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How Pokémon's Original Watercolor Art is Supposed to Look... - Printable Version

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How Pokémon's Original Watercolor Art is Supposed to Look... - Moonface - Apr 19th, 2023

Ken Sugimori's watercolor artwork for the first two generations of Pokémon has been renowned and circulated by fans for more than two decades; however, recent work by archivists has revealed that these original scans are actually very inaccurate when it comes to the colours and quality, and the difference is truly night and day:
These high quality scans are from the Japan-only Pokémon Gold and Silver Pokédex strategy guide, whereas the ones that have been circulating online are from the official Pokémon Red and Blue and Gold and Silver guides that were sold in the west in the late ‘90s. As you can see, the western images are washed out, high-contrast, and lack a lot of details as a result.

Lewtwo Wrote:
You can literally see all of Sugimori’s imperfections with the tools he used, right down to the way the watercolor bleeds in and around the lineart, to the point we’re convinced that this is the closest we will ever get in being able to scan the original piece.
Lewtwo plans to scan all of the 251 Pokémon drawn by Sugimori in the way they were meant to be seen, but due to the scale of the project it will likely take a few months to complete. You can read more about the background and process of this discovery in this article by Kotaku that does a very good job at covering everything: https://kotaku.com/pokemon-ken-sugimori-original-art-red-blue-gold-silver-1850352781

Holy shit this is huge! It's crazy that the book these scans came from isn't even hard to get, but simply wasn't something anyone really thought about because the images that circulated in the west were so ingrained within the community that nobody even thought it was incorrect, especially with how all official Pokémon media in the west was also using the incorrect scans. Shock

I love being able to see all the fine details like the pen strokes and water blotches on the paper and how Sugimori's work has all these little imperfections that weren't visible before. Wow

Anyone have a Pokémon from the first 251 that they're looking forward to seeing the correct scan for when it comes along? Grin

RE: How Pokémon's Original Watercolor Art is Supposed to Look... - Mr EliteL - Apr 20th, 2023

I always thought something was off about those artwork, I didn't study them or anything though, scanning can do a poor job of capturing stuff properly so no surprise really. I take it the first batch of Pokémon cards don't fall under this. So...yeah I'll just check the rest out when they are ready.

RE: How Pokémon's Original Watercolor Art is Supposed to Look... - Moonface - Apr 20th, 2023

(Apr 20th, 2023, 10:38 AM)Mr EliteL Wrote:
I always thought something was off about those artwork, I didn't study them or anything though, scanning can do a poor job of capturing stuff properly so no surprise really. I take it the first batch of  Pokémon cards don't fall under this. So...yeah I'll just check the rest out when they are ready.
Unlikely any of the Pokémon cards had the issue because not many, if any, used this artwork. For example Diglett's card uses a 3D model and so does Ditto, so the massive quality loss we discovered with these new scans isn't a factor on those cards.

I never really felt suspicious about the original scans either, even with Ivysaur because I just figured maybe the colour changed on the design over time like how Pikachu is no longer fat, or that Japan used some different shades for cultural reasons just like how the OG games don't share colour names.

RE: How Pokémon's Original Watercolor Art is Supposed to Look... - ShiraNoMai - Apr 29th, 2023

I think it's wild they've had access to these the whole time but nothing was done about it til now, but like Moony said, we all just accepted the "fake" ones as real we didn't question it lol

I'm actually more curious about the human artworks, like for the protagonists and the gym leaders. They've always looked pretty off to me, so seeing them correctly would be cool.

RE: How Pokémon's Original Watercolor Art is Supposed to Look... - Moonface - May 7th, 2023

Yeah I really don't get why Nintendo just rolled with the wrong scans, and also why the scans were wrong to begin with. In theory there were files in existence for the Japanese guide due to the need for print, so why not just send that stuff over instead of some low quality scan?

I'm curious what Sugimori thought about the perception of his drawings in the West knowing we weren't seeing what he actually drew. Heck I have so many questions across the board for everyone who would've been involved in this decision.