For many years now I've been periodically redesigning Pokemon in a semi-realistic style. Originally started in high school, I made it through the original 151 and have been doing a few here and there since then based on requests. Here is a look at my current process, starting with the original Pokemon.
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| Drapion |
Next I grab a few photo references of animals I'd like to base it on. Here's an example, usually I use about five.
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| Whiptail Scorpion, up close and personal |
I start drawing very loose, using an adjustment layer to lighten up the lines as I draw on top. I'll usually starting painting in the flat colors under the sketch, then refine the lines over the top.
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| Rough sketch |
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| Refined color lines (dodge/burn) |
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| Painted with colors from original Pokemon art. |
At this point I'm not really working linearly any more, just painting, playing around with layer settings, different brushes, etc... until I get to something approaching realism. I'll usually start painting with colors picked from the photo refs and adjust transparency to find something in between.
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| Uglier, more realistic color layers. |
Finally, I throw on some adjustment layers to give the image a little more impact. Since I'm not going for photorealism, I usually bring back more of the color and contrast lost in the earlier stages. Here's the final image. Sometimes I'll paint a background if I really like the Pokemon I drew.
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| Adjustment layers (levels, gradient maps) |
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