I prepared one too many pages of the base pose for Ash and Misty doing the macarena, so I decided to work it into another piece. The girl is Miki, an original character of mine and a travelling companion for teen Ash and Misty. I’ve used her once before. She’s eight, shy, and excessively polite; Ash and Misty are always “Mr. Ash and Miss Misty,” however often they tell her to cut it out. The Pokémon is an Ice-type called Stardire. Can’t say I have much planned for either of them beyond the basic personality, but they may pop up again in future pieces.
Spoiler We’ve all heard the story; in Revelation Lugia, an early draft had Misty giving Ash CPR after pulling him out of the ocean. The moment was cut over concerns that it would look too violent. But having tried boarding it, I can’t say I agree… (Of course, whether the kiss of life was involved in the cut scene isn’t clear, and I rather doubt it if I’m being honest. Still, felt like doing this.)
From EchidnaPower's “AAML: Diamond & Pearl,” with the scene illustrated being Riley teaching Ash to communicate with Misty in her dreams!
EchidnaPower's Lucario from his "AAML: Diamond and Pearl" meets Skylight Sparkle's Ria from her The Road You Choose series.
love the detail in all your art pieces, can't believe I've only just come across them! Anyway, keep up the amazing work
Spoiler After coming across Tumblr's allthingsmisty and her old headcanon about Misty and Cilan, I felt compelled to imagine what that friendship might be like. And how Cilan might help along a certain romance… (After a lot of digital color work, I decided to go back to markers this time, with the computer for tweaks. Interesting results, but not the fastest process.)
Spoiler I did teenage versions of ‘em a while ago - now it’s time for Ash and Misty, all grown up! Or, at least in their early 20s. Ash’s haircut owes a lot to Skylight Sparkle's take on an adult Ash; she was nice enough to let me crib from her design. Ash also ended up with a bit of an 80s vibe to his jacket, which I hadn’t planned on. Misty’s backless halter top look, on the other hand, was very deliberately cribbed from a 50s outfit I’ve seen. I’m not eager to go out and do more full-body drawings; the paper I have isn’t large enough to be able to do them in satisfactory detail, especially when it comes time for ink.
These are pretty good! I can't draw people worth squat, so I'm a little jealous. Keep up the awesome work!
Spoiler More with Misty and Cilan! I’m not sure how in-character it is, but I’ve taken to imagining that Cilan, once he realizes Ash is the jealous type, deliberately trying to provoke that side of him to coax a more conscious awareness of his feelings out. I’d have kept with the marker coloring I used for the first set, but time didn’t permit it.
Lately, I’ve grown very fond of Miette as a character, to the point that I honestly think XY/Z would have been a better series with her as the female lead. There are a few things I like about her. There’s the fact that we’ve been having a lot of fun writing her in the sentence fic game on the Pokeshipping Discord; there’s the fact that her design, with the sharp red eyes and hair that sweeps into two points, makes me think of a werewolf; the fact that I feel bad TCPi stuck her with a rather off-putting voice in the dub when the original VA was quite charming; her rather off-beat choices in Pokémon (a big, slobbery fairy thing that looks like a cross between a bulldog and a birthday cake doesn’t strike me as a go-to choice for most people involved in Showcases). And there’s the fact that she remind me of my favorite movie CotD, Melody. I don’t want to overstate the similarities, but they’re both extroverted, confident, and full of a quality that’s incredibly hard to write well but is so much fun when done right: innocent mischief. And both of them love turning that mischief on Ash’s would-be girlfriends. (Though I do think that, unlike Melody, Miette did count herself in that number.)
No matter how old he gets, Ash just can’t seem to avoid trouble around water. Luckily, he’s always got Misty to fish him out and give him grief for it… (For Pokeshipping Week)
Sometimes, when your friends are being stubborn, they might need a little nudge in the right direction… (For Pokeshipping Week) (If you’re wondering why I picked Cilan and Miette to stir things up - while I’d never go for Ash and Misty as romantically connected to anyone else, the furthest I’ll go is to say that, if either of them were ever widowed, Miette and Cilan could become their respective [platonic] regular Saturday night dates. And it seems reasonably IC for them to get mischievous like this - more than reasonably, in Miette’s case.)
Misty doesn’t regret going as Meg from Disney’s Hercules to the Halloween party…oh no. She does regret telling her sisters and friends what her costume would be ahead of time, because of course they’d decide to torment her with a certain song from that movie… For Pokeshipping Week. Took the free day on this one.
