Love seeing the art creation process stepwise—thanks for sharing! Congrats again!
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I knew that had to be yours, reminds me of the Scyther (which instantly got my #1 vote.) Love the lore as well.
Interesting parallel, how Cloyster grows new limbs like its spiritual twin Gastly.
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I love this peek into the creative process! Conkquer trading off the defensive ability to close its shell was my favorite element, and really helps make it so much more than just ‘Cloyster with a bigger shell’. It reinforces that evolution is not simply a straightforward ‘upgrade’, but a complex adaptation to a new situation or changing environment.
My drawing process was quite a bit less … planned out than yours;
My final design started as a messy sketch (1), which I scanned and cleaned up digitally (2), then roughly traced with the thinnest brush in Microsoft Paint (3). I printed this trace to use as a base for my final linework (4), which I scanned and printed to color in by hand for the final result (5). It wasn’t exactly a refined process, and it shows in some of the printing artifacts and a few sneaky remnants from the rough digital trace. It’s a bit of a mess, technically - but it’s a mess I’m proud of!
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Congratulations to the winners! It was fun to see everyone’s designs and ideas. I must say that those with the more detailed process and lore swayed my votes. Some of my favorites.
Lunaclipes was my #1 vote. It was an inspiring process and idea. I just love the idea of the giant Pokémon. It’s signature move is just super fun.
Escavish is just great. Brilliant color for a deep water Pokémon and really cool lore with its stone/shell crushing power.
Spawnly as a pre-volution. I loved how it followed the life history of some actual organism and that it had the whole possibility of becoming something entirely different such a a Ghost Pokémon!
Sloodge is just downright repulsive! and excellent Muk eveolution 
Skewaddle is a beautiful creature, that reminds me of Atlantic Sturgeon one of my favorite fish.
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Thank you for the kind words.
I have to say when I first started reading your lore I wasn’t sure what to think, but by the end I was hanging on to every word! Lunaclipse began to jump off the page and I started imagining it floating in the sky, manipulating the water with a quiet but powerful presence.
I also really like how you hand drew, digitally assisted, and then finished coloring by hand. It gives it an official Pokédex feel without loosing its personality especially with your shading and coloring details.
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@Llyrwenne , Thank you for your nice comments on my Pteraforge presentation. I really wanted to embrace the spirit of the event . Glad you appreciated it.
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I now realise i never congratulated the winners so big congrats! All 3 were definitely deserving and 2/3 of my favourites ended up being there in the podium
Also have to say it was fun to think of the lore for sloodge. It felt good combining the thought of ongoing pain it’s pure existence is causing with grimer’s lore that it’s facing extinction because of the decreasing amount of waste it’s eating. I also like that the way it evolves with muk fighting each others sort of combines these two topics, overall very fun to think of ways i could improve or make next steps for something i’m already very fond of.
@Rattlesnake I also have to say that i love the way you drew conkquer, the style kinda reminds me of Aya Kusube’s work!
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Super honored to have gotten 3rd place with Skarjet despite forgetting that I was allowed to write up more lore for it 
After reading everyone else’s lore entries I wish I sat down and created more of a backstory behind it.
My inspiration was based on the following thought process
- Skarmory was one of my favorite Gen 2 pokemon when it was just 2D artwork and pixels. I think it was one of the two new original steel types alongside Steelix (who is also very cool)
- When the games became 3D, Skarmory became a a blimpy-shaped metal bird
- I wanted to make Skarmory cool again
From there it was just building up things that were “cool”.
- Going fast? Cool.
- Fire? Definitely cool (have you seen how cool cars look with flames on them?)
- Jet engine turbines in wing feathers? Reshiram did it first, but did it have two full wings of them? Coooooool.
I finally took design aspects from Skarmory and pushed them into a sleeker design. Instead of making the default pose a standing one (which contributed to Skarmory’s blimp shape), I made it flying similar to how Mega Salamence / Rayquaza are generally seen. Glad everyone enjoyed it and thanks @milhouse for running the contest!
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@niece I loved reading through the log-book-styled lore. It really drew you into the world of Pokemon and made you feel like “Ah, this is how new Pokemon are discovered in the world!”
@Llyrwenne I really enjoyed everything about your lore writeup, including the scrapped concepts. You have a really creative mind, and it shines through so brilliantly. The blood-moon-evolution concept arts looked really cool, but agree with you that they looked a bit menacing! I still just love looking at the final design for Lunaclipse. Something about it just draws me in.
