I'm having no luck drawing digitally (haven't drawn in ages), so here's an -extremely- rough draft of this herplord:
Creating this dude, I wanted to avoid two major things that a lot of multi-type, fire-and-ice sort of Pokemon fall under:
- Horizontally asymmetrical coloration as an indicator of type. It feels disjointed, especially if it's the only way for people to realize that's the type that design is trying to convey.
- Extremely prominent, natural elemental protrusions - giant icicles sticking out of the back or huge plumes of smoke billowing out of the back out of something that wouldn't otherwise need it. Something like a living volcanic vent would be one thing, but I've never understood the reasoning for tons of fire to be coming out of certain Pokemon, like Emboar.
I feel like the concept of a core-finisher lends itself well to a supplementary design: that is, a Pokemon that appears to fill more obscure roles rather than the traditional offensive-defensive or special-physical binaries. As a result, I'm trying to work on a design that feels incomplete on its own, while still having a certain poignancy to it. I tried delving into some smaller-scale organisms for this, even though the Pokemon itself might end up being pretty large. My concept's based on both
red tide and
noctiluca scintillans, or Sea Sparkle. Both are microorganisms, generally neutral in nature, harming other sea life only when their biologies disagree - they are not aggressive in any sense of the word.
Gen III's designs were a big inspiration: it's meant to be a little alien-looking, abstract in nature while still being pretty tropical. I'm using rose / magenta and cyan / aquamarine in the color scheme to be indicators that the role of the Pokemon in the sandbox is eccentric while still definitive. Coloration in the Pokemon world is subtle, but usually effective: the more dulled-out earthtones of a Hippowdon evoke feelings of hardiness and heaviness, while the drastic, almost harsh bright colors of a Rotom or Chandelure show off high energy outputs and an emphasis on powerful special attacks. The colors I'm using are direct inverses of one another, and have some overlap in the actual design - there may be magenta veins in the "beanbag fists" or blue accents on the otherwise darker mahogany face.
Biologically speaking, I wanted it to look extremely neutral, if still a little
off and vibrant due to the colors and anatomy - the eyes will resemble the shape of eye sockets in a skull rather than having a true happy or combative expression. It's supposed to look like a species that just recently evolved enough to be fit for battle, and be keen and intuitive. It's still carving a niche out for itself, strengthening the cores it can and fighting what it can't make amends with.
The torso is a little bit thicker, almost shell-like in consistency, before tapering out into a thinner, almost kelp-like body. The feelers on the back are vestigial and flow around in the breeze; it does not have legs, instead moving around on its fists like a gorilla. The torso accents, "ribs" or more accurately tendrils are prehensile; they were what the species used to walk on the seafloor. They're capable of more delicate movements and are used for emoting, while the beanbag fists are used for locomotion and combat. Its beanbag fists are made of biological liquid armor - non-Newtonian fluids, or dilatants, that become ultra-dense in pressure and softer without. They can be used to shield or cradle weaker Pokemon or to perform powerful physical attacks.
The arms look a bit like raw muscle with just a touch of red tide, while the head is a crystal skull-styled take on an individual Sea Sparkle. It has no mouth, instead relying on its eyes, tendrils and large arms to emote. It eats through filtration.