PKMN Skies: The Art of the Dress

If you've read the last RP I did with Darkraixcresselia or the story I recently posted, you'll know that Asuka dressed as a princess for this faire...and was none too happy about it.  While the RP explains why she's wearing the dress, it still wouldn't feel complete to me if you couldn't see the dress (in fact, I couldn't even write anything about the dress until I drew it first).  Now that the Ren Faire has been pushed back a little bit, I had enough time to draw something to share the dress' design with the world.  And, because I love gimmicks, it's a role-reversal copy of the comic where Asuka dressed Smooze up for the event.  Payback sucks, man.

Considering Smooze is...coslpaying?...Considering Smooze is going as Spike from MLP, my first, last and only thought for color scheme and motifs was Rarity, hence the colors and diamonds.  Ideas for the dress, sleeves and hat came from pictures I found here and there.  I was originally gonna give Asuka a tiara but, I knew a major plot point of her RP would be how the outfit hinders her movements, so I tried giving her one of those pointy princess hats you rarely see anymore.  I was unsure about it at first but, after seeing how huge I could make the hat and DarkraixCresselia helped me find a shade of white that wouldn't make Asuka look like the Pope or a Klansman (two weird words to be mentioning in the same breath), I embraced the hat and never looked back.

Drawing Smooze molded to look like Spike from a front view was...much stranger and much harder than I thought it'd be.  Finding references wasn't difficult, but trickier than you'd think it would be, considering his popularity (salt in the wound: I didn't even use an official screenshot for how to draw his spikes, because they always had his spikes going out to the side, even from a front view).  I could be wrong, but I think MLP rarely ever shows him from a front view and almost exclusively shows him in 3/4 and profile views...As strange as that is, I also have to tip my hat to the animators; I always have more difficulty with those angles than straight-forward, so that seems impressive to me.

Anywho, here's what Asuka and Smooze are dressed as for the Ren Faire.  If you're gonna dress your pet up for the holidays...make sure they can't turn the tables and dress you up as well.

Director's Commentary

- With this being a shot-for-shot switcharoo of the previous comic, I was obligated to find some kind of mask for Smooze to wear.  I had a very hard time thinking of something and almost tried Darth Vader.  When I realized that such a helmet could never fit over Smooze's boogieboard spikes, I got to thinking of masks that only covered the mouth.  A few minutes later, I remembered Immortan Joe from Mad Max: Fury Road and I immediately made up my mind.  I'm not talented enough to capture all of the details of the mask, but I hope it's clear enough for anyone who knows the character.