A while back, I drew a Pokemon comic called "Glory Hog", where one starter Pokemon who had an even, interesting matchup ready to go (page 1) was robbed of his battle by another starter Pokemon that had a distinct advantage over the opponent (page 2). After the second page, I went into a long-winded lecture about the starter Pokemon (particularly, the Fire-types) and how they match up against certain bosses in their respective games. The ultimate point was that what worked and was intriguing in some games did not translate well into others.
Anyway, this picture is somewhat related to "Glory Hog".
Here we have the Fire-type starter Pokemon of three different generations: Monferno on the left (middle stage of Chimchar, from Pokemon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum), Combusken on the right (middle stage of Torchic, from Pokemon Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald), and Charmander in the middle (first stage, from Pokemon Red and Blue / Fire Red and Leaf Green). They are surrounded by Rock Pokemon on all sides, the ones that mark each of their first major challenges (Onix for Charmander, Nosepass for Combusken, and Cranidos for Monferno). If they had challenged these stone walls as soon as possible, their flames would have been smothered by stone. But this time, they came prepared, and they are ready to break some blockheads!
I already talked about how adding the Fighting-type to the newly-born Torchic and Chimchar helped them fight Rock Pokemon in the Glory Hog post, so I will not repeat much more of that. I will point out, though, that they could not do that with Charmander in the remakes of his original games (Fire Red and Leaf Green), since he was an already-established (and beloved) monster in the series. Instead, the designers decided to give Charmander the ability to learn the move Metal Claw at an early level (represented here by the big clawed glove Charmander is wearing). As a Steel attack, Metal Claw gave Charmander a way to deal a lot of damage to Rock Pokemon, and it was not too much of a stretch to learn it since it was a move Charmander could learn through breeding.
The drawing itself is something that I have wanted to make for months now. I started working on a script for a possible video about Tepig (Black and White's Fire starter), and an image came to mind: Fire Pokemon surrounded by cold stone. The threat was intense and dark, but these red creatures would not be buried so easily. They prepared their methods of attack: punches, kicks, claws. As their will to win intensified, so did their fire. They would burn through the stone if they must.
I wanted to make that kind of image special, so I decided I wanted to make it as if I was drawing a poster. This is why I overlaid the image with a layer of "grunge" on top: to make it seem a little old but still rather bold.
All through the creation process, I kept debating how to color the Fire Pokemon in this image. If you look at the sprites for Pokemon games, while colors are noticeable and identifiable, they are not often the most intense shades possible. I notice this a lot on red Pokemon, where I would end up choosing a slightly faded red, pink, or orange. There is nothing wrong with using colors a little more faded than you would think, but I thought it seemed too dull in this case. Ultimately, I decided to saturate the colors I was using for those guys. Fire is bright, so they should be, too.
The fire Pokemon were meant to be bright and warm, so it would make sense for the rocky parts of this picture to be more dull, dark, and cool. In addition to the brown shadows I gave to the Fire-types, I also used a blue shadow layer for the rocks to give them extra shading and perhaps make them a bit darker. For the foreground, I then added a more opaque blue layer over the rocks to make them darker. Since Onix's head had snuck behind the fire, I decided to try and hide that one in more darkness to make him seem ominous (he is the biggest one, after all).
I really like how this one turned out, and I hope you do, too. I may use it as the wallpaper for my phone for a while. However, after doing something like this, I almost feel like I need to make something that uses a lot of green in it. Preferably light greens. Will I follow through? We will have to see.
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