#also im surprised pokemon hasnt done a snow leopard yet youd think they wouldve done that by now

[buttersoftheshea]

I DID IT AGAIN

I think I said I wasn’t going to do Sneasler because I actually really like Sneasler but the more I stared at it the more I thought ‘but... what if I could improve upon it...?’

So I did that instead of Goodra.

Goodra is hard anyways. And it’s not even related to Weavile, either.

I really enjoyed how Hisuian Sneasel had more splotchy, splatter-y-esque facial and claw markings, because Sneasel has kinda jagged pointy markings because it’s an Ice type and is aggressive, while Hisuian Sneasel has the splotches because it’s a Poison type and is (allegedly) passive and I really loved how the contrast in their behaviors is shown in their designs. (Even though Hisuian Sneasel charges at you on sight just like normal Sneasel but in my mind, in my headcanon, my delusional little world where Hisuian Arcanine has curly fur and jade orbs, Hisuian Sneasel does NOT charge at you on sight-)

But then it’s kind of taken away with Sneasler. And I kinda wanted them to keep the splotchy motif. So I incorporated that into my design and added some spots as well for some flair and also because ngl I love snow leopards and I felt like it would’ve been cool if Sneasler also had a snow leopard motif. I mean it already has white fur and darker spots, like why not?

This is also why I gave it a long tail, snow leopards have long tails to maintain balance while running and climbing and chasing after prey on steep cliffs and it just felt kinda weird to me that Sneasler just has... a little nub.

ALSO Sneasler being noted as being solitary, like this solitary mountain climber that’s vaguely cat-like also kind of fueled my desire to make it snow leopard-themed.

I kept the claw highlights the same, I considered removing them because Sneasler already has more colors than Weavile and I kinda wanted them to have an even amount of colors, but after consulting with two close friends of mine they insisted I should keep them and I’m glad I listened to them because they look good.

Sneasler’s shiny, I gave it a drastic redesign because... oh man.

If there’s one thing that’s consistent about Sneasel’s line, it’s that the pre-evolution has a better shiny than its evolutions do. I also had to fight so fucking hard to NOT make its shiny be the original color palette of Sneasel’s Gold/Silver sprite. I love it so much but I fought so hard to not make it be that and to stick with Hisuian Sneasler’s shiny.

ALSO my version of shiny Sneasler can be seen as kinda like a black panther? Maybe? Kinda? Because a black panther refers to any melanistic cat from the Panthera genus and also the snow leopard isn’t stuck in its own genus anymore, it’s in the Panthera family, so technically speaking-

Anyways, even though I really do like Sneasler, it was pretty fun to work on a redesign for her~ I already have a Hisuian Goodra redesign in the works but uh it’ll take a bit longer because I fully intend to redesign the full line (including Goomy, I’m making a Hisuian Goomy) and their changes will be... a lot more drastic than Sneasler’s or Hisuian Arcanine’s, so all that combined it’s gonna take a while.

Before

After