Pokemon Reimagined: Shiinotic

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It's Shiinotic! When I did Morelull a couple of months ago I got so many questions about what Shiinotic would look like. Honestly, back then I had no clue and I can say I had not even thought about it. But because of the repeated questions I was kind of forced to think about it and all of a sudden I found myself thinking that "hey, maybe I can work with this".

Like Morelull, Shiinotic as a whole is a parasitic relationship between the mycelium and the host. In the Morelull stage the mycelium has not yet taken total control over its host's body but once it reaches a later stage and becomes a Shiinotic the host is essentially just a puppet. Morelull cannot evolve into a Shiinotic without the help of the parasitic mycelium, and in a Morelull colony there is usually one Shiinotic that is overseeing the development of the little ones. This way the mycelium can make sure that the hosts are well and that the fittest survive and have the opportunity to become fully grown Shiinotic. 

When Morelull reaches the Shiinotic stage its body has been basically completely taken over by the mycelium. On the outside only one very prominent mushroom is visible and it is fused with the host's head. Inside the head would be filled with mycelium and the parasite is quite literally pulling the strings. The mushroom cap emits eerie light that lures prey to the host and produces spores that induce drowziness. This makes it very easy for the host to suck energy directly from its prey. 

The design was largely inspired by lemurs that have very intriguing and alien like features as is. I took several of such features, like the face and the long fingers (from aye-aye) and exaggerated them to bring out the strange fairy vibe. I wanted to keep it consistent with the Morelull design so I also looked at some rodents and meerkats. 

Overall I am very happy with this design. Seems that this trend of drawing Pokemon I never expected to do produces the best results. First Mamoswine and now Shiinotic. 

I managed to record the painting process of Shiinotic so I will most likely be putting it together as a speedpaint at some point.

I hope you like it!


^Media  Wacom Cintiq 13HD | Photoshop CS6
^{Time taken} 5-6 hours

Pokemon © Nintendo Game Freak
Art © ShadeofShinon