I stood in the “creative” aisle of Walmart on a Sunday afternoon staring at the shelves lined with Crayola and Rose Art products, some more gimmicky than others, but truthfully in the end are all the same.
I spotted a couple of tins and a lesson in a box of Prismacolor pencils. I slowly slid one off the peg from which it hung and sighed. It was $25, but if I was going to save this drawing AND get it submitted on time, I had to do it. I shuffled to the front of the store to pay and left to grind on my piece.
I learned about the Pokémon Illustration contest late last year, probably a little after it started in October, and was excited because I saw I had until January to submit the three entries I was allowed. This was the first time an official contest like this was opened up to residents of the US, so of course I was going to enter.
I was finishing up school, and would be done by the beginning of December, which was plenty of time for me to work on three fine pieces. Within the contest rules, you could pick from one of, I believe, eight monsters to highlight in your piece(s): Pikachu, Galarian Rapidash, Bulbasaur, Charizard, Scizor, Greninja, Cramorant, and the beautiful Arcanine. You could have other Pokémon in the work, but it had to be apparent which one was being showcased. The theme was something along the lines of “a day in the life”.
Originally I wanted to do one for Galarian Rapidash and one for Charizard. The third was still in the air. I had these amazing ideas for them. For Galarian Rapidash, I would have it laying in a thick forest with beams of light cutting through the trees, the scene serene and peaceful. At least, that’s what my mental image was.
For Charizard, it’s exactly what I imagined above, but cleaner, and not as textured. The textured happened when I decided to get watercolor paper and couldn’t find any smooth, cold press. Charizard as a chef, because when he’s not Pokémon-ing, he likes to try new recipes to feed his friends.
Time continued to pass. October was gone, November was gone, and December was up next. I finished my studies for good and instead of starting on the piece right away, I busied myself with other things like work and video games. I kept reminding myself in the back of my head--if you're going to enter this contest with THREE entries, or any entries for that matter, you need to get your ass in gear! And for some reason, it kept either slipping my mind or I kept putting it off.
Eventually, I started the drawing. I got it down and exactly how I wanted it. Next was transferring it from my vellum to the watercolor paper. Fine, no problem. But when I started to lay down color, that’s when I had an issue.
For starters, I’m not sure why I chose brush pens and watercolor as the medium. I hadn’t worked with watercolor in ages, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Problem is, I’m impatient with it, so my colors end up bleeding all over the place into each other, and then there’s a mess. So then I try to feather it out, but then the paper becomes too saturated and starts to warp while I’m working on it.
By the time I had it “done”, it hardly looked done, and if anything, it was very messy. I was quickly running out of time. The deadline was Jan 31 at 6 am, PST or something like that. Considering I live in EST, 3 am was not a reasonable hour for me. So, on January 30th, I ran to Walmart (closest department store to where I was) and hurried inside to find something that would save me.
Of course, I thought about coloring it digitally the whole time I was working with the watercolor. However, without tools to make that version of life easy (you know, a tablet and pressure-sensitive stylus), it would be just as time consuming, if not more.
I got to a point after beginning to layer colored pencil onto the textured piece where I had to stop and accept my fate.
I sighed, photographed the piece, shared the photo to my laptop, and opened it in Photoshop to adjust colors, fix most of the bleeds, and try to salvage it enough and get it to the proper size/resolution for the submission as per the guidelines.
I think it was about 8 or 9 pm when I finally submitted.
I was relieved.
I wasn’t sure how many entries would be submitted by Japanese and American participants, but as per the website, over 10,000 entries were received. A week or so ago is when they posted the 300 entries that made it through the first round.
Scrolling through the entries on my phone, I was blown away. The best part? I didn’t even feel bad for not making it into the top 300.
If anything, I felt…good. Who knows how long it took the judges to pass on mine. Maybe immediately? But I stepped far out of my comfort zone on this one, even if I did slack. I know if another official contest comes up, and I’m serious about entering, I’ll definitely put my best foot forward.
But for now, I’ll leave you all with a link to the top 300. Enjoy these masterpieces!