Art, commitment, and pocket monsters

I've been learning embroidery. Slowly but surely, I'm learning all the stitches I need: back stitch, outline stitch, couching stick, blanket stitch. It's all coming along nicely. Once I've learned those, I can move onto the slightly more exotic ones, like feather stitches, or the very pretty French knot.

Hobbies that take me away from screens are important to me. For one thing, I spend hours of my day staring at either my laptop or my phone, before moving onto an evening of staring at the TV or the Switch. I need something to pull me away from it, because part of me still quietly believes that my eyes might go square.

But the real reason why I'm spending my evenings accidentally stabbing myself with a needle over and over again is this: I want to embroider a little Raichu to hang up near my desk.

Now I've got the idea in my head I can't let it go. Is this a good reason to learn a new craft? I think so.

The Pokemon Illustration Contest is underway this year. This is the first time I've heard of it, and if it's the same for you, let me give you a rundown: artists across the globe are invited to participate, submitting Pokemon art for the chance to win cash prizes and their art to feature in a promo card. This year, they had 10,830 entries, and the long list of 300 has just been announced. (It's worth a scroll: the long list is incredible.)

When the list was announced, my Twitter feed was flooded with winning entries, as well as art from participants who didn't make the final 300. There are so many incredible artists to highlight, but the physical art really drew me in: there's something really nice about seeing your favourite Pokemon in physical form (which might be why I really want that Raichu).

I wanted to choose a few artists who didn't make the long list, and ask them about their work process, how they feel about creating art, and a little about why they chose to enter the first place. Luckily for me, I found a few people who didn't mind me pestering them with questions. Let me show you some gorgeous Pokemon art!

@ModestMonsterZ

What's your Pokemon origin story?

Oh Pokémon and I go waaaay back, I'm slowly accepting I might be vintage haha. My first Pokémon sighting in 1999 was an advert in The Beano (U.K childrens comic), if I recall correctly there was a small 3 x 3 grid of Pokémon and a trivia question something like 'Which of these Pokémon likes to burrow underground'. The answer, Sandshrew, made me think that was one of the main characters for the longest time. I was an obsessed kid from then on, video taping all the cartoon episodes, collecting all the cards (there was a lot less to make a complete set back then!), and drawing them constantly.

What were the difficulties you had while completing this piece?

I think legibility at that small scale caught me off. I initially had ambitious plans to cram the background with river Pokémon, but once everything's shrunk down to 5cm, coupled with the noisiness of photographed scenes, I understood why the official TCG craft artists go for more minimalist scenes!

Getting the nighttime lighting to work was also a tricky business. I don't have the most sophisticated lighting setup, so the final image ended up being a 20 layer composite of photos lit differently to get the edge highlights and the shadowy parts readable.

Do you think you'll enter the Pokemon TCG competition next year?

At the moment that entirely depends on how they respond to this whole AI debacle. Competitions like this are always a bit morally dicey, they don't respect people's effort. For them to be so careless with the shortlist selection when so many talented artists have put so much time and love into their entries, the mismatch is not something I can support. But hey, I understand it's getting harder to spot AI images these days and fingers crossed they're currently finessing a spectacular PR statement.

(Editor's Note: unfortunately, a few people snuck AI-generated images into the contest, which really isn't in the spirit of things. Pokemon TCG has released a response, which kind of addresses it, although they haven't outright mentioned AI, so the jury's still out about whether they're banning AI-generated art completely. Let's hope so.)

Why is making physical art important to you?

For me it's all about the slowness, it's a feature not a bug!

There's just so much...everything, these days, and things move so fast, it's harder for anything to hold much significance. What I love about needle felting is there aren't really any ways to expedite or mass produce sculptures, you just have to sit with it until it's done. If you own one of my models, you know it's all I thought about for at least a week, and I remember working on every one. And I hope they bring you a commensurate amount of joy!

This is dangerous territory though, not sure if people are here for my waffle about mindfulness haha. (Editor's Note: we're absolutely here for those waffles.)

Where can we find your art/lovely things you've made that we can buy?

I post all my work on Twitter and Instagram, figuring most people are on one or the other.

I also have an online store with stickers, prints and the occasional sculpture,
although I'm hoarding sculptures for a few months to have something for the table at my first Artist Alley here in Birmingham in August

And lastly: what's your favourite Pokemon? (Tough question I know!)

Oddish! By a country mile! I love plants, and simple little guys, and even the name is so funny. If I wanted a big overwrought mechy thing that's Digimon territory. (No disrespect, Digimon are awesome too) (Editor's Note: agreed)

@Karry_bird

What's your Pokemon origin story?

