Just wanted to share this for fun. I’m a designer in my day job, and used to spend a lot of time working with watercolor and ink. I’ve been looking for subject matter to practice doing watercolor digitally, and what better way to start than Superluxe Black Label BGS VIP Charizard?
Old as I’m sure it makes me sound, I still can’t stomach the some of the newer CGI-based cards, especially for Charizard… so I attempted to repaint it Ken Sugimori’s original watercolor style:
Please, share your thoughts and feedback!
The original is also very high res, I just threw this in whatever free poster mockup I could find. So I can make prints if anyone would be interested.
Thanks for the kind words! One thing I would do differently next time is the structure. I made some revisions after, but the 5ban art style leaves a lot of gaps that create noise when you use a manga pen for outlining like Sugimori’s work.
Nice work! It is tough to match missing artwork especially with all the text and graphic elements in the way. At first the composition looked strange Charizard looks like it is standing on its tail but after looking at the original 5ban art lo and behold Charizard is standing on its tail lol!
Yeah, it is. The original 5ban art is odd, he’s sorta stand hovering, haha. But I also had to redo the left foot, perhaps that’s also what’s throwing it off
Wow just epic ! Love the design way better than the actual card… Missing those designs. They should do some sort of retro pack with old designs style made by previous illustrators. That would be such a collectible set for us !
@smpratte Thanks man, yeah, I’m sad many of the modern chase cards have gotten the CGI treatment. I imagine it’s much easier to reuse and apply different finishes when the art is digital and “live” (still makes me sad but I buy that Ooyama shit readily)
@garyis2000 Hahaha, are you hating on super deluxe black charizard?
@theeucollector Thanks! I definitely will be as I have time.
@chrisbalestra Yup. Imagining a set of Ooyama or Imakuni full arts…
@frenchardsaur I would love that. A throwback with early art styles would be an interesting set. Niche, and I’d buy 10.
It’s always fun getting back into a hobby. I definitely plan on expanding on this idea… Maybe it’s doing some watercolor card art or something. Or who knows, just focusing on prints. Where the wind blows
It would be great if pokemon did hand drawn for the SR versions, and the normal FA as cgi. Best of both worlds. And it would be a nice subset to collect. #hiremepokemon
