Photoshop

Follow along as Juan Diego León paints a beautiful Pokémon and shares his expert advice on using realistic lighting effects

Every time I start to create a new Pokémon illustration, I always like to transform them with my own personal style. Bright, vivid colours, dynamic silhouettes, and unique or littleexplored expressions are all elements that I love to use in my work.

In this case, I’ll show you the process used to illustrate Venusaur, from the idea and references all the way to the colours, lighting and postproduction. This is my workflow for all my illustrations. I discovered it little by little, adding in different processes as I worked on various new projects. You can learn from playing with 3D or 2D tools, so always try to add new skills that can help you improve your illustrations.