#i can';t remember the rest of my team... but i remember samurott.

[ladylyra]

Hey so I'm trying to make human versions of my Pokemon but I'm having trouble with desgines do you have any advice? Like what's your process for making them

Long post!

First off I’d say it takes practice. I definitely like a lot of my newer gijinkas than my older ones. I have an ugly flaaffy gijinka that gives me flashbacks that i vow to never repeat due to just how bad it was. that was like 2014. but besides that, i have some general tips:

1. design based on personality: look at your pokemon’s nature and characteristic. think about some traits you could connect to those. for example, my cinderace kyle is bold and stubborn, and i always saw cinderace as a sporty pokemon (obviously) so a dumb yet well-meaning jock came to mind instantly. i think its much easier to design for a character if you have an idea of who they are rather than just on design alone. i usually only do gijinkas for nuzlockes because thats when i focus more on character (and am thus more inspired.) just brainstorm who your pokemon are! you have your own style, so if your pokemon was a person, they would, as well!

2. what inspired the pokemon, typing, ect: my vanilluxe gijinka acai wears a jacket and winter-esque clothes because he’s an ice type. my azumarill lucas is a surfer bro. think about how the type of your pokemon would influence how they’d dress if they were a pokemon. some pokemon practically hand a concept to you; samurott, for instance. research the pokemon and find out what it is based off of! 

3. look at other gijinkas people make: self explanatory. take a look at what other people are doing for the same pokemon. this can either make you want to do something similar or make you think, “wow, these people are so wrong, let me do it better”

4. expose yourself to different fashion: honestly, this is a general oc tip. i remember in middle school my sketchbooks were full of dudes in t-shirts because i didn’t know anything about male fashion because i was a girl and didn’t really care to expand my horizons. then a realization dawned upon me. i love cute boys. i can DRAW cute boys. to properly draw them, i must also give them good outfits. i had to go out of my way to expose myself to something i wasn’t super familiar with beforehand. just apply this logic to a broader scale, involving different cultures and media. my cofagrigus richie is partially inspired by fe dancers. pull your outside knowledge when you design a character and if you think you don’t know enough to execute a concept, do some research!

5. dynamics: if you’re doing a team, your team bounces off each-other most likely. my thievul gijinka felix wouldn’t be the “dad” he is without the rest of the team there to be subject to it. think of what your characters mean to each other. this should give you a better idea of who they are and thus help influence their design.

6. just look at the pokemon: swoobat has that puffy blue neck of fur. how does that translate into a human design? well, it could be anything! a scarf, or, in my case, i made it the collar to a jacket. swoobat doesn’t have much body detailing, so i kept it simple with a long jacket that could somewhat imitate the lack of detail while still looking like i tried (i also just like semi-formal looking attire, but thats another story.) what about swoobat’s wings? well, they could be long sleeves, or maybe even a cape. if you can narrow down the individual parts of a pokemon’s design to it’s own outfit equivalent then you should have an easier time combining them into one. by the time i decided i wanted to make yuki wear a jacket, it was easy to decide to make the pink tail of swoobat’s design into a belt for said jacket.

7. go crazy go stupid: ok. sometimes you look at a pokemon and go “wow, this is so simple, where do i even go with this.” i ran into this with umbreon. umbreon has rings and a black coat, but doesn’t have much body detailing. i didn’t really have any idea where to go with it. i relied solely on who i thought wess to be when i designed his gijinka. i also had inspirations on deck in the form of christoph (bw2) and brendan’s contest outfit because by this point i wanted wess to be some sort of pop idol. sometimes you really just have to go with your gut. again, this isn’t just a design, this is a character!

hope this helps! dont be afraid to mull over designs and brainstorm! i’ve been doing gijinkas for a while so they kind of just come to me without thinking of the exact process.