8 Pieces of Early Pokemon Art You Will Love

[DrStrangelove]

8 Pieces of Early Pokemon Art You Will Love

Who doesn't love Pokemon? Take a look at some concept art for your favorite Pokemon.

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[Alcom1]

Early art of Vileplume? My favorite?! I'M SAVING THIS!

Though what is up with the black background and iffy borders?

 

[PunkRex]

I believe the artist responsible is Ken Sugimori, I love the guys style. His pastel coloured pics in particular are so pretty and seriously nostalgic for me.

 

[JPArbiter]

am I the only one who thinks Vileplume should be permanently renamed to NUPTUP!

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

Aw man, I just went straight to nostalgia town after looking at those.

I loved that early art style of Pokemon, and I honestly really miss it every time new Pokemon are shown.

Vulpix all the way.

 

[loa]

So why did you do a shitty magic wand cutout of those pieces and put them on a hideous black background?

 

[Xan Krieger]

Early pokemon art? There's new pokemon art? This is the only stuff I know.

 

[Headsprouter]

Early pokemon art? There's new pokemon art? This is the only stuff I know.

Yeah, this is art of early Pokemon. The title is misleading, this stuff is actually the newest official art you will find of these Pokemon. This is Sugimori's art from FireRed and LeafGreen. Early art looks like this:

I wonder if the OP got paid for this...

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Early pokemon art? There's new pokemon art? This is the only stuff I know.

Yeah, this is art of early Pokemon. The title is misleading, this stuff is actually the newest official art you will find of these Pokemon. This is Sugimori's art from FireRed and LeafGreen. Early art looks like this:

I wonder if the OP got paid for this...

And even that's not /early/, it's just what the official artwork looked likce circa gen II. I was hoping for some actual concept art, maybe something from back when it was still called "Capsule Monsters," or barring that, some production concept art from Red and Green. I've seen examples of both, and the really early stuff doesn't look like the stuff in the article at all. The basic designs were different, let alone the style they were painted in.

Edit: Gen I, actually. I scrolled past the picture too quickly and thought it was Gold riding Ho-Oh, not Red riding a Pidgeotto.

Edit Edit: That second picture is interesting. I wonder how late it was? The pokemon designs were in their final form there, but it still shows green (the planned female protagonist for Gen I). How late into development did she make it? I always thought she got dropped really early for size reasons.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

They really captured Vileplume's terrifying face pretty well. It's just a slightly murderous expression i feel...

Spoiler: Shown even better here

In the pokefusion of Oddish and Onix

 

[Headsprouter]

Edit: Gen I, actually. I scrolled past the picture too quickly and thought it was Gold riding Ho-Oh, not Red riding a Pidgeotto.

Edit Edit: That second picture is interesting. I wonder how late it was? The pokemon designs were in their final form there, but it still shows green (the planned female protagonist for Gen I). How late into development did she make it? I always thought she got dropped really early for size reasons.

Funny thing, actually, the bird in the image more resembles Pidgeot. Nor Pidgeotto or Pidgeot or called "Pijotto" in Japanese. Rather they're called "Pigeon" and "Pigeot". Even so, the bird in the image looks like it has a combination of both Pidgeotto and Pidgeot's plumes. Actually, now that I think about it, given the name resemblance, this is most likely pidgeotto...

EDIT: But then again, it's so chubby! It MUST be Pidgeot! You see, THIS is the type of image that should have been posted in this gallery, one that sparks debate and speculation!

And I would expect early artwork that most kids would have seen back when Pokemon came out. I thought the intent of this thread was to get people all nostalgic.

 

[Auron225]

Aww, I was hoping for concept art or something I guess it's still nice to see the Gen I Sugimori art style though - Vulpix looks awesome in that one

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Edit: Gen I, actually. I scrolled past the picture too quickly and thought it was Gold riding Ho-Oh, not Red riding a Pidgeotto.

Edit Edit: That second picture is interesting. I wonder how late it was? The pokemon designs were in their final form there, but it still shows green (the planned female protagonist for Gen I). How late into development did she make it? I always thought she got dropped really early for size reasons.

Funny thing, actually, the bird in the image more resembles Pidgeot. Nor Pidgeotto or Pidgeot or called "Pijotto" in Japanese. Rather they're called "Pigeon" and "Pigeot". Even so, the bird in the image looks like it has a combination of both Pidgeotto and Pidgeot's plumes. Actually, now that I think about it, given the name resemblance, this is most likely pidgeotto...

EDIT: But then again, it's so chubby! It MUST be Pidgeot! You see, THIS is the type of image that should have been posted in this gallery, one that sparks debate and speculation!

And I would expect early artwork that most kids would have seen back when Pokemon came out. I thought the intent of this thread was to get people all nostalgic.

So /that's/ why I initially wrote down Pidgeot XD

I really did, too. First I had Pidgeot, then "Pidgeot (or is it Pidgeotto?)," then I saw the text at the top and went with Pidgeotto. That really is a good, if subtle, example of how the actual early art was still being worked on and the designs in the process of being hammered out. For that matter, Charizard isn't even shaped right here -- the face looks a bit more like Charmeleon's than the final design does, and it's not just Sugimori's art style, since even his drawings of Charizard don't usually look like that. The pictures from the OP were just your standard final designs.
Edit: Sugimori's early art style, that is. Gen I in particular was kind of boxy and Akira Toriyama-inspired, which was fitting for Pokemon, since the games are heavily Dragon Quest inspired, and Toriyama did and does the designs for that series. Staring with Gen II, things got skinnier and smoother -- more pointy, yet somehow less angular, and with the rounder designs being sinuous and flowing, instead of, well, circle-like. It's hard to believe he even worked on Gen III onwards, the style has changed so much.

 

[Alfador_VII]

So why did you do a shitty magic wand cutout of those pieces and put them on a hideous black background?

Fits in with the standard of this series, sadly. Google Image search + small amount of Photoshop Skills, and then the captions written by whichever intern looked the most bored.

On the plus side, this time they actually include the names of the things pictured, which is not always the case

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

am I the only one who thinks Vileplume should be permanently renamed to NUPTUP!

I get it!

 

[SillyBear]

None of this is "early" or "concept" art. It's official art that is still used today. What the hell kind of article is this, haha?

Guys check out this Mass Effect early concept draft: http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/scale_super/13/132970/2175147-mass_effect_3_hd_wallpaper_3.jpg

 

[Urgh76]

Really nice article.

Reminded me of some Mass Effect early concept art I found a while back

Spoiler: Here it is

Can someone really tell me the difference between these images and their stock photos?

 

[Dragonbums]

I believe the artist responsible is Ken Sugimori, I love the guys style. His pastel coloured pics in particular are so pretty and seriously nostalgic for me.

He's still in charge though. Even in the newest games he finalizes all the designs by redrawing them in his style.

He has a blog as well...granted it's really an extension of Gamefreaks' blog.