Art Graduate, Pokemon fanatic.

Disclaimer: The Smogon Discord Channel made me do this. (probably because they got tired of me spamming my shit there all the time)

Anyhow lets get to it, first of all I'm 24 (25 on September 20th), I studied Art throughout my life most recently in a private college in Rome, although I don't live there anymore I have to say only the first year and a half was educational, the rest was just assignments.

I started drawing seriously when I was around 7-8, dad brought home I think volume 14 or 15 of DBZ and I liked the images printed so much that I started replicating them more often, even sat down and drew while I watched DBZ (my style has to this day kept some resemblances of Akira Toriyama's notorious style) and ever since then I haven't stopped, it's made me pursuit this craft into a career (which hasn't really happened yet, but I'm working on it) and attend several specified studies & classes to improve.

So lets get to it then, my mini portfolio slide - some may be old, some may be new - I'll let you guys figure out which are which :pimp:




















Those are finished pieces, below i'll post sketches and daily garbage I draw on instagram live, oh and if you like what you see and want to commission some stuff - private message is probably not the way to go cause I might miss it... I'll leave some contacts

email: s.farina@hotmail.it
skype: zancrouw
discord: Agito#1206
twitter: fstef92
http://biackcrow.tumblr.com/
www.facebook.com/Stefarin

instagram: the_golden_boy92 , beware notoriously attractive selfies of male specimen may occur from time to time, ladies I'm sorry; I'm taken. :heart::heart::heart:

Let me know what you think then guys, enjoy!
 
Lovely stuff to see from a newcoming Smogon user. I particularly like the traditional greyscale drawings. You must've come a long way since working with the higher education system.
 

Max. Optimizer

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Greetings Agithos and welcome to Smogon!

First of all I'd like to welcome the opportunity to give shout outs to the people from the Smogon Discord channel that made you start this thread.
It's safe to assume that I speak for all of us when I say that we're glad that you didn't withhold these marvelous artworks from us!
It would've been a damn shame to let them go unnoticed by the public eye!

Disclaimer: I'm by no means an artist myself, so I'm unfortunately only able to give you personal feedback, rather than elaborate technical feedback (just saiyan).

Funnily enough, as soon as I saw the first 2 artworks from your gallery, I immediately associated your art style with Akira Toriyama's iconic art style.
In my honest opinion it's only natural to look for some kind of inspiration, influence and art styles in order to help oneself getting started as an artist.
However, the true "art" consists in deviating from the art style that you borrowed over the course of time and in continuously integrating more and more personal trademark elements.
At this point I'd also like to applaud you for having managed to do exactly this! While the artistic roots are still undeniably visible, you were still able to use it to your advantage and to create your very own personal style!
I also passionately read the Dragon Ball Z manga volumes and watched the animated series when I was your age and I also kept replicating my favorite characters and scenes.
Even though my works weren't particularly good, I still had a lot of fun creating them and, ultimately, that's what matters at the end of the day.

In addition to this I'd also like to applaud you for mastering the "art" of the "pointillism" technique, as illustrated in the artworks 4 and 7!
I've always been fascinated by this technique since it allows you to implement a feeling of "hight" and "depth" with the help of something as simple as dots.
It's also a great technique that helps demonstrating that you can't always examine an artwork just by standing right in front of the canvas, but that you sometimes need to take a couple of steps backwards and behold things from a distance and different angles in order to get the bigger picture.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of your artworks in a foreseeable future! Keep up the great work!
I hope that you'll enjoy your stay here on Smogon and that you'll have lots of fun interacting with fellow artists!
 
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Mova: Thank you! unfortunately I don't do much traditional fine art anymore, but yeah I like to think that I had some talented peers in my classes that inspired me to always compete to match their level of skill in formats they excelled (this one kid called abdul in high school had a level of realism that was photographic), and I have to admit that learning the correct way of shading, the circular motion to fill in the pores of the paper rather than the scratchy uneducational gradient style I was otherwise utilizing, like everyone else.

Max. Optimizer: Thanks for the welcome! and yeah they're good people for the most part I just don't think Stellar likes me very much (but whos to blame him) lol I'm glad you're enjoying the pieces though, makes me proud when people take interest to really appreciate what I do. And I gotta say for a person that disclaims himself to be no artist you hit a couple of nails in the head and have a general understanding of art and stuff. I wonder if I put those 2 pieces first and second on purpose to be coherent with what I said tbh lol creating a style becomes relevantly easily once you learn how to structure anatomy and proportions/perspective out, it's just a matter of how big the eyes are, how crazy the hair is, how "exaggerated" facial or body features are and of course the shading style that distinguishes between realism & cartoon world lol, and I like to think that Toriyama paved the way for millions of little artists throughout the ages (the manga is like 2-3 decades old now) which when you think about it, is fantastic in itself - he's accomplished more than you'd think and you can only look up to an artist like that.

