the pioneers of the battle harem genre, which is where you combine a harem romance anime with a mecha anime. I used to be an avid watcher of harem anime, which were especially popular in the mid-2010s, and started watching IS even as a non-mecha fan. If you already watch harem anime, you might enjoy IS.

Game Corner Royale

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 00:00:00 GMT

The second James Bond x Pokéspe parody thing I drew, based on Casino Royale.

I tried to go for a less cartoony, more storybook kind of art style for this one, but I think I just made everything look kinda washed out.

From Johto With Love

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 00:00:00 GMT

At some point I started envisioning the Pokéspe characters Green and Silver as spy movie protagonists, so I came up with a play on the James Bond movie, From Russia With Love, and swapped Russia out for Johto. Not satisfied with stopping there, I actually went and watched the movie, which I did enjoy.

After this, I started watching more movies and coming up with more James Bond x Pokéspe parody posters, like Diamond is Forever (starring best boy, Diamond), Dr. O (named after the masked stranger that Green battles), and Game Corner Royale.

Apothecary

Sun, 12 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT

When I imagined how faeries would cohabitate with humans in the modern day, it occurred to be that using smartwatches as tablet computers for faeries would actually work pretty well.

Green And Pikachu

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Did you know? Green is my favorite Pokéspe character.

Datamancy

Sat, 28 May 2022 00:00:00 GMT

You know how the Trill have spots along the side of their head in Star Trek? Here’s a PDF417 code instead (not scannable, because I wouldn’t have the patience to draw one out accurately).

Stylish Green

Thu, 26 May 2022 00:00:00 GMT

This is the first drawing of mine that I saw somewhere I didn’t post myself, which was both flattering and kind of weird to see. Looking back, I think this looks pretty messy, which at the time I remember thinking I could make it work as a style choice.

Tower Of Obsolesence 2

Sun, 06 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMT

Ever since I played Shadowrun, the juxtaposition of something so traditionally fantastic as faeries with the harsh reality of a capitalist cyberscape has really stuck with me over the years.

This drawing takes place in Malaszec, an old magical cyberpunk worldbuilding project of mine. It’s also a re-imagining of another drawing with a similar concept I did a couple years before.

Shopping Sprite

Tue, 25 Aug 2020 00:00:00 GMT

This is a faerie from my old worldbuilding project, Malaszec.

Before the Dovreijan Boom in the former Malaszec People’s Republic, cohabitation with faeries was uncommon. When prospectors found that the faerie ward of Dovreija was not as desolate and worthless as once believed, Bigs started pouring in from the north, creating the first major era of cohabitation between faeries and Bigs.

One of many issues that arose from cohabitation was the size and weight of currency. Traditionally, two different sizes of the same currency were minted, and the small currency was almost always used only by faeries and vice versa. This system broke down after the Dovreijan Boom, since all currency was legal tender and everyone started circulating really impractical currency. This was decades before smartphones and smartwatches would be inveted, and the government had to devise physical currency that was practical to use, cost-effective to make, and hard to counterfeit.

The contemporary currency in the libertarian hellhole of Federal Malaszec is all digital, based off of a private blockchain among Malaszec’s financial institutions. Users do payment like regular online banking using their bank’s apps. On the back-end, each bank can make transactions with other banks and has a vote in the private blockchain to influence monetary policy.

Tower Of Obsolesence

Thu, 16 Apr 2020 00:00:00 GMT

In the slums, whatever you can find becomes your home.

Ever since I played Shadowrun, the juxtaposition of something so traditionally fantastic as faeries with the harsh reality of a capitalist cyberscape has really stuck with me over the years.

This drawing takes place in Malaszec, an old magical cyberpunk worldbuilding project of mine.