Wednesday, January 19, 2011

KEN SUGIMORI; POKEMON PERFECTION

When I heard they were making a whole new generation of Pokemon I was pretty excited. I've been a fan of the franchise for a long time due in most part to the artwork and character design of lead Pokemon artist Ken Sugimori.

This guys is amazing. The amount of character he can convey in a single pose is mind-boggling. There are certain Pokemon he has designed and posed to an extent such that you know all you need know about that particular character from one drawing.

He has crafted, with Pokemon in particular, a style that is beautifully minimalistic yet complex at the same time, specifically in the anatomy, which contains brilliant subtleties all while maintaining the overall appeal. The hierarchy of details in his designs is unmatched. He has an uncanny ability in understanding where high volume areas of detail, as well as low volume areas, need to be in order to suggest types of fabric/skin/fur all without drawing attention to itself and distracting from the overall harmony of the design.

When I saw the 5th generation of pokemon I was, to say the least, underwhelmed with most of the designs. It's not that they were bad per say, it had more to do with the concepts behind a majority of them which seemed somewhat questionable for what I knew as 'Pokemon'. However, I got over my initial uncertainties about them, and at this time most of them have grown on me. So I decided to draw a few.



-PokeHat

5 comments:

Dani said...

I want a jiggly puff.

Jake Nussbaum said...

Josh,

Those guys are from PKMN Black and white. I am choosing Oshawatt as my starter

Dougmian said...

Oh no! Now I want play the new generation! Hehehehe! I like when you draw pokémons!!

Claire said...

Cool drawing as always Josh! And stop making me want to play Pokemon haha. :)

Megan Nicole Dong said...

Haha, I used to collect the cards back in the day... These are great!!!