Oh god pointillism... Never doing a large scale piece ever again >.> I don't think I need to explain why lol when I had first posted that dragon piece in college, the feedback I had gotten from posting it online etc was monstrous, and people wanted me to keep dishing those out.. but I was like nah lol.
This is what I was talking about earlier though, not a lot people know that certain pieces are meant to be looked at from afar (others from up close, like pixel art which I also dwell in)

Speaking of which I might as well show you guys some pixel art too.










I've actually developed some games (along actual programmers, I don't code myself), I find it a nice hobby that gives back with time.
 

Max. Optimizer

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Hi again,

Feel free to join the Smeargle's Studio Discord channel that I linked for your convenience if you want: https://discord.gg/X5Bcjmt
You're more than welcome to discuss all sorts of topics with fellow artists there and exchange experiences and techniques in the process there.

Also yes, despite the fact that I'm not really talented when it comes to drawing, I'm still genuinely interested in the concept of "art", the many ways in which it manages to manifest itself and of course the "art" of deciphering it.
I'm by no means an art connoisseur either, but I guess I just love to come up with personal interpretations.

I think Oscar Wilde stated it best when he said that "art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known".

It's just that I find it so fascinating how we, as the human species, can focus our emotions and impressions before our inner eye and project them onto a canvas or a piece of paper.
I'd like to imagine that an artist integrates a piece of their soul with every stroke of the pen or brush and that some of the elements can be "read" like a code by outside observers.
"Art speaks where words are unable to explain."

Also about pointillism: I know exactly what you mean. Patience and quiescence are the mandatory prerequisites for this art style.
I can fully understand that people want to see more pointillist works from you, but I can also fully understand as to why you took a break.

Either way, I wish you a lot of perseverance and a lot of fun with any projects that you have planned and I hope that you'll share them with us!
 
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Joined! And yeah there's definitely a lot of "Self" in ones art, for example my girlfriend always says I make the characters I draw look a lot like myself in particular features. I did project a lot of my feelings subconsciously into art growing up, a lot of my old drawings are angry toned looking dudes ready to kick someones ass lol

Yep Thanks man, I'll try to share and not forget that I have an art thread here lol I'll try to be active on the discord too so that'll be tidy
 
yooooo

some really cool stuff you've got going on! I'm a big fan of the second and third drawings personally, they've got a lot of character to them and a very nice flow. You do a great job with contrast and colour and shadows, which I really enjoy.

the only thing i'd comment on is your lines in the most recent works- it seems to get a little busy at times, which can be confusing for the viewer immediately since there's a lot of information to follow.

keep it up though, i'm looking forward to seeing more of your work!
 
yooooo

some really cool stuff you've got going on! I'm a big fan of the second and third drawings personally, they've got a lot of character to them and a very nice flow. You do a great job with contrast and colour and shadows, which I really enjoy.

the only thing i'd comment on is your lines in the most recent works- it seems to get a little busy at times, which can be confusing for the viewer immediately since there's a lot of information to follow.

keep it up though, i'm looking forward to seeing more of your work!

Thanks a lot bro, and yeah I know about the lines - It's what happens when you're too lazy to use your scanner and decide to go full digital & heavy hand the line work too much, I'll learn how to avoid that in due time I guess
 
also my cap23 submission
can switch his body transparency on and off, except for his belly button's band aid (which is also his weak point)
small drogo.png

edit: I ended up drawing something else for the cap23, and then I removed it because the whole process was not to my liking.
 
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Bummer

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Funny how I've seen you often on Discord but never figured to check if you had a studio thread, that one's on me. Like many have already have said, this is some baller art, so your education has certainly paid off. Particularly liked your shark dude, lineart is expressive and is backed up with vivid colors.

Only thing that I feel equipped to make note is that the overall lighting in your recent pics has felt somewhat lacking, as if the characters are out getting their license photograph where all the light is hitting them evenly, as opposed to standing in an environment where the light won't spread the same depending on where the light source is, the sword guy is mainly the example I have in mind while typing this. Just a simple fix like adding a gradient on top of the image with the appropriate blending setting can amend it, but you seem more than capable enough to adjust that yourself while drawing, so I figured I'd draw attention to it.

Again, welcome to the studio, and if you ever wonder how to contribute art to Smogon, we're running a system called approved arti-

someone else said the same thing, I'm not really aiming for that stuff too busy irl lol
oops carry on then
 
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Thank you thank you, I agree I've dropped quality, but I feel like I'm picking it back up (ever since the destroyer piece), I've had positive feedback on social media since then so that was nice (especially from steve mack aka Kandoken, one of my artistic idols).

Atm It's early to say but I'm still of the idea that if I become a certified smogon artist, I'd just ignore the role and work on commissions for $$$ as I usually do instead lol
 

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