Mega Malamar

In my first posted Pokémon artwork, starring Mudkip, I explored using graphics to create a design from an illustration. I hoped this would give the artwork a more unique identity than painting a background or leaving it blank. Continuing with this idea, I wanted to illustrate and create a design of the newly introduced Mega Evolutions for the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
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Mega Malamar
With Malamar being so slithery and creepy, many of my starting sketches explored how I could curl and contort its body and tentacles. This would highlight its more alien and supernatural aesthetic. However, another aspect of the design I explored was the oversized brain shape it now emphasises, showcasing its more psychic and hypnotic quality. One version of these, was a symmetrical high angle shot, but the symmetry felt too neat and I wanted the illustration to be a little off and unsettling. Which lead me to this final composition where it maintains the high angle, causing the brain to fill in the top part of the page, and leaving the bottom half for its hypnotic tentacles.
I really like the crazy look in it's eyes, so with the graphics, I wanted to match that level of freak and confusion. This is why I chose to only use the two colours of it's hypnotic rays, the unnatural, neon green and magenta. Both colours are very saturated and stand out a lot on its own, but by putting them on top of each other, they become very difficult to read as their values blend with each other. This confusion of colours was an interesting quality I wanted to use to sell Malamar's unsettling nature.