Poké-You!
'Poké-You!' was the very first project I did in my second year at GOBELINS Paris. The given theme was simple: turn yourself into a Pokemon trainer!
2D work
The first thing I did was figure out what kind of trainer I wanted to be. I chose my favourite: the electric type!
After browsing around for references on the artistic direction and the various pokemons to recruit in my team, it was time for some researches.
Iterations
Those were the different outfit iterations. All are based on clothes I owned at the time I made those! As my teacher pointed out, I did have the quite unfair advantage of already dressing like a Pokemon character. I veered briefly on the cowboy way after seeing an interesting reference, but decided against it as it didn't feel 'me' enough for this exercise. I also had red dyed streaks in my hair, which I transformed into the either lightning-shaped or M-shaped streak in the character's hair.
Iteration 1c and 2c have a blue colour scheme to align more with some of the pokemons I'd chosen for my team (especially Manectric and Luxray).The pointed sunglasses are a reference to the ones Squirtle wore in an episode of the anime.
The Design
This little guy over here was the final design I settled on! For the posing, I asked one of my friends to take a few pictures of me and chose the one that felt the best.
Expressions
What a happy, attaching little young man! And insufferable, too. We mustn't forget how uniquely annoying a child can be.
Turnarounds
Since the second part of this work had been announced as a 3D modelisation of the character, we also had to make a technical turnaround to base the model on. The close up on the head was a "bonus", since I had the time for it and decided I would do better with one.
Bonuses
This here is a little collection of other drawings realised with this character and his friends from my colleagues' realisations, more or less following the artistic direction.
Challenger Screen (Pokemon X)
The innescapable trial of every Electric type trainer. I am sure he deserved it this time.
He was young too, once. Well, younger than he is currently. And his beloved Raichu was yet only a Pichu. You'll notice the ends of his hair are rounded instead of pointy, and that's normal! He had yet to be electrocuted. This picture was taken seconds before he was about to acknowledge this new part opf his life.