Guide to the *POKEMON* Art Style 

I heard you loud and clear: The SFX will be toned way down for the next video. No need to worry!

Hi, I’m an artist that HATES drawing tutorials but loves to experiment in many art styles. I got recommended this and it’s EXACTLY what I need. I can handle body types and have a rough idea of facial features, it was just specifically the art style itself and showing which brushes work, which don’t, etc., and not that many people focus on specifically, it’s always bothered me. So I thank you so much for this, I while I mainly was focusing on the modern, learning, the other styles is a nice addition

This is a good video and tutorial but bro please you dont need to add the *woosh* sound effect EVERY time something moves. Its like listening to Johnny Test with the whip crack sound effect. Its driving me crazy

i can barely believe how well-put-together this video is never seen such a concise, perfectly paced tutorial video, ever

THE GRAND RETURN!!!

This is the BEST art analysis video I've ever seen. You nailed the 3 most iconic Pokémon styles and also give us tips to do it our owns. Truly amazing!! Keep the good work. Maybe the next time could be Zelda's art style? ❤️🙌🏻

Nice vid. The modern style is a bit off to be honest, as someone that has deeply studied it in order to replicate it, I can tell that some concepts are nicely explained but not necessarily on spot with the actual design choices the official artist made. You're missing textures, secondary highlights and material highlights, like, the light reflects differently depending on the Pokémon or character fur/skin/clothes. Also there are secondary shadows and border highlights as well running next to the main lineart... in general a good approach, very simplified which is nice as an introduction to the style. Great job!

The next art style has been decided, but suggest some more styles for future videos!

One thing to keep in mind for the humans is that other artists are brought on to illustrate the key art for characters, e.g. Yusuke Ohmura for Gens 5, 6 and a few from SwSh; and the illustrator Take for the Aether Foundation, Galar Gym Leaders, PLA's Adaman & Irida, and SV's Perrin. So you can change up your style a bit from time to time if you want to! But the coloring should still remain somewhat consistent ig

Great video! I have a few tips for the modern style that I'm gonna drop here because there's a few different techniques that can actually help making it more convincing: - If you don't have your brush setting set up like this already, taper the lines, this helps with areas like the nose, gaps between fingers, corners of eyelids, etc etc - When shading, Ken Sugimori actually uses a dark blue on a clipping mask layer on a low opacity. It's noticeable a lot more in some of his more recent works. There's actually a video of Sugimori drawing new art of Pulseman in real time on RU-vid, it's also fully subtitled too - There's many ways of doing the contour stroke. You can either do the shading on another layer with 100% opacity and then erase with a much lower opacity to get the effect, or build up on the shading to get a similar effect - The contour stroke itself doesn't have to be clean, it often fluctuates slightly in official art - In some artworks, contour strokes for highlights are actually somewhat hexagonal, this is noticeable in the official art for the modern official art for Hoppip and Conkeldurr, as examples - Outlines are typically black or very dark blue, with a few exceptions, Pokémon with 'gelatinous' or 'non solid' bodies, like Solosis, Palossand and Alcremie have coloured outlines. On that same note, all Gigantamax Pokémon have a pinkish-red outline, and all future Paradox Pokémon also use a similar technique with their glowing sections

I love how the modern Pokemon style feels like a fusion of the other styles

The trainer growing older and the Pokemon upgrading with every style is such a creative idea! I would really love to see a Sonic video next, covering the classic style like in Sonic 1, 2 and 3, the adventure style made by Yuji Uekawa in Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, and the Riders style used in the animations for Sonic Riders.

I usually hate tutorial videos because they are usually long and "drawn" out, but the way you did this video is masterful. the way you present the information is the way I usually think as I draw. I typically learn different styles by studying and reverse engineering the art and everything you said in this video is what I've learned by studying Ken Sugimori's art.

even as someone who may not draw in this particular style often, the conciseness yet plethora of information is really cool. so many little things i dont normally think about in terms of art thats making me understand it more. i highly encourage you to keep making more videos like these and am excited to see how far your teachings can go!

When seeing the reference official art it definitely shows how the artstyle evolution didn't happen overnight. The gen 3 art still kept some of the watercolor shading and eye shape to an extent, and the modern style was eventually refined between gens 4 and 5. Meanwhile the anime style remained true to the original until gen 4, then tweaked / modernized aspects of it during gens 5 and 6, had that drastic detour in gen 7 and finally settled with a close take of the modern game artstyle in gen 8. And funny how the new retro art scans came just as the video was in production. It added an extra layer of information and left it more up to date. Not sure what can I request for a future video, but since you mentioned how most retro anime artstyles are similar color and linework wise yet differentiate one another via shapes / character designs, I think seeing more classic anime artstyles covered in this series (like that little example of Sailor Moon that was shown) should be interesting. Nicely done!

Can you do a tutorial on the old Hanna barbera Cartoon Network style?

You really got me taking notes out here man, I really appreciate you sharing how you did that old school effect. The Last Airbender/My Adventures with Superman's style would be pretty cool for a future vid 🔥

I've wanted to draw in the Pokemon artstyle ever since I was little, and this tutorial can finally make that dream come true! Absolutely amazing info here, loved it!

