#i drew them in the most skrunkly way

[skrunklyaceartist]

Me and my bestie eating moss

[unrestrained-balderdash-art-blog]

Drew some birdies dressed as Riddlers. Might do some more later, I have a few more ideas

Explanations:

Tim Sale's Riddler is a feral pigeon and a moorhen. I keep drawing him with pigeons, and during drawing the seagull I had the epiphany that his skrunkly vibes are like a moorhen

Frank Gorshin's Riddler is a seagull (herring gull). I guess he just gives the vibes of most likely to steal your chips. And also seagulls make noises I guess. And they're the kings of the seaside like he's the king of the Riddlers

Arkham City Riddler is a mute swan. They're stereotyped as beautiful, elegant creatures. They will also bite you and hiss at you

Arkham Asylum Riddler is a woodpigeon. They're the first birds whose calls I really notice, and before I loved birds I found them kind of annoying but in an affectionate way. This is perfect for this Riddler, as his talking probably annoyed everyone who isn't a big fan of him, but for me it's my favourite part of the Arkham games

Arkham Knight Riddler is an oilbird. Because oil and robots. Also, I found out about them from the Most Fucked Up Bird Election (officialweezerelections) and he's a bit fucked up isn't he? This is my first time ever drawing an oilbird so it isn't the best

BtAS Riddler is a European robin. He's canonically adorable, and I've been seeing a lot of these cute little guys about

Zero Year Riddler is a Canada goose. I was struggling to think of fitting birds, but. HONK.

We also have an emerald starling in spandex, because it's the classic Riddler look with a bird who I think is a classic Riddler bird

[steakout-05]

drawing my Craig fan design for REAL!!!!! + stupid little doodles

earlier i made a post talking about how i was planning on making my own canon where Crarry could still feasibly exist (as well as having other story beats and whatnot) and i mentioned how i refined my Craig design a little bit from the last time i drew him. i finally got around to actually drawing a proper full-body sketch of him and what he's supposed to look like!!! i think i drew his eyes a little more far apart than i intended but. whatever.

he's my skrunkly. he's my baby. he's got perpetually bored resting face and a phd in Pocketbeasts lore. he's got messy hair and a few stray whiskers as he tends to forget his own personal hygiene, what with being a hardworking scientist who usually doesn't show his face and all. i redesigned his eye to have more of a prominent scratch on it that warps and distorts his pupil, as i felt like that'd be the most fitting for his facial scar and the type of injury he has!

and for fun i'm gonna do a general timeline of the evolution of how i've drawn this design over time, because it's actually changed quite a bit since i first drew him back in 2022!! (click for better quality)

god it is. so weird looking back at that first design. it's so..... why is he so square shaped............. lol

now, in terms of differentiating this Craig from Canon Craig, i've thought of giving him some slight personality enhancements that i've always thought would fit him. i haven't seriously thought about it yet (i am tired) but here's some basic little traits i want to make more apparent in his character:

Logical Knowledgeable Creative Naive Perfectionist Fearful and Cowardly Not a very high self-esteem; Afraid to take charge Easily exhausted Not physically strong; Makes up for it with his quick-thinking skills Easily irritated when presented with inaccurate/false information Easily embarrassed; Tends to erase memories when this happens Reliable Honest Earnest Nerdy; LOVES to infodump about any given special interest he has Focused, sometimes to a fault Detail-oriented Introverted

this will likely be expanded on and developed more, but these general personality traits are quite fitting for how i headcanon Craig to be as a person!

i love how whenever i get attached to a character or even just really like them, i always bestow my best headcanon onto them in high regard: the autism headcanon. gonna try to keep this short so i don't infodump for 12 hours but the major autism traits i like to imagine Craig displaying are issues with social skills (unaware of many cues, accidentally says things in an inappropriate way/unintended tone, takes things literally, misconstrues sarcasm as genuine statements), a speech affect (monotone affect), low empathy (doesn't feel what other people feel and has trouble reacting to and feels uncomfortable with certain emotions), has special interests (robotics and engineering, Pocketbeasts, cats, and he loves infodumping about them!!), stimming (rubbing the back of his head when uncomfortable, fidgeting with and studying a particularly intriguing object or tool very closely, doing little puzzles that make little clicky noises that are very pleasant to listen to), experiences sensory issues (joint pain, eye strain, sensitivity to loud and sudden noises, despises certain tastes and textures, often experiences shutdowns), has a strong need for a solidified routine (sudden routine changes can cause distress for him, as he needs more time to process his surroundings and has a strong need for structure in his daily life), a few motor control issues (he's quite clumsy and has issues with spatial awareness, causing him to bump into stuff. this has unfortunately resulted in him bumping his thigh on the edge of a table way too many times.) and a few other things i've probably forgotten about. a lot of these are inspired by a few of my own traits as an autistic guy myself. the dude's like a combo of Data, Barclay and Geordi mixed into one dorky nerd (apologies for any non-trekkie followers who don't know who those characters are :skull:)

