Flareon! Pokemon One a Day!

Reblog on Tumblr: bonnyjohn.tumblr.com/post/8295…

Flame Pokemon

Fire Type

Some of you know this fellow as the weakest of the Eeveelutions.  Some of you know him as the Dark Prophet, but this firey Pomeranian prefers Flareon!  Welcome to Pokemon One a Day!

Flareon is by far the most simplistic of the three evolutions in visual design - it could look to be the most closely related to its normal type beginnings.  I’d prefer if the design replaced fur with flames, but that’d almost me too easy, right? 

So why does my interpretation look to have flames dancing about its body?  

This piece created a lot of tension and stress for me.  I would eventually get the dog/cat/fox/rabbit critter in an angle that features an expression that seems almost michevious, with a focus on poofing up the three elements of fur found on the body.  The pose and angle wasn’t so much the problem as it was coming up with a way that I could showcase the hair tuft, mane, and tail.  

I would eventually settle on pushing the representation of fur to a more flame like state.  I mean, that’s what’s inferred by the original design, isn’t it? 

Before finding success with this piece, I tried a whole bunch of ideas: trying to actually mimic flames and replace the fur all around, showcase stylized strands of fur in various ways by use of wet and or dry brushes of various sizes to fluff up Flareon, and block in large areas of fur like cottonballs to make the Pokemon feel softer than normal.  

This was definitely a tough piece to figure out in that regard of fur and fire because the former two were able to encapsulate their typing in extreme ways.  Flareon in the first place I felt was the weakest of the designs, so trying to depict it in the way as the ultimate adaptation of heat and fire for Eevee felt tough.  

So like I always have thus far, I pulled through despite all the hardship by working through the ruts, giving up after not finding success, waiting it out, and then tackling it once more.  I began to use a wet brush to start throwing in loose and repeated sweeping curve brush strokes of yellows and oranges.  It was looking like fire, but the multiple strands could also imititate fur.  The best of both worlds! 

That wraps up Flareon and the Eeveelutions.  I hope you enjoyed Eevee and company!  They were a blast to do and proved to be quite a challenge.  However, another set of elemental creatures come soon, and are even more well known than this trio…They will prove a greater challenge but we’ve got a museum load of Pokemon to go through before…And not to forget, one of the most calculating critters of ‘em all.  Stay tuned! 

Yours,

Bonny

+ Pokemon One a Day is a series illustrated and curated by Bonny John in an effort to represent the the first generation of characters from the world wide phenomenon that is known as Pokemon.  The idea is simple - to draw and share one new Pokemon a day (weekends off!) until every Pokemon from the set is completed.  This project is an exploration of fine art styles for learning and leisurely purposes.  

+Click here to visit my personal website!  It’ll direct you to my YouTube, FB, Twitter, DeviantART, and Tumblr pages!