This is what a lot of animation twitter misses the details out on. If they have the same art style, it actually means the same universal techniques used across all shows when animation cels are involved. Otherwise, it's just the in-house style that's being applied (think Pokemon and Transformers, same techniques being applied, radically different art styles for humans). With "Modern", there's just three key rules. A textured pen brush, two tone shading, and heavy stylization. Take, Ariga Megamix, and Sugimori's designs have unique personal flair to them that help them stand out, as examplified with Project Voltage, the Vocaloid and Pokemon collaboration project of 8 artists from within TPCi studios.

I just naturally do that thing with the first art style where you round the corners of tangents and stuff when drawing my own Fakemon, I've been doing it for the same reason so I'm glad others do it too

This is INSANELY good. I hope it blows up like the mario one so we get more of these for other games/anime! Absolutely incredible

This activates my rant about how "my art style" is a poor excuse that really means "I don't want to change, but I want the compliments for my work anyways" You seem to have a really detailed understanding of what exactly goes into an art style, intended or not. These videos are only scratching the surface, but is still a lot about what tiny choices go into making a consistent art style for publish, let alone "YOUR" art style! Even though I'm not right in the head at the moment, You have earned my sub.

This is perhaps the best tutorial I’ve ever seen. Easy to follow, very in depth, and fantastic results. Kudos! Great video!

7:34 “the final eye-shape, is Brock” That really cuaght me off guard that was really funny😂

I often wonder how much further I would've progressed with art if I'd had such concise tools as this video, and I didn't have to take so much time self-teaching. Most of this stuff I figured out on my own or by natural intuition when I was young. Some of it was formally taught (I can't tell you how many "Drawing/Art 101" classes I've taken over the last 30 years). Very good, well-rounded introduction to different Pokemon-style media. It's a difficult style to capture despite its simplicity. It's rare to see fans that can perfectly encompass the "vibe" of Pokemon art, especially the old variation. This was fun to watch. I'm a new sub with this video, and I'm curious to watch more of what you have!

the old school filter creation process was really cool to see and well done

Again, this is such a cool series! Really great presentation too, you've clearly put a lot of effort into making it flashy and streamlined. But this one felt a bit too fast-paced for me and I found myself wishing I had more time to stop and take in what you were saying. Obviously I could pause to do that, but just offering feedback. Overall another wonderful video, thanks so much!

I don't think people realize how much work gets put into a video this good.

This has to be the single most useful drawing tutorial I've seen on youtube

This Episode Was Pretty Fun To Watch, This Is What I Need To Learn When Becoming An Animator! Hope There'll Be A Sonic Art Style Video Soon… :)

I read your comment about "toning it down on the SFX" but I personally feel like this style is just right. It felt engaging and kept me intrigued the whole way through. It made those 12 minutes go by quick. The amount of effort into this video also shows because of that, and that my friend is something not everyone has. Great video and breakdown! Really loved the breakdown of the first two styles since they hit home for me and give me that dose of nostalgia.

Another banger art tutorial video 👍

This video is absolutely amazing! I love the attention to detail and the amazing visual recreations!

Welcome back! Your videos are super cool!

That old school anime filter is something I have always wanted to try. Also I want a gryphon Pokemon.

woah, incredibly well crafted vid - i love your style, looking forward to seeing more!!

I'm very glad you've returned!! The effort in these videos is impressive. Is content like this that inspires me to get creative. thanks !

Hell yeah! i'm excited to see you back!!

This is super well put together! I love the editing! keeps my attention while cleanly giving me the information I need. 10/10!!

Wonderfully edited video! I enjoyed it a lot 😊

this is my first video i've seen by you and i'm absolutely subscribing. you break everything down so well and make a point to quickly explain small terms that beginners like me might not know exactly what you're referencing. also as someone very early into their youtube career i'd like to say the way you animate these is absolute incredible and super impressive

... Dude, I'm making a Pokémon fan game... And you are what I've looking for since I was 12 years old.

We all need more of this

Really good video! Only complaint is there are WAY too many sound effects. They got really distracting pretty fast into the video.

This is so good, subscribed!

Please keep at this! It's so cool learning various art styles!

Dude your editing is insanely good

The music Segways into the different art styles are amazing and reflect the eras perfectly! This information is really really interesting!

So happy to see a new episode in this series. I hope we can get a video on the Splatoon style in the future. The types of brushes and techniques for it are pretty unique from what I've seen/done, and I think it'd be a fun challenge.

I hope you make more guides to different art styles, this one was a banger and really easy to grasp. Super well done analysis of all the styles.

Absolutely incredible video

I have been drawing in the Pokémon style for a few years now, even doing it for a living, and i must say, im surprised by how good this video is. It goes into great detail for all the styles that pokemon goes and even differentiate between trainer art and pokemon. All explained in only 12 minutes. And the video editing is also very good and entretaining. You earned a sub, can't wait to see what else you have in stock.

I was just thinking about you, good to see a second upload!

