Team Picture

EDIT: I placed third in the popular vote.

So while on my way to Viridian City again to take Victory Road, some guy spotted my trainer badge (that thing on my hat that lets others know I'm a trainer, so that they can challenge me) and asked me for a battle. I let him know gently that I had all eight badges and was headed toward Indigo Plateau. The guy said that he was on his way to get an Earth Badge, and that I'd be a good test to see if he was ready. I said that it was a reasonable enough notion and agreed to the match. I won, but he was good-natured about it and asked to take my picture. I asked why, and his explanation was that he liked to keep a record of the strong trainers he battled, so that if they became famous he could say he had once fought them. I agreed, and he took a photo of myself and my team... He said he'd send me a copy, and this is it. Here's a rundown of my Pokemon, in order of acquisition...

BLASTOISE _{My starter of choice, I got him in Pallet Town from Professor Oak when he was just a wee Squirtle. I love him very much. He's a cheerful guy, but a pretty serious battler. He likes to laugh and have fun when outside of a 'professional' atmosphere. "Jolly" describes him pretty well.}
NIDOKING _{Caught as a Nidoran in the forest and raised with love, this guy is the toughie of the crew. I'd liken him to B.A. Baracus from THE A-TEAM--muscle, brawn, and tougher than nails, but with a good heart at the centre.
And he doesn't care for flying.
He loves a good battle, and he also really likes watching TV for some reason...}
RAICHU _{I searched for a long time in Viridian Forest for a Pikachu, and when I finally found one, I caught it as quickly as possible. He loves battles, and he especially enjoys receiving strategy from me and coming up with new, clever ways to win against the bigger, more powerful opponents.}
PERSIAN _{I caught a Meowth just north of Vermilion City, and it didn't take long for him to become a Persian. He's a lightning-fast attacker, cunning and tricky. Like Raichu, he loves to strategise, but he usually ends up doing so in a more sly way, and often relies on his speed and intelligence rather than brute force. He loves cuddling against me and being petted when the fancy strikes him, and can get jealous of the others when they're receiving my attention. Thankfully, he's pretty good-natured about it. He also enjoys his alone time, just as any cat would.}
ARCANINE _{I caught a Growlithe for my fire type outside of Celadon. My Arcanine is extremely friendly, and quite a happy fellow. I don't ride a bike because I can't, but who needs one when you have such a large, speedy Pokemon? He runs like the wind, and I believe his top speed is over 200 MPH, but I haven't ridden him that fast. Too afraid to do so.}
ZANGOOSE _{My Zangoose--named Zambai--was a gift in the form of an egg from a friend from Hoenn. He knew I wanted one, and was good enough to oblige me. Zambai is a little competitive with Persian, the other normal-type on the team, but it's not in a very antagonistic way (thankfully). He's an excellent battler, loving strategy and using his strength and great claws to his advantage. He and Nidoking probably enjoy battles the most, especially all-out ones.}

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Real life info about the piece.

_{(FINALLY. All that background stuff was to just make it seem more 'creative'. XDD)}

Created specifically for #nintendo-fc's "You and Your Pokemon" contest.

This is really why I don't foray into the world of colour more often. I'm bad at it. Not only do things become more juvenile looking, and less detailed and interesting, it's just...I can't colour well, and don't even have adequate colours to shade everything...or colour everything the right colour......
I'm disappointed with this piece. :[
*writing this after the contest so as not to bias the people judging so they do not also think it's bad* XD;

The trainer is modeled directly after me. I'm short, I'm thin, I'm an adult. I have a shirt similar to that, pants similar to that, and that IS my jacket that I wear pretty much constantly. I normally wear my long hair in a ponytail, to keep it out of my way, and I wear glasses or else I can't really see a thing. Normally I'd be wearing an MP3 player, but the backpack strap on my left side takes up the space where I'd put it, so I didn't include it. I'm a Boston Red Sox fan, despite living nowhere near Massachusetts at all, so whenever I have the need to wear a hat, I wear my Red Sox cap. Those shoes are one of two pair I own, and I've had them for...probably about 9 years. I need to glue the soles of them back for the second time, but..they're convenient, since they don't tie up and fit perfectly.
I'm also probably more apt to give a thumbs-up than the v victory sign, but, I figured this would work better for the picture.
And naturally, of course, I don't have huge eyes and a little tiny nose...

