Time to evolve! After 5 months I've finally found the time and motivation to complete the second evolutions of the first Pokemon starters; Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle.
Now let me introduce you to my realistic take on Ivysaur, Charmeleon, and Wartortle. These three took quite a while. Wartortle in particular had to go through several ear and tail concepts to find what felt best. I know the "fur" ears are technically more accurate to the original design from the 90s but I felt the normal soft tissue just felt more consistent with the turtle aspect as well as the aquatic (plus im lazy and I'm not very good at fur). The tail was difficult too, because I didn't like the idea of hair being on there, and I wanted to have somewhat of a fish tail so I made this weird hybrid of fish tail and turtle fin. The head was also a challenge and I actually ended up making a 3D model of it in ZBrush in order to get it exactly how I wanted it as well as getting the angle of the head right on the illustration. Pretty happy with how they came out.