I've actually been a huge fan since the 90s! Back then I was just a little kid watching the anime but it was my huge thing back then. I actually still have a super crusty talking Pikachu doll from back then on my shelf! I never played the games until much later though.

When Diamond and Pearl were coming out, I was in 6th grade and still watching the show, but only as a passive enjoyer. I didn't even know there were video games! It wasn't until my friend forced me to play Diamond (which I was so sure I wouldn't like for some reason) that it all changed! I immediately begged my parents for a DS and put over 300 hours into Diamond. Playing those games in that era with all my friends was such a special time for me and is partially why Gen 4 in particular just hits differently!

What were the difficulties you had while completing this piece?

Flygon's lenses! I made them out of resin, and I am not the best with resin, but I thought it would be a super cool effect so I tried it anyway. Well, they ended up lumpy, opaque and full of bubbles! It doesn't look like that in the final picture because I had to completely retouch them up digitally and redraw the eyes inside so they would be visible at all. I'm also a super amateur photographer, so getting the shot in general was super tough. My lighting sucked and the camera kept only focusing on small sections, so there were a lot of digital touch ups in that regard too!

Do you think you'll enter the Pokemon TCG competition next year?

Oh definitely! I made lots of mistakes with this piece that I will definitely learn from and apply to make future entries even better. Still aiming for that top 300, I would die if I ever made it in!

Why is making physical art important to you?

So I actually started my art journey with digital painting! I dabbled a bit in 3D modelling and such, but drawing was my passion. Unfortunately, I can't do it anymore. Over the past few years drawing has slowly become too much for my hands to handle, now it hurts to hold a pen and draw for longer than 15 minutes at a time. There was a long time where I had to give it up entirely and work a retail job that took up all of my time. Well, Covid soon came along and killed the place I worked at, leaving me jobless and with a lot of time on my hands. That's when I thought it would be a great time to pick up a new hobby!

At first it was wood carving, and I got decently good at it too, but that was also really rough on my hands (not to mention quite dangerous, sliced my thumb open really good while whittling a Pikachu!). Then I found needle felting and gave that a try next and the rest is history! I'm not quite sure why, but needle felting doesn't cause the same kind of pain that drawing does for me and I can do it for much longer.

It wasn't until just recently that I found out the cause of my pain and mobility issues was caused by psoriatic arthritis, which was a huge hit to me mentally since my everyday life is greatly affected by this disease and it will likely never get much better. Art has been a great coping mechanism for me for many years, and while I can't do some things anymore, being able to do this craft means everything to me!

Where can we find your art/lovely things you've made that we can buy?

I sell a bunch of my premade pieces on my Etsy! Currently I'm working on making all of the Gen 4 Pokemon so they will all be posted there when they are made.

(Editor's Note: you can find Karrybird on Twitter too.)

And lastly: what's your favourite Pokemon? (Tough question I know!)

This answer is always changing haha, I always seem to go back to Clefairy though! Kricketot and Chatot are also ones that I am super fond of.

@Dynamo_Gear

What's your Pokemon origin story? (When did you get into it, what was your first experience with it, etc).

My first experience with Pokémon was being gifted a couple cards by my neighbor when I was probably 5 or 6 years old. For some reason at the time I'd gotten it into my head that Pokémon (and video games at large) rotted your brain, despite my parents never imparting that onto me. Turns out I was right to some degree, but once I got those cards in my hands it was all over.

As a kid already fascinated by the natural world, I was instantly taken by the art of the Hoenn-era illustrations and took every opportunity to peer into a world of fantasy creatures. Whether cards were real or fake didn't matter.

I was gifted a DS with a used copy of Pokémon Diamond around my 7th birthday- and even though the main story had already been completed, I wasn't able to put it down. I was finally able to explore the world I'd only gotten glimpses of, with a cache of adopted pokémon in my hands and the entire Sinnoh region already unlocked. I still have that save file to this day. For better or worse, ever since I opened Diamond my brain's been rushing to fill in the gaps that the games or cards don't– I'm enamored with how that world works in a fiction so close to our reality.

What were the difficulties you had while completing this piece?

I'm so used to making pipe cleaner figures at this point that I can't earnestly say that any part of working on Bidoof itself was particularly difficult for me- the assembly is solid, the only points of articulation are the mouth and tongue. I'd say building the actual set was the challenge. I had a specific arrangement of evergreen shrubs I'd had in mind to frame Bidoof and the Berry pile, and I'm more than pleased with what I was able to put together.

