iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

after seeing the cartoon hackjob job they did to king dodongo I'm worried it will look too cartoony to scare the next generation of ocarina heads. Maybe we can get lucky and it will look decent like the splatoon shark

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Just for fun this is a little King Dodongo sketch I did in my sketchbook early this year that I dont think I ever posted

doodle of a more realistic King Dodongo portrait from my sketchbook

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They have always had an amphibian lifecycle growing more limbs as they age. So thats a fun idea to incorporate more but I am left underwhelmed from a creature design perspective. I was hoping for more interesting scale designs and the teeth shapes leave a lot to be desired

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Its strange how comparatively cartoony the materials are on King Dodongo vs the rest of the art direction. Look at the neck, thats very Skyward Sword in approach. Maybe he is like an amphibian covered in rocks instead of having scales? Would fit the lifecycle better maybe?

screenshot of king dodongo from the ocarina remake trailer

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Not changing the sword design much at all is a strange choice because the kokiri sword got changed quite a lot

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I really like the skyward sword link face model save for the lips being overly outlined. I think the way his face is done in the SC2 artwork is what I was most hoping for in the ocarina remake, this is a perfect Link face

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That was there even in the earliest thumbnail sketch of the piece too. I was super pumped about that idea.

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This is the full artwork my Link is a snippet of. You may understand that I am also very interested to see how all the items were redesigned too.

drawing of link showing all the shit he collects like an adult with a room full of funko pops(though probably more useful than those)

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 05/09/2026

While I dont hate the new Link design I do think something was lost in the translation of his facial features especially. and just for fun its its interesting to compare design decisions I made for a more realistic materials Link to the official one

my drawing of link on the left with the official render of Link from the Ocarina remake on the right. I wonder if Link's hair just parts naturally like that or does navi comb it for him every morning

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Full video turn around of the statue

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 05/09/2026

Sculpted by my buddy @littlebaardo.bsky.social in an insanely tight turnaround time to make it for the show. Please send him some praise. Speaking of the show, I have my largest display ever. A full 18 feet of RJ

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 05/09/2026

You guys want to see something cool? Prototype kit currently on display at my Dragon Con table.

Photo of a 3d printed prototype statue of my monster hunter charizard design

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I didn’t expect anyone to see this without looking at the full res but I snuck my name into the scales of his lower eyelid

Closeup of charizard’s face with my name highlighted under his eye

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Were you able to spot every reference and easter egg in there?

Answer key showing all the references and Easter eggs in my charizard hunt painting

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If you guys made it through this far into the thread, you might be interested in such wares below. The playmat has some new designs teasing something else coming soon too rjpalmerstore.com/collections/...

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The response to this has already been overwhelming, you guys are really so kind. As a treat here are a few high res detail shots. Also keep an eye out for all the easter eggs and references in there, its probably more than you spotted on first glance 🙂

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 01/09/2026

I spent a total of 648 hours in photoshop working on this. That doesnt even include the absurd amount of research and reference gathering I had to do. I put together a pretty dense collection of the process for all this if you're interested too. A LOT of lessons learned

tyranitar hunter and venusaur hunter process

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⚔️🔥CAPTURE QUEST: CHARIZARD🔥⚔️ I have wanted to paint this for over a decade and spent the last year of my life fighting to bring it to the finish line. Please take a look, there is a lot to see

Gargantuan illustration of a charizard redesigned in the style of a monster hunter elder dragon. There are 4 hunters attacking him and their pikapalico is readying a voltorb bomb to throw. There is so much stuff in there, I spent a damn year on this. I'm exhausted.

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 26/08/2026

Nope! I actually wanted to do a horror sauropod before that show aired. You can see this old sketch from before Primal which was actually one of the things that got me hired for Terrible Lizards too.

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 25/08/2026

God it looks so cool, the way the dragon is carrying your character through obstacles. Hell yeah

dragon firing an ice shot from your arm like a dragon arm cannon

dragon carrying your guy through the air to hit another section of wall running

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 25/08/2026

Oh man I can finally share that I designed the main character duo for this game. I'm in awe at how well they translated the designs into the game, its beautiful!!

screenshot of main duo, a big armored guy and his little dragon companion

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 20/08/2026

A multiplayer-only Fromsoft game isn't my ideal but they are making a strong pitch by letting you become a T. rex

screenshot of man-rex from a new preview of duskbloods

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 08/08/2026

Always love to see an artist studying dinosaurs! Though a friendly heads up, those first two triceratops skulls arent real skulls but are not great sculptures. If its helpful here is a graphic of showing well known specimens and how complete their skulls are that you can use to dig into more info.

Graphic of various Triceratops specimens and their completeness by paleontologist Genya Masukawa

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 20/07/2026

lol twitter continues to steal ideas from bluesky, you can now add different feeds to your timeline. As with most features they steal, its worse than here as you cannot have custom feeds. It is nice to be able to just see art without bullshit though to keep up with artists that dont post elsewhere.

screenshot of my twitter timeline with the feeds options opened. I have pinned both art and digital art feeds and can actually see art without having to trudge through ragebait

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 15/07/2026

there's an overabundance of mammals in the replies here so try these on for size Sandgroper Hemiphractus helioi Kinabalu Crested Dragon Sadocus asperatus Acanthogammarus victorii

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 14/07/2026

oh here if you want a better view of the pokemon shelves

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RJ Palmer 🔜 LBX 637 @rj-palmer.com · 14/07/2026

oh it is a tomy toy from the 90s. Here he is, my little man I kept since I was a kid

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Oh yeah I have prints and playmats of this over here rjpalmerstore.com/search?q=lin...

playmat design for this piece. I had to get creative with the design since the composition was not planned with this aspect ratio in mind but I really liker the way it came out

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I actually made myself a little workflow guide test on the face before going ahead since I had so many subjects I wanted to really have it figured out. It still took so damn long between image 2 and 3 to just clean up the flats.

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Just make it exist first, you can make it good later

thumbnail sketch for my Link Loadout illustration

final illustration, about 165 hours of work separates this and the thumbnail

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