Craig seems like the type of person who, once you get him started, will infodump to you about his special interests for HOURS and he still wouldn't even be done yet. just like me fr. also tiny little Craig getting his face smooshed

get squoshed idiot

this is an older sketch i did when i was still finalising Craig's design along with doodling other stuff on the page. this was a little expression test of Craig blowing his face up with chemicals because 1. i thought it'd be funny. and it was. and 2. i've never really drawn him with big wacky expressions before, and i LOVE drawing big wacky expressions lol. it will be a rare sight to see Craig making a face like that but it'll still be funny nonetheless lol

no comment. only moob. i feel the same way about barry tbh HAHAHAAH what who said that

i fucking LOVE the Yababaina music video so much, it's absolutely insane and fun to watch, although it does put my eyes out of focus when i look at it for too long. heavy eyestrain and seizure warning for anyone who wants to check the video out, it's extremely fast-paced and has a lot of bright saturated colours. here are my three boys drawn doing that little handholding thing Miku, Teto and Zundamon do in the video. also first drawing of Prince Runingunin!!! he's so silly <3

that's everything i have today. i'm excited to draw this version of Craig more and make more art of him and Barry together!! just sucks i have to sorta swerve around canon with a convoluted solution but whatever. i like diverging from canon and making stuff up into my own thing anyway lol. blond nerd craig my beloved

[jaybug-jabbers]

Top 3 Lists - Pokemon Scarlet

Hey, all. I figured it's about time to post another one of these! I really enjoyed Pokemon Scarlet, so I thought it would be fun to list off some of my favorites in a Top 3 post-- both pokemon and characters. The game certainly has plenty of both!

Top 3 Ancient Paradox Pokemon

First up, my favorite ancient pokemon. I feel as though these choices are pretty basic/what most people probably choose, but oh well, I can't really help they happen to be my favorites too. I would die for Koraidon, he is the bestest boy in the world and my precious son.

I've never been a huge fan of Mismagius (especially now knowing we could have had the infinitely more creepy Kurstraw/Pangshi), but I think Flutter Mane reboots the design in a wonderful way, which is surprising and refreshing. I've grown very fond of her.

To my amusement, I have the same feelings about Roaring Moon; I have always disliked Salamence's design, but Roaring Moon is a massive improvement on the design, which is so exciting to see. The colors are great, the feathers are an excellent addition, the long talons remind me of a bird of prey, and the whole thing has such a foreboding presence that normal Salamence's ugly shapes always lacked. The choice to lean into Mence's Mega design was smart, because they retained all the good of that design and discarded the rest. Plus, what a badass name.

I only just now noticed all my favorite choices here have feathers. Well, I suppose it makes sense, with our recent suspicion that many dinosaurs had feathers!

Top 3 Regional Form/New Evolutions/Convergent Species

I'm lumping all of these into the same category, since there isn't a huge number for any of those categories alone. When I first saw Toedscool out in the wild, I was deeply confused about what I was seeing, and when I poked it, it turned into a Ditto-- and somehow my brain concluded it must have been Ditto screwing up its attempt at imitating a Tentacool. 😂 But no, Toedscool is truly its own thing, as unsettling and strange as it is. I absolutely hated how it moved, it creeped me out. I've decided I like it for that reason. (Toedscruel is likewise unsettling and interesting, but it's not on my list because I hate TUBE MOUTHS argghh)

Farigiraf is definitely on my list. I have always loved Girafarig, and its evolution has been long, long overdue, so it's incredibly exciting to see it finally get the love it deserves. They did an excellent job with the evolution, too, it's fun and silly and cool all at once.

Finally, for my regional form choice, I'm definitely choosing Paldean Tauros. I know everyone is all excited about Wooper and Clodsire, but I was never a Wooper fan. (Sorry, Rika 💔) I'm just super excited that Tauros got such an awesome redesign, especially the Blaze breed. The changes are minor but so effective. Maybe I'm just a sucker for black-colored pokemon. This is like the shiny design Tauros always deserved and never had.