I was incredibly lucky that my local nursery let me rearrange some of their merchandise during the off-season. It's only upon disassembling the set that I realized I'd used close to 50lbs of soil to fill it in, so shoveling all of it back out wasn't all that fun. Even still, I'd do it again.

Do you think you'll enter the Pokemon TCG competition next year?

I think I'll only be able to answer this closer to it opening back up– TPCi's handling of machine-generated submissions this round left a lot to be desired. I appreciate the gesture of backpedaling and disqualifying the repeat submissions, but how those images slipped past longtime designers and artists is beyond me. It seems a lot of artists were disheartened by the possibility of computer-aggregated imagery being picked over their genuine hard work and passion, something that seems more likely as this insidious kind of technology becomes harder to distinguish.

I've also got a lot of ideas for my personal Pokémon-inspired art- so depending, I might just stick with my own plans!

Why is making physical art important to you?

I think making art of any kind should be important to anyone because it reflects a dimension of the self that wouldn't be expressed any other way. Physical, tangible art has been my preference for a while because I like dropping something ridiculous into someone's hands and watching their reaction.

People have a lot to say about physical forms of art requiring completely different skillsets & practice than audiovisual/digital/literature, etc. but to me there's nothing quite like holding something you've made. It's a tactile experience; when you feel its weight, brush your fingers over textures that wouldn't exist without your influence, look at it from different angles, you acknowledge that something from your thoughts now takes up physical space. And that there's very little anyone can do about it.

Where can we find your art/lovely things you've made that we can buy?

I tend to spread myself across the internet onto whatever media platform will host me. I'm a very multimedia kind of person. I'm usually Dynamo_Gear or Dynamo-Gear, but if the site is strict sometimes I'm forced to be DynamoGear. As of right now you can't find anything for purchase– but the interest is clearly there and I'm working to remedy this!

While the vast majority of pipe cleaner figures I create are going to stay with me, I'm burning the midnight oil to make prints of my art and have my first stickers for sale during July. I'm also working out how to best offer commissions for my articulated pipe cleaner work. Updates to come on Twitter and Instagram!

And lastly: what's your favourite Pokemon? (Tough question I know!)

This question commands deep thought and concentration with dedicated research over several sleepless nights, and even after all of that I've got no single answer. When I come to like a Pokémon, it's usually because of an individual of that species I've grown attached to while playing. I've finally distilled 30ish species to two teams' worth– with standout favorites like Sneasel, Rhydon, Lapras, Gimmighoul and Arctozolt. I expect to do a lot with these 12 as I expand what I do with my art, which always makes me appreciate a design even more.

When asked about a SINGULAR favorite though, I default to one of two responses: Mew or Arceus. As fantastical Pokémon, they're difficult to consider in a realistic context but what they represent is phenomenal. They're basically mascots for the origins of life and the universe at large, and as someone experiencing both I feel obligated to find that at least pretty neat.

Recently, I returned Cal Newport's Deep Work on Audible. I like Newport's work, but the timing is all wrong. I wrote recently that I'm tired of judging my own worth by my output in life; I'm more, surely, than just a list of tasks ticked off a list, I am worth more than what I can offer to a corporation I might want to work for one day.

I think there's so much value in the process of creating something by hand. And I know an end goal can be helpful - in this instance, for the artists I spoke to for this piece, the Pokemon TCG contest was a good motivator - but there's something really important about the process. About the work itself, not the thing that comes out at the end. Transformation happens in small increments: every time I sit down to write fiction, or attempt to learn the guitar, or try to master a new stitch, I grow. In skills, yes, but also as a person. I am calmer, I am more collected, and I am increasing my patience. I'm in the flow state, but it's not for work. It's for me. And that's important.

Plus, it's fun to make stuff. It's play. We lose play as we grow up. A few weeks ago I listened to my kids' new headteacher talking about the value of the playground: of building using old recycling materials, of playing around with musical instruments, of opening up a big wooden chest and getting dressed up. Even now, I see my daughter starting to lose that ability to play freely, without being self-conscious. I think we need it, sometimes, even as adults. We need that release.

I could go on about the positives of making art forever! But I'll stop there. I will say that now, more than ever, it's important to protect and celebrate art made by humans. I'm so grateful for the artists I spoke to today for answering my questions and allowing me to share their work! Please follow them and visit their shops/their Patreons, etc. And I'll let you know if I ever do make that Raichu. <3