I don’t know if people read the captions, but I’ll explain my thought and creative process behind these first concepts. Oh, the final colored image is an Arcanine we did for another redditor, so you guys could see how the colored art looks like.

Me and my friend are both artists for some time and we decided to venture together and make character art and stories of our favorite games. I myself am obssessed with character design, so ending up making something related to Pokemon was just a matter of time.

For this series we wanted to make something that we could keep doing for a long time. I’m a millenial, so Gen 1 is my favorite because it is the one I grew up with. So we are making all 151 pokemon from Gen 1 in the official pokedex order.

Gijinkas

Pokemon Gijinka is what is written in japanese in the image above. Gijinka is a term I learned here in the community and it means anthropomorphization in japanese. That means human form, but sound much better than saying Pokemon in human form or pokemon personas. Pokemon Gijinkas has a nice ring to it.

The theme will be working with is High Fantasy. The initial idea was to make it medieval fantasy, but I didn’t want to be centered just in the medieval setting, so I could play with different cultural references. I’ll be using DnD classes as reference as well, so expect something related to magic and fantasy.

Bulbasaur and the Sacred Garden

When working with Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venusaur I wanted them to follow some sort of storyline and not be just non related concepts. What I knew is that they would be perfect druids, the thing was how they would interact with the plant that make these pokemon iconic. I had 3 main ideas:

• They would carry the plant in some sort of backpack, like a portable garden
• They would have a symbiotic relationship with the plant that would grow with time
• The plant could be represented as some sort of staff or totem

I decided to mix all of them in some sort of shamanic journey. Bulbasaur would live in this tribe that worship the sun and a special kind of plant. As a kid he would be chosen to start a journey. He would carry this young sapling in his back and venture to the sacred temple of the sun. They would also get a sun staff that also evolves as they learn to use their magic.

Arriving there he would start his training to become one with the plant. As the plant grows they would attach the vines to its carrier, injecting their venom to their bloodstream. This would be a painful and potentially lethal process. The apprentice would learn how to channel the sunlight into their body, so it would neutralize the venom and nurture both the apprentice and the plant, as they become one. You could see the venom path in the patterns it would leave in the apprentice body.

After the process is complete, the apprentice, no Ivysaur, would venture through the world, becoming even more attached to the plant he carries. They would both grow together and reach their peak in the Venusaur form. When they get old, they would use their power to generate more saplings, that would be carried by the new apprentices.

Next one: Charmander, Charmeleon & Charizard

For next week I’ll be making the next 3 pokemon. I’m still thinking about what their concept could be. I was thinking of making some sort of fire mage, but I also think that a flame knight would be too cool to not make. If you have any idea let me know, I love to read them.

Also, we are thinking of making a random gijinka every week as well. Maybe doing some sort of voting and making a random pokemon from any generation in a random theme. If it’s something you guys would like just let me know.