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vaguelygenius — Trading in a skull for a mask

Published: 2013-12-01 04:12:29 +0000 UTC; Views: 3317; Favourites: 129; Downloads: 0
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Description Drawn for Poke-fanclub 's weekly Draw Me a Pokemon event!
If I win, then I call out Furfrou, and it's different adorable haircuts! <3

This design is now also available on my Redbubble as a T-shirt, notebook, hoodie, mug, etc~!

Here's the post on tumblr, in case you want to share~

Yooooo, so I was thinking about Cofagrigus and Yamask and how Cofagrigus eat gold and punish tombrobbers and worldwide cultural phenomena involving burying gold and precious metals and I came up with an interesting little theory.

So the Pokedex tells us that Yamask are spirits of the dead who remember their past lives and reminisce while looking at their eponymous masks. But where do they get these masks? There's no evidence in canon that people bury their dead with golden masks of their faces, and, since the cultures and traditions of the people in Pokemon are largely based on real life, it is unlikely that people do so. So Yamask must either spontaneously create their own masks or perhaps get one from somewhere.

Now, have you heard of Charon's obol ? It's the coin the Ancient Greeks would bury with their dead so that the ferryman would give them a ride to the afterlife. Except the practice of people burying coins and other valuable goods with the dead existed before the myth was created and exists in almost every culture.

SO... what if the gold buried with their corpses was what the masks are made out of? A Cofagrigus might use their Mummify ability to transform and coat the skulls after eating enough gold. The golden mask features a closer resemblance to the Yamask's original human form and makes an excellent shield when compared to a skull. If it requires crushing the skull into a more amenable shape... well, sacrifices must be made.

And so the coin would allow safe passage into the afterlife since it would serve as a coating for the shield Yamask will use during its new life.

And actually, wild Yamask sometimes carry Spell Tags that could be the remains of the cotton cocoon their mask was made in!

I used HermitCrabStock 's papyrus texture for this piece.

For more Pokemon stuff, mostly tribal-style pokemon designs and stuff, check out my blog~

Or check out the pieces below:
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Comments: 22

kingofthedededes73 [2013-12-01 04:47:19 +0000 UTC]

Overall

Vision

Originality

Technique

Impact


At first I was puzzled by the flow of the images in this piece, and it took me a bit to understand the storyline of the piece. But once you find the beginning and ending it is very easy to understand and is made very well. The only real problem I have with this is the fact that the story starts at the bottom, generally the human eyes read a story from top to bottom. I feel that although design wise it works pretty well that maybe if the story wasn't on the bottom for its start that it would be easier to understand faster.

I love the texture in the background, as well as how the transparencies of the Yamask and Cofagrigus come into play showing that they're indeed ghost pokemon and it was executed quite well. the concept of the story was well thought up and the emotions you see in the Yamask,especially in the top images,definitely brings a connection to how this spirit feels, the expressions indeed bring you into the story and can inflict the same emotions it is feeling. In that you have succeeded.

The design on the middle pokemon definitely shows the time and effort you put into this work, I can easily imagine a long time was put in the detail for Cofagrigus outer shell.

All in all this is a pretty good and emotional work, it is definitely one I found incredibly interesting.

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vaguelygenius In reply to kingofthedededes73 [2013-12-02 04:09:45 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for the great critique! Yeah, I realized a little too late that the flow wasn't obvious, and the Egyptian style didn't really allow for cues in the background, so I added the little Ho-oh as a clue to help steer viewers in the right direction.

Thanks again! I'll try make sure the start and end points are more intuitive the next time I try something like this.

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kingofthedededes73 In reply to vaguelygenius [2013-12-02 14:57:47 +0000 UTC]

your welcome

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LatiastheHedgehog [2015-06-16 07:47:48 +0000 UTC]

Aww Yamask is really cute *^*
Amazing work!

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Sitinuramjah [2014-02-05 16:17:03 +0000 UTC]

cool

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

vaguelygenius In reply to Sitinuramjah [2014-02-05 16:45:36 +0000 UTC]

Thank you~!

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MoonbowDragon [2014-01-07 04:17:15 +0000 UTC]

That is a very awesome sounding theory!

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

vaguelygenius In reply to MoonbowDragon [2014-01-08 04:47:41 +0000 UTC]

Thank you very much! I thought about it quite a bit, lol.

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PurpleGhost9 [2013-12-02 20:15:16 +0000 UTC]

This is amazing! Beautiful work!

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vaguelygenius In reply to PurpleGhost9 [2013-12-03 02:17:38 +0000 UTC]

Thank you so much~! <3

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PurpleGhost9 In reply to vaguelygenius [2013-12-03 21:52:50 +0000 UTC]

Most welcome!

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Shalmons [2013-12-01 13:36:00 +0000 UTC]

so cool!  love the lines and all the detail  <3

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vaguelygenius In reply to Shalmons [2013-12-02 02:54:45 +0000 UTC]

Gosh, thank you! <3

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HermitCrabStock [2013-12-01 08:43:37 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful work. for using my stock.

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vaguelygenius In reply to HermitCrabStock [2013-12-02 02:53:30 +0000 UTC]

Thank you for posting it~! <3

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HermitCrabStock In reply to vaguelygenius [2013-12-02 08:54:42 +0000 UTC]

You're welcome

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beamthechao [2013-12-01 04:46:59 +0000 UTC]

This is super amazing, and super deep. 0w0

I love the tomb-painting style you've done it it. Also, where did you happen upon that papyrus background texture? 

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

vaguelygenius In reply to beamthechao [2013-12-01 06:18:56 +0000 UTC]

Awwww, thanks~! <3 I got the papyrus stock here ~

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beamthechao In reply to vaguelygenius [2013-12-01 06:19:35 +0000 UTC]

Welcome! And thankya~

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HetaliaLover696969 [2013-12-01 04:13:25 +0000 UTC]

Dat Ho-Oh...

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

vaguelygenius In reply to HetaliaLover696969 [2013-12-01 04:19:32 +0000 UTC]

"And now, if you may direct your attention this way, sir, we find a Yamask in its natural habitat."

👍: 0 ⏩: 1

HetaliaLover696969 In reply to vaguelygenius [2013-12-01 04:22:54 +0000 UTC]

SIR?!? I AM A LADY, AND I DEMAND TO BE TREATED AS SUCH.

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