Pokemon Realism - Emily

I'm sure most of you guys have seen this sort of thing, but I figured I'd share some of the things I've been doing. It's fun! And coincidentally, a nice creature design exercise.

Pokemon! There are now more than 700 pokemon, each incredibly unique little monsters.

They're pretty simple cartoon characters, made with some really wacky shapes (that sometimes make very little sense as far as realistic anatomical structure). Cartooning's never been a strong point for me, so I prefer to draw my pokemon with an extra heavy dose of realism, making colorful shapes into living, breathing, and believable monsters.

Here are some examples from other artists' rendition of pokemon:

RJ Palmer

René Campbell

 

Gavin Mackey

And here are a few drawings of mine:

 

 

It's a ton of fun! I enjoy researching some of the background information on how some pokemon designs came about. For example, the last one, Tyrannitar, is based off of Godzilla, so my rendition pulled inspiration from Godzilla designs rather than making him into an actual T-rex. Being a rock type pokemon, I chose to adorn him with tough, rock-like scales (much like Godzilla's nearly indestructible hide) and interpreted the dark spots in the official art to gaps in his 'armor'. Many pokemon are based of real animals, myths from around the world, even everyday objects. 

You can stay close to the original design, re-imagine the creature completely, or anywhere in between!

The same sort of concept can be applied to most cartoons really, I just figured it'd be fun as a creature design exercise, if anyone wants to give it a try! 

~Emily