Pokemon Spriting Tutorial: Type Changing

Type changing
Type changing, as it's name suggests, involves making it seem like a Pokemon is a different type by adding parts on and taking parts away.

Through this tutorial, we will be making this pretty Munchlax,
http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/spri...a/dpmfa446.png
into a water type. *gasp*

1. Recolouring
Suitable colours for each type can be disputed, but it may be easier to choose colours normally associated with your type. Because we are using the water type, blues and greens are the way to go.

Now, let's look at our Munchlax.
http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/spri...a/dpmfa446.png
He has three colours: purple as a main, tan-yellow as a secondary and red on the bottom of it's feet.
http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/3...coloursop0.png
Now we'll either pick some suitable colours from other pokemon, our create our own.
http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/467...coloursgo5.png
Now, we recolour! And here is our product:
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/1...unchlaxkm6.png

2. Scratching/Erasing
Munchlax is going to sink. Unless he can swim. Let's do that.

I find it's easier to scratch seperately from the body, then dragging the part overtop. This makes it flow a lot more, and makes erasing easier later.
http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/4154/finwk1.png
You may be asking yourself, what the hell is that. That, dear friends, is Munchlaxe's fin. ...Eventually... We'll have to fix the outlines and fill in the colour, but this is the bare bones. So I'll fill it with colour and fix up the oulines. I'll also copy the foot. Why? Well, look at this:
http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/4...chedfinky9.png
Weird, right? Now though, if we line up the foot, we can paste overtop of the fin, where it belongs. :) And with more parts like that we'll get too...
http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/6...unchlaxxk5.png

3. Editing/Custom Shading
Now, it looks a bit odd with those claws right? Now is the time to fix that. Now that all of our adding on and taking off is done, we can make sure ti flows. The claws... could be... webbed?
http://img378.imageshack.us/img378/5...bedfeetdy6.png
There. Now, to create the final product. It could be this, but I'll overshade here.
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6948/finalsx5.png

And that's all you really need to know. Just remember to start out simple. Then, start taking requests. It's a good way to get a variety of types and Pokemon under your belt.

It would have been really interesting if you went really deep and made the tail visible through the head and arm bubble-style. Don't forget to be creative! Though type changes are inherently interesting there's a bunch of potential to really innovate and push your limits with them!