Smeargle's Studio Update

1st Place – Bummer

In a contest of wit and wiles, it was no surprise that comic strip artist Bummer romped home in this MAC. Famous for his collection of cutting comics (in one such case, literally cutting), Bummer's distinctive style shone through here, earning him 16 votes more than his nearest rival.

Bummer is perhaps one of the most unique—if such a thing can be quantified—artists on Smogon, and this is particularly achieved through the hues in his line art and shading. As the two Pokemon skim the waves, the blue of the water splashes (no pun intended) across their forms, contributing a sea-coloured hue. This, combined with daring highlighting, gives Bummer his own style, and a very successful one at that!

2nd Place – sirndpt

While sirndpt indeed trailed slightly in the poll, this was one of my favorite submissions. Why? The concept is fairly simple, but very effective. The line art and shading are incredibly clean, which lends focus to the main attraction of the piece: Qwilfish's worried expression. The effect of the spikes on the balloon is particularly impressive; they appear to be carefully measured, and in exactly the right places. Bravo, sirndpt!

3rd Place – Swaggersaurus

Az's contributions to the MAC, while infrequent, are always of the highest quality, and this piece was one of the early favourites to win the contest, slipping out of second place by only a handful of votes. While this submission does have a generous dollop of humour, in many ways it's very poignant also. The struggle to reach a goal; the moment of anticipation; the predictable, heart-breaking end. Who knew Az had such brooding emotions inside him?

He must keep them in his jaw, or something.

4th Place – sandshrewz

A fairly recent arrival to Smeargle's Studio, sandshrewz has already impressed in many areas, one of which—obviously—has been the MAC! The competition for fourth place was still in full swing even up until the last day of voting, but sandshrewz ultimately managed to squeeze ahead with this design.

While not the most naturally humorous, this piece certainly shows a great deal of promise in sandshrewz's abilities. Not only does he follow in the footsteps of Studio greats like Fatecrashers and Bummer in his line art techniques, but the shading is both interesting and well-suited to the piece. In fact, it could even be considered daring in places, but this doesn't detract from it in the slightest. I hope to see more from you in the future, sandshrewz!