[Talk] Fakemon

[Kitty]

Fakemon... Art ;D and Design ;DD

Just a chill talk about fakemon a.k.a. non canon fakemon/non canon regional variants.

Have you ever made them? What's your design process in making them (do you start with a vague idea or do you draw as you go and wing it or something else entirely)? Do you make it a personal goal to mimic the glorious sugimori style?

Put some of your fakemon art here too :>

Personally idolize everyone that manages to make one, I've tried my hand before and it's actually super difficult haha. My personal fave fakemon artists are Azria, pudding, and Sunfished 🥺🥺

 

[budube]

I honestly find the idea of fakemon amusing, and I get to love them more than actual Pokémon when they are actually done right (aka some good design and concept synergy).

When I was in HS, a friend and I had this idea of a hackrom that never saw light. We would spend some time trying to come up with stuff and actually got to draw them on some notebook I had at the time. We came up with some real nice fakemon.

I specifically remember a single stage flamingo and a shrimp Pokémon that would evolve into a fish or something that would later be able to evolve into a whale, dolphin, or hammerhead shark.

I think I still have that notebook but I wouldn't be surprised if I got rid of it. By the time I got out of HS I didn't want to keep anything from it.

 

[Sunfished]

oh my god that's so sweet Kitty ;;;;

I've fallen out of touch with fakemon for the last year or so. I think fakemon are super cool and i LOVE to see people make them, but lately i think my interests have moved past designing fakemon.

the biggest advice i could ever give someone to designing a fakemon is to always know what you're doing! a common caveat that i see in both myself and other designers is that it's hard to make out what the concept is. Getting a good descriptor of what the design should be and constantly asking yourself if it fits the descriptor has always helped me stay on track with a design so i dont add in anything useless or irrelevant!

for rendering, I used to be super into getting as close as possible with the sugi style but now ive found myself just doing my own thing. rendering in the sugi style takes too long for me and most of the time it ends up lacking much personality in the lines or shading :(

 

[Kitty]

That's fair!!! I like to think it's kinda that one phase we all move on from eventually (like the scene days) haha.

And re: lacking if sugi i sadly completely agree 😔 esp in shading tbh, i literally struggle to stop myself from shading more than i should just bc any more and it already deviates from sugi style haha

One thing i defs learned and agree with your points is to know what you're doing. Im not as good to just make my own fkmn out of thin air. I literally had to burn through a lot of rejected ideas just to get to something good haha

Some of those include:
- honey version applin
- samurai snail
- a literal cell

And more

 

[Lordecoxinha]

Tbh I've been making my own mons ever since I was very young, but I drifted apart from it and eventually came back some years ago when I was looking for some drawing exercises to warm up and I was like "Well, I can just draw some Fakemon, that should be good enough" :P

Then it came to me that it's actually an amazing character design exercise. I was an assistant teacher at uni in a character design class. One day, some students asked me what they could do to increase their productivity and I told them to make some Fakemon and even though some of them looked a little annoyed at first, the ones who tried had a noticeable increase in the amount of work they'd put into assignments. I like to think it's related somehow hehehe

As for Sugi style, I don't think it's necessary. I mean, it's always good to learn styles and etc, but I feel it's better to just draw however you want to if you can.

I've fallen out of touch with fakemon for the last year or so. I think fakemon are super cool and i LOVE to see people make them, but lately i think my interests have moved past designing fakemon.

I saw your mons and DANG they are great! My favorite's gotta be Resemboa's redesign, but Magmutt is a close second.
I'm watching you now on DA but please ignore my name, I was 13 and obsessed with Lucario :/

 

[NeoRyder]

Whew didn't think I could still log in to this account considering how long its been.

Ive been alternating between on and off making fakemon for a long time now, pretty much started showing them online since 2005-6! Currently in the 'making fakemon' phase again.

I don't have a consistent process to be honest - sometimes I get inspired by an animal or object and work from there, could be inspired by a pun or idiom instead. Brainstorm some themes and concepts that could mix well with it, then just try several versions of that idea and develop which one you think is best. Or combine the elements you think is best like some kind of 'frankensteining'.

As long as you don't get bored, I reckon it shows through the design if you've been enjoying the process and creation of it.

Also as much as it seems like a tantalising prospect to get your designs to have the official sugi look, I recommend not worrying too much on that front - just develop your own style!