@mrbubbles I also really liked Escavish’s design! Although I think Bruxish is grotesque, I think giving it an evolution is a great idea and love that it turns something weird and cutesy into something threatening. The juxtaposition of the bright neon-y colors and it’s monster-like appearance also makes the design stick out.
I designed Skewdaddle and began the process a bit backwards, trying to think of a cool animal that hadn’t had a Pokemon designed after it yet. I’m sure there are plenty, but my mind landed on a swordfish (was thinking of Enguarde from Donkey Kong). I then thought about how to fit a swordfish design into an existing Pokemon evolution line, and the Arrokuda/Barraskewda line was perfect. I haven’t actually played Sword and Shield, so I don’t know much about the evolution line except that Arrokuda is always shown being eaten up or captured by Cramorant. So I thought that it’d be cute to have that fear of being eaten carry on into its final evolution, making it an aggressive-looking and dangerous Pokemon, but a scaredy-cat.
Thanks again @milhouse for setting up this contest! It was a lot of fun!
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Finally had some time to write a note on all my thoughts on the contestants!
Skewdaddle @bbobrob - I’m a big fish and water guy so I immediately was into your design! The tail fins and lower dorsal fins make it looks so fast. Fast is good. Also looks like a tasty Pokemon, and that made me chuckle.
Sloodge @joponnes I really enjoy the finality of this evolution line. Really makes sense that Muk’s final evolution would be pouring out acid from it’s mouth. Seems like it would be powerful in battle from an attack perspective, but also weak given it’s situation. Reminds me of team rocket’s dark Pokemon with higher attack and lower HP.
Cramcordia What an awesome and unique design. Love how the fish become linked in a symbiotic relationship. So fun to imagine them attached to the bird like pontoons, super fun.
Pteroforge @niece What a journey this submission was! Loved the journal type entry and the viewpoint of the discoverer. Really sucks you into the story. I especially loved the ancient drawing on the cave wall. I’m very into Native American history so this immediately hooked me.
Aciduck - Loved reading this one. So fun to think how a clean blue duck becomes alittle unhinged and from the psychic overload. Reminds me of Jean Grey becoming Phoenix when her powers take over.
Mirortree - This was a pretty cool design for an underappreciated Pokemon. Really enjoy the idea of taking your weakness and making it into a strength. True energy channeling going on here.
Skarjet @HumanForScale Man this this is cool. You know you’re legit when you have armor on your face. Fire, jets, armor and speed? Sign me up. Great job on your design, super sleek.
Daubound - Wow this one totally took me by surprise. Such a cool idea to have Smeargle go from paint to mortar. I especially love how tails all have a unique shape. Can totally imagine different trainers all with unique tails on their Daubounds.
Pyrant - I have distinct memories of fire ants being so powerful and badass, curtesy of my grandma’s house in Florida. How can something so small be so powerful? Makes no sense. Really love your design and creativity, wish I thought of this.
Voltforge - Really awesome to hear your connection to biology in the real world. Metal spikes honestly would be pretty hard for anything to touch or attack. Very few animals can eat sea urchins IRL so this is a pretty solid Pokemon idea.
Divorsmaus @Dyl Immediately laughed out loud when I saw the drawing and knew exactly where you were going with this one. Really creative lore, and had so much fun reading it. Just enough dark truth to make it fun.
Escavish @mrbubbles Angler fish are so creepy and cool, such a great idea to make that part of the evolution line. Coloring was also on point. Would also love to hear the dark side of peoples faces being eaten off one day, these are monsters after all.
Spawnly @livindavido I love your submission! As soon as I started reading I was instantly hooked. Don’t forget, this was an evolution lore contest not a drawing contest, don’t be hard on yourself! The tower in Lavender Town really brought me back to playing gameboy before bedtime with my little light attachment. Really enjoyed this evolution and lore, and so awesome we picked the same line. Spawnly and Conkquer FTW!
Lunaclipse @Llyrwenne Already commented on this from my previous post above but what an awesome idea. Your creativity really shows in your drawings and lore. Can’t wait to see what you design next!
Vulkoal - Turtles + volcanoes = cool. Only natural to see this part of the evolution. Really great design and would totally collect Vulkoal cards. I’m imagining Torterra VS Vulkoal battles!
Lastly big congrats to the other winners Skarjet and Lunaclipse and kudos to @milhouse for a great contest.
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