Site Last Edited March 4th, 2025!

←previous - CURRENT - next→

Let's Find Pokemon! XY (20XX)


click for a more detailed view
Jump to page details!

☆★☆

Basic Info

Find Pokemon! XY (or "ポケモンを探せ!XYの") was published by No One in No Where on Never. This is the XXth "Find Pokemon!" book. It has 0 pages and 1 full scenes. These scenes contain Pokemon and key locations from the Kalos region. Most scenes ask you to find 3 specific pokemon hidden in the chaos, sometimes asking you to complete another puzzle task having to do with the layout of the scene.

☆★☆

Scene 1

"Sunrise in Lumiose City", pg X-X

(Click image to open in new tab!)

FIND:

- -

Flabebe - Clauncher - Dedenne

Transcription:

Rise and Shine
The residents of Lumiose City adore the morning sun!

Can you find these 3 Pokemon?
Flabebe - Clauncher - Dedenne

Types of Pokemon in image: 72

Solution (SPOILERS)

(Click image to open in new tab! Sorry for low quality)

☆★☆

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

...

Huh...? Wait? What is this page?

So they never made this book and that bothers me.
They just skipped this entire generation. Not only did Generation 6 not get a book for the main series game (the first time that had happened up to this point in the series' 14 years), Kalos was also the only released region that was not featured / given a scene in "Find Pokemon! A New Adventure".
Why? Lapse in brand licensing? Entire team on sabbatical? Personal vendetta against the French?
Unfortunately for all of us, we may never know. If you have any theories or explainations, I'd love to hear them - please email me at "letsfindpokemon.found@gmail.com"

☆★☆

This page is an attempt to fill a gap and soothe an itch on my brain.

One of the reasons I admire Kazunori Aihara's work in these books is that I am an artist myself (in fact - Pokemon was pretty key inspiration when I was first learning to draw!) and the detail and personality on display was something that shocked me when I re-discovered as an adult. There was a part of me that was curious about how fun and challenging it would be to make a "Let's Find Pokemon!" scene of my own. To do an extensive style study and try to mimic the classic-era of pokemon art, the water color-y textures and paper white lights in the sharing.
What better of a way to channel this desire than to embark on the months long process of creating a page for the unloved and unrealized XY book - to give some scraps to the Kalos lovers out there and also help build my own hype for Legends ZA :3

I've been working on this (on and off) since around February 2024, for context
This desire to make a fan-scene for this series was so omnipresent in my life for this period that I actually was able to use the format for a infographic for work that I'm still very proud of.


Which I only show in low quality to not dox myself completely (lest the pokemon company every tracks me down for my work on this site). But I was very proud of this - its completion and subsiquent positive reception by my team bolstered me to continue work on this project. I've been truly putting my nose down and making progress on this since January (this year of our lord, 2025). Through it I've gained a (somehow even more) increased appreciation of the art style of these books and a better understanding of the thought process behind making scenes with this many characters and interactions in it. After all, there are 70 Pokemon who originate in Kalos and I wanted each to get its moment in the sun.
I'll likely display the finished piece at the top of this page once I'm finished. But I felt that the journey of working on this deserved a space of its own for my own documentation, stages of the piece, and general thoughts on this whole process. So, Please enjoy! I hope to share the finished piece with you someday!

- Prof. Abel

☆★☆

Step-by-Step

Initial Ideating

☆★☆

Doodle Draft

☆★☆

Basic Background and Bare Bones

☆★☆

FIRST FULL DRAFT

☆★☆

Assorted Arangements

☆★☆

Landscape Lineart

☆★☆

Pokemon-by-Pokemon (lineart version )


2/13/25 - 13 / 70 pokemon

2/14/25 - 28 / 70 pokemon

2/15/25 - 40 / 70 pokemon

2/16/25 - 49 / 70 pokemon

2/17/25 - 66 / 70 pokemon

☆★☆

Lineart Draft 2!

☆★☆

"underpainting" after finishing Draft 2

☆★☆

Painting the Background


2/18/25 - Base layer

2/19/25 -Doing my BEST to match the Aihara style

2/20/25 - Really starting to get this and SUPER happy with the progress :D

2/21/25

☆★☆

Painting the Pokemon!



2/22/25 - 11/72

2/23/25 - finished the base colors but realized that I'm missing Fennakin and Az's Flabebe

2/23/25 - Fixed :3

☆★☆

Rendering and Final Touches!



2/23/25

2/20/25 - adding the title and text box!

☆★☆

THE FINAL PRODUCT


(Click image to open in new tab!)

☆★☆

here's a little 30-second speedpaint of this!

The final time actively drawing this project was ~81 hours.
Breakdown:
Sketching: ~5 hours
Line art - background: 10 hours
Line art - Pokemon: 25 hours
Painting - Background: 12 hours
Painting - Pokemon Base colors: 7 hours
Painting - Rendering: 9 hours
Text and “final" details: 3 hours
Re-inking: 10 hours

Overall thoughts on this project!

The way this took over my life for 3 weeks cannot be overstated. I have a full time job and when I clocked out I would clock into making this. The motivation and flow state that I would enter working on this can only really be compared to my initial creation of this site :3
But what did I learn?

  • Gen 6 pokemon are really fun to draw! I had never drawn any (other than chespin) before and I have some unexpected new favorites - like i never expected to like Binacle and Barbaracle as much as I do (they are so delightfully shaped!)
  • The Sugomori / Gen 1+2 art style is both less difficult and more difficult than I expected. I can't believe I was initially planning on making this physically holy shit. I started to understand the mechanics of it and that makes me feel very happy and connected :)
  • This took even longer than I could imagine. I think that Aihara's background as a mangaka likely served him well here - I expect he was able to go from idea to final product in less steps than I did. I have absolutely no idea how he did this physically for so many years (though I suspect a lightbox and tracing paper is key).
  • Connected to the above point: I can't imagine how he did this for 150 pokemon for the first 3 books - THIS SCENE CONTAINS HALF AS MANY POKEMON AS THOSE BOOKS. and then he did it again and again for like 10 more scenes per book! Outstanding!
  • I understand his silly ones way more now :3 I feel like playing in this space and forcing yourself to have all of these differant critters in the same area makes your brain churn and problem solve in interesting ways. I didn't expect that when I first started!
  • 3 point perspective on a ringed city is one of the hardest technical challenges I've ever faced (EVEN with Procreate's perspective tool). DON'T DO THIS. Early on in planning I even tried to (halfassedly) teach myself 3d modelling to do THAT instead of trying to work it out. I dont think it turned out the best but tbh I dont even think I can tell with so many other things on screen
  • Maybe its the 3 point perspective in a circle thing, but buildings were pretty difficult to do and not as fun as the pokemon. I'm a buildings guy! I love houses and towers as much as the next fella but they didnt sing to me the same way here . Next time I think I will do a more wild / rural area....
  • Giving my friends updates really helped me :3 I have them to thank for adding Az's Florette and the various Vivillion forms!
  • This is kinda an addictive project. I felt myself internally planning and thinking through what a Legend's Arceus Scene or a Scarlet Violet scene might look like, where I would set it, what interactions might be fun. I was thinking about this on the train today. I was thinking about this while playing XY today. I keep children's books by my desk because they have the same perspective as these scenes and I was thinking about doing studies. Perhaps I will do more of these some day but I need a BREAK.

Materials used

←previous - CURRENT - next→