Top 3 New General Pokemon

This really is a tough choice to make, because Scar/Vio has a LOT of new pokemon to choose from. But I think I've finally narrowed it down to these lads. Klawf is the perfect example of a simple but elegant design. Sometimes "a big crab" is enough to be enjoyable because, well, I like crabs. What can I say, I know what I like.

Grafaiai is the very definition of "skrunkly," so there's no way I can resist putting him on the list. Aye-ayes are fascinating little freaks and it's great to have a pokemon based off them, put I enjoy the inspiration they also drew from lemurs. It's also great to have a poison pokemon taking up the traditional position of "early game normal-type rodent pokemon." Poison pokes are just cool. The association with spray paint and urban art is also really fun.

If any of you know me, you'll know I of course consider bug types to be my favorite pokemon type. But that doesn't automatically mean I'll put new bugs as my favorites. Rabsca really does deserve to be on the list, though; at least in terms of design. A dung-beetle pokemon has been long overdue, and the sacred associations with this species is lovingly referred to in this design. For those unaware, dung beetles are included in Egyptian mythology, and the beetle rolling a ball of dung was compared to their sun god rolling the sun along its path in the sky.

HMs

It's so tough to choose just three so I wanted to include a few Honorable Mentions here; I've loved Frigate birds since I was a wee lass so it's cool to see Kilowattrel; Charcadet's evolutions are badass (especially Ceruledge) and I am very fond of them despite the fact I typically don't like humanoid pokemon; and I'm very pleased that the very first Grass/Fire pokemon (finally!!) ended up really cool. (And that it ended up being a pepper, like so many of us guessed Grass/Fire would be)

Top Team Star Bosses

I'm not gonna to lie, I did not enjoy the Team Star storyline much in this game. I felt it was the weakest of the three main story threads. (I enjoyed the brief post-game storyline with Penny & Team Star more than the main part of their story, in fact) That said, these would be my favorites of the bunch. Ortega's design just looks delightful, such a snazzy dandy, and Atticus' devotion to The Bit is admirable (and tbh who doesn't love a D&D nerd?) Giacomo is forgettable and is there because I needed a third choice, lmao (sorry, didn't like the team star girls much)

Top 3 Gym Leaders

Grusha is definitely my top Gym Leader pick. His character is fascinating, especially the events the game only only hints at (it seems strongly implied he met with a nasty snowboarding accident and had to stop the sport, losing his dream and being stuck with just his gym leader job, which he seems rather bitter about). It's a shame they didn't pursue his character storyline further with one of the Academy side-stories (in the way they fleshed out Brassius more). I feel like he could have had a storyline with the nurse (Miriam), and that would have been much better then Miriam's actual side-story which felt rather randomly shoehorned in there (and fan pandering, to be entirely honest). Oh well. At any rate, I find Grusha the most interesting gym leader by far.

Larry is great. They had a clear idea in mind for his character and they executed it well. He apparently is a big hit with fans too. Good for him, he deserves it.

I chose Bassius as my third option because of his involvement in the side-storyline with him and Hassel. He's a rather forgettable character if you only know him from his gym, but his interactions with Hassel were great and fleshed him out a lot more-- made me actually care about him. Honestly I think it's great they let these two men have a strong bond with each other and Hassel even get choked up and cries about it. That's sending a very positive message about men letting themselves feel and express positive emotions! Yes, Hassel's crying is written slightly for comedy (haha look at this man cry), but I think it's also done with genuine affection (it's ok for guys to cry and love each other, even your professor does!). So that's really cool. (The exact nature of their relationship is something fans speculate on, but whether they are close friends or they're something romantic, I think it's cool regardless!)

Top 3 Elites/Champions

My bias here is going to be clear, but holy shit I love Rika and Nemona.

Rika, because . . . I mean, LOOK at her. She's hot, she's professional, but she's a total dork and a goober too. She's a sore loser but she's a total sweetheart to Poppy, and GAH, I love her so much. A lot of great details with her. She's by far my favorite Elite.

Nemona is literally my favorite rival charatcer of the entire franchise other than N. I could blather about her endlessly. Let's just say this bubbly, energetic, earnest, friendly, wonderful girl who hyperfixates on pokemon battling and sincerely wants to see you grow and thrive is perfect in every day. 🥺

Hassel is here too, lol. (In all seriousness he's great too, a wonderful mentor figure and a man of passion. Even if his haircut is a bit weird asfhjkl)