This was for a pokemon fusion art challenge ( a weezing / charizard mix) and just wanted people's opinion. I messed up the light source about halfway through and I'm not sure it recovered. Any comments and critique welcome.

First of all: This is amazing. And I'll explain what I find amazing about it right after this;
Pokemon fusions are bit weird, and it isn't because that they are bad. I think a lot of artists get away with using Pokefusions as an inspiration, and create something that loses both essences but looks nice on its own. It is why realistic pokemon renders look a bit weird, as many artists just make things up and forget about the actual pokemon. It is possible to make realistic pokemon renders, as long as they use the essence of the pokemons. Now, my opinion aside, although I absolutely love your final product as a concept--I do kind of miss the very essences of both pokemon in your pokefusion. If you weren't going for a proper pokefusion, but rather just took the idea and went with it, then this would be amazing. But, I'll assume this is a pokefusion.

At first glance, you should be able to tell what you are looking at. Unless this is conceptual art (within modern art), or contemporary art, or any type of art that requires thinking and considering, then it needs to be very clear from first glance. Mostly because, most people don't stare at a picture for more than a few seconds, and by then, you might have lost them.

Now, do I see what is going on in the first picture? Yes. But not because of your creation, more because of the team rocket person standing off to the right. And this is a really good trick, her hair being green contrasts well with the overwhelming red in the background, dragging our eyes to her and forcing us to recognize what is going on. This is where the problem begins, however. "Oh, team rocket. Are they using monsters now?"

In essence, pokemons are monsters. The very name of the brand, used to be Pocket Monsters. Looking at the concept, it is more realistic than regular pokemon. So, not only do we have texture, lighting, ANATOMY (your creature inhabits more anatomical details than regular pokemon), but we have a very different creation.

Taking away the team rocket person, and the weezing icon, this would've been a very interesting standalone concept. You have a disgusting, creepy looking chimera that wields fire and gas, which is ground for only devastation. A being that uses explosions at will, and that inhabits the power of flight, and the savageness of a raptor. There are plenty of good things going on here, you have a complex and almost contradictory concept (gas and flames) that sparks both interest and that have a real function in real life (explosions), and you have a giant being that wields this, with two furiously sharp raptor like heads, that even has wings. It is really interesting, and it is really good looking.

Now, if this wasn't a pokefusion, I would go over to background, colors and other things. But, I'll go over what you could do, to capture their essence into this thing.

First of all--I would add more colors. Specifically, I want Weezing's icon to stand out and show others that it isn't just a patch of skin on his torso. As it stands, it is a nice color. The problem is, the entire dragon is red, and this blends right in. You can make this far more interesting by adding a secondary color to the design, and playing off the two by altering saturation. Orange, red and pink is too red, especially when this is supposed to be two pokemon.

This one might be tricky, but you might have to do something with the proportions. Proportions on its own is very important, as it often is the difference between a human, and an alien (heads being wrong). Your creature has completely different proportions, making it new and unique. Your proportions are so vastly different, that the being is standing on two front arms, which is also completely new, as Weezing has none, and charizard has two arms and wings. Now, again, I've explained how much I adore this design. But making so many new things, only alienates us from what it is supposed to be. I've mentioned how the anatomy was more realistic, and this is just an extension of that (that and his chicken feet :smile: ). There are other points that are very realistic as well, such as his heads and long tail. The tail needs to be large, for a being this size, and his heads resemble more of a raptor than a Charizard. And a final point; the black skin texture that covers his back and front wings look awesome, but are completely new as well.

Now, lets go over background. There isn't much going on and I think it sort of speaks for it self, my main issue with it is the quite desaturated line that is right behind Charizard. It is a problem, because it almost looks like the horizontal line, throwing off the viewers. Now, even though it ISN'T that, another general art rule is to always avoid things that seem like a mistake. Such as in composition, two lines meeting each other even though there is nothing there. Not only does this line make the creature seem weird, but it also further breaks whatever kept the creature grounded. His shadow is very slim and does not interact with the floor whatsoever. Besides the blur that is the background, the ground is kind of messy as well. And that is fine, but the main issue is the edge down to the left. It gives away the perspective, making us view from above. And we can see the top of the small head, which is great! We also see the top of this team rocket character, enforcing that. And there is nothing really wrong, besides that it is a weird place to place the viewer. The perspective seems a bit off as well.

Hopefully this was of some help! :smile:

Thanks for taking the time to provide such a detailed reply @achronic. I'm sorry to have to render most of it moot. It was for a creature design contest, and the point was to make a plausible critter (Ie , not cartoony) and referencing real life analogues was encouraged. Recognisably of pokemon wasn't high on my list, but I had hoped the fiery tail and the weezing crossbones would be enough to hint at its origins, I will work on enforcing these elements. Obviously I looked at lizards for charizard. I had a lot of elements going on around the chest area, and was reluctant to cover any of it with a forward set of legs, so looked at pterodactyls and fantasy wyverns. I probably will change the chicken feet though...
As for weezing I looked at coral and undersea vents and hoped it would blend with the scales on the main body.

Crits from other sites mentioned value problems and inconsistent light source, so I shall be working on that, as well as your points on background and perspective.

Watch this space!

12 days later

Update. Please comment and critique.

Awesome improvements! I only want to give feedback on the female. She doesn't feel right to me. I did a paintover:

  1. Especially the head/neck area. It seems like she has no neck/fat chin, but the rest of her body is very thin.
  2. The legs look too straight (no shape) and a bit weird perspective.
  3. Her right arm looks a tad too long.

That Pokรฉmon is totally rad :smile:

Thanks @enalya , but your version of the figure isn't following the perspective I have going (unless my perspective is too steep to be plausible). If you look at the above image her feet and level of her breasts, shoulders, etc follow the green lines back to the vanishing point on the right. I will have another go at the arms and the general shape of the legs though. And the neck too.

I've totally shot the lighting to hell in this piece now, so am going back to basic shapes.

You know, you wont progress much if you keep denying criticism. What Enalya suggested was very useful, and the fact that you dismiss it by stating that it doesn't follow your perspective is a bit silly. Your perspective is already very extreme due to close vanishing points, and your dragon does seem to ignore it.

I already hesitated about my paintover because of that, but when I tried following your perspective, things got distorted weirdly. I think, in that case, your perspective is too steep indeed). Nonetheless, you could update the neck area and leg shape :smile:

@achronic I did say "unless my perspective was too steep", which was sort of a question that I wanted verified, and it appears it might be too steep by your comments. Could you point out where my dragon does not conform to my perspective please? If my vanishing points are too steep it would mean changing the whole image and it would probably be easier to start again.

@enalya I did agree with you on the arms, legs and neck, it's only she was more of an afterthought and I was more interested in forcing her to fit the dragon rather than the other way around. Otherwise I might take her out completely.

I'm getting feedback on others sites too and the general feel is I should really go back to the basics, simplify it right down, not being scared to loose the details I have and build it back up from the fundamentals. If the perspective is truly shot too I might just have to redraw completely from scratch.