This was such a cool video..Ive gotten really into art lately so seeing things like this is really cool. I may want to try drawing some of my OCs with these art style tips in mind just for fun. Awesome work and thank you for teaching people like me.

Your videos are amazing!!! Such a good ressource, even the editing is on point!!!!

This is super helpful I'm definitely gonna study these styles!

Great guide, and I love the gryphon pokemon design!

This is the first art tutorial i've watched on youtube where I felt I actually learned something, and I've watched a lot!

The video editing is incredible!

This is actually one of the most helpful pokemon style tutorials I've watched. You explained it very well and it was very easy to grasp. I learned a lot from this! Thank you!

Wow, this video was amazing from beginning to end! 🙌🏻

As an aspiring artist, i'm practicing a handful of existing artstyles in order to make (hopefully dope haha) fan art and find my own style in the future. Some of the styles i have chosen to take inspiration from, are the ones you have covered on this channel so far, so this was really helpful! It's really well done and explained what you have made, so thanks! Good luck on making your future videos!

I'm holding out for any of the Sonic art styles- although with how many comics artists the franchise has had, it'd be easier to separate Sonic into a Games Styles video (any of the many games styles) and a Comic Styles (comparing StC to Archie to IDW) video.

This video is so full of useful information. I hope it gets more views, it certainly gave a lot of insight for me, especially for the early gen styles

this video is like, staggeringly high quality and so useful. thank you and great job :)

great vid, the woosh sound effect was wayyy overused though

The filter section for old anime style was so helpful! Thanks!

Amazing job of observation, beautiful art and great video skills!

I love this I'm literally tearing up

My gosh my dude I randomly found your first video and I'm blown away by how good you are at copying these art styles.

Thank you for putting this video together it has been very helpful for my understanding art wise

This was stylish as hell *and* incredibly informative

this is what iv been thinkin about and the editing of this video along with detailed way of explaining the concepts make this experience so entertaining and informative!!!

this is the best explanation for this style ive seen, thank you.

I've been really into drawing pokemon fanart lately, even drawing my own oc/avatar with them, so this has been VERY insightful for me thank you!!

One thing I like about your video is that in your celshading segment, you actually demonstrated how you'd turn softshading into hardshading. The biggest hurdle for me learning to celshade was that I didn't know what region of the shadows to turn into celshading due to the transitioning of soft-shading making it difficult for me to determine where to establish the flat shadows. Many tutorials on celshading don't elaborate on that aspect. I'd love for you to do a separate video on doing anime style in general where you go in depth on applying celshading and highlights!

Thanks for the tutorial. I appreciated that!

You need more recognition, this makes me wanna try draw now

This was such a good and informative video. Very straight to the point and very good insights. Earned a sub!

The quality of this vid is off the charts!!

Thanks for the video! This was surprisingly informative for its brevity and helped me pinpoint some quirks of my own style and where they came from.

This is crazily good. Fantastically edited, well written, and thoughtfully explained. Thanks so much! Subscribing and looking forward to other style explorations :D

Very interesting. I've always been interested in that water color style of coloring so its neat to see how it can be achieved

This is actually one of the best youtube videos I've ever seen!

I like your choice of having the character and Pokemon grow and evolve with the art style. Cute and fun to see ^^ Seriously though,, this is such an in depth well thought out art observation and I'm absolutely using the animation style if I decide to do fake screenshot for fun XD

This is so cool, thank you! I love Pokemon but have never been able to succesfully mimic the style myself. I really appreciate the breakdown!

Es el primer video tuyo que veo, y está bien bacan todo lo que dices y como lo presentas! ❤

This was a very educational but fun video 😍

I love this. Broken down into understandable chunks that I can actually go practice myself...subscribed!!! 😊

amazing, I'm impressed😍

Incredible stuff! I’ve been drawing some fakemon, but it’d be cool to try and emulate some of the older styles! The tip with the textured brushes is great too. I always use a smooth brush, I’ll see if textured brushes help my lineart

The editing in this is CRAZY GOOD. I'm blown away O: You did an amazing job

Holy shit dude, the editing and presentation on this is absolutely insane.

As someone wanting to start drawing their own Fakemon and trainers, this is exactly what I needed! thank you!

I'm so glad to see this video in my recommendations. Been struggling to get the Pokemon Art style right and man, your video helped me out so much!! And even if you've already picked out the next art style, I'd love to see a guide to Sonic the Hedgehog art styles.

really nice content, thank you! Loved the research about the scanners and the way it was easy to understand the techniques. I would like to see a video from you one day with an art style with big shades of black like Hellboy comics.

I needed this

These videos are some of my favourites on RU-vid currently, hope you'll make many more! As for style suggestions, I would suggest Simpsons style but that's already been extensively covered by many people. I'm sure you'll have a lot of other cool ideas though!

Great video! Something that will surely help me actually finishing a -tober list of Fakemons this month! Now that I see your breakdown, my style so far is the anime artstyle, with what you presented, I’ll try incorporating some of the missing elements I didn’t use for the newer pieces! Again, awesome video! 🤟

Great stuff 👏🏿 👍🏾 👌 🙌