Drawn on an 8.5x11" piece of cardstock, the actual picture is about 8.5" tall and 10" wide, I think. I hate scanning colours, but I got them...decently close. Drawn with pencil, inked with Sakura Micron pens size 01 and 005. Coloured (BADLY) with Copic Sketch markers. You can tell where I FINALLY learned the "secret" to colouring with less/no streaks. A good example of before knowing and after knowing is my pants. With the leg to your left, I didn't know. To your right, I did. It isn't perfect, but it's a good start. You essentially have to colour half back onto the area you just coloured. So sue me for not knowing, I'm a black-and-white artist, not a colourist... XD

I wish I had known it before I had finished most of it. With practice I'm sure I'll be better.
(I also rushed a bit too much in some places, anyway. :[ )

Now, I'm sure you'll notice that the grass and trees are QUITE streaky.
This was completely INTENTIONAL, since grass isn't really ever even in colour (unless it's a baseball or football field or something ), and trees have so many different leaves in different places that the areas of light and dark would be different also. I hope the effect works and doesn't just look sloppy.... :/ I'm kind of afraid that it does, or that I left it too much so, but I wasn't quite sure how else to do it. (The dirt path is more packed and less varied, but I left it like that somewhat, too). For the most part, only three greens were used (YG61, YG63, YG67) but two more were used every now and then (G28 and G99).

You can also see on which things I had a good range of colours, and which I did not. It's probably a good rule to never try to colour something with just one colour of Copic. Two is good, and three is better. Who knows...with even more close-colours you might be able to do well with practice. It may just end up looking muddy and messy though, I don't have enough experience to say. On Blastoise, three were used for everything, same for Persian, and Arcanine's lighter fur. On Raichu's orange body and Nidoking? Only one, and that led to them looking flatter. Zangoose's white body has three shades of grey, and two shades of red, while Arcanine's orange body has two shades.

The sky is Sky Blue, but I wish I had used a lighter colour. It's a sky-like enough blue, if it was a really clear summer day maybe... But it's not a good enough colour for this piece. Ah well. I also didn't do the dark to light gradient you see in the sky...which I'm aware of. I just didn't know how to do it without two or three close enough blues, which I didn't have.

White highlights on such things as Persian's jewel, Blastoise's cannons, my badge, and Nidoking, were achieved with a Sakura Gelly Roll white gel pen.

That Caterpie really wants that leaf. It'll get it soon, don't worry. I drew spiracles (breathing holes that caterpillars have) on his sides, just like the original art had. (The art for Red/Green/Blue/Yellow was often quite detailed, and in my opinion, had more character...) I included the little guy because when you're outside, you...often see other animals. XD So there's the Caterpie, and in the distance there are two birds... Not sure what they are, but considering the location, I'd say they're Pidgey or Spearow or something...

I did do minor corrections/etc. digitally. In the original, I didn't think I could leave the white around the B on my cap easily and still have it look good, so I decided to just colour it in and erase the outline manually. I used the Burn tool very lightly on Raichu to make up very slightly for only having one shade, and did that also on one or two places on Nidoking. I also selected all of Nidoking's purple, and adjusted it to be closer to his proper purple colouring. I also digitally added the border, which I think makes it look sli~ghtly more like a photograph...

Drawing everyone to scale was a PAIN. A big one. Awful one. I didn't even get it right most of the time, I'm quite sure.
But I...am an idiot with math. Never did well at it in school. Only science and English and history and the like...
Their actual sizes are: Persian, 3' 3", Blastoise, 5' 3", Raichu, 2' 7", myself, 5', Zangoose, 4' 3", Arcanine, 6' 3", Nidoking, 4' 7".

And YES....this is the first time I've ever done anything of this size, colour-wise. :[ It was intimidating. And I need to practice perspective.

I also realised while doing this piece why trainers are just standing out in the roads or in caves all the time... With all these giant mouths to feed all the time, they can't afford houses or apartments.

If anyone has questions about it, ask!

Pokemon (c) Nintendo
Me (c) God and myself? XD



For more Nintendo art, visit my Nintendo gallery folder by clicking here.