A few years ago, I embarked on a project to illustrate all Pokémon in my style, giving them a more whimsical and humorous appearance. For several months, I dedicated my days to create these illustrations. Once completed, I began sharing them on an Instagram account under the username @goca_pokemon, posting one design per day (sometimes three per day). Although that account no longer exists, I managed to showcase over 1000 of my Pokémon designs during its active period. In this post, "Goca x Pokémon - 1st Gen", I'll share with you everything related to these designs.
Yeah, maybe you've noticed that I just confessed to one big lie—it's that I already had almost all the Pokémon designs made before starting @goca_pokemon. Back then, I claimed I was creating them, one each day. I don't know why I did that; I guess it seemed cooler in my head. The truth is, if I were to make them one each day, I probably would have burned out long before reaching 1000 posts. I mean, it would have taken more than two years to draw one Pokémon each day… It's a no for me.
Why did I delete it, you may ask? Well, back then, I had like 4 or 5 (or more, I don't know) different Instagram accounts, each dedicated to a different thing, and I was pretty active in all of them. Until I got saturated and started deleting them. The other accounts are a story for another day, so for now, let me take you through the long Pokémon drawing journey I had.
Everything started because there was a trend on Twitter that involved drawing one Pokémon each day related to a category, like "day 1: draw your favorite fire Pokémon." I liked it (though I drew them all at once and posted one a day), so I decided to draw them all. It took me around 2 months to cover the seven generations that existed at that moment. I created about 15-20 designs each day. It was a quick process; I didn't spend too much time on each drawing (as you can tell from some of them). Around 10 minutes of work for each one. It was really fun; the first design that came out was the one I would use. Pretty pure, if you ask me.
It feels like I'm only writing stuff and not showing much. So you may already know, I usually have one process for making art: I always draw everything first and then digitize it. I have a notebook full of Pokémon drawings, which I now find way cooler than the final digital art. It's my own treasure. I did start only drawing here, that's why the Pokémon selected are kinda random. I think that once I was making the third gen, I did follow the right order.
Then I started to digitize them. The posts on Instagram changed from the first gen to the second one because, while making the last gen, I realized the Goca logos in the background were too much. I changed it for a plain color related to the Pokémon. Here is an example of how the initial background design looked.
It was actually pretty well organized on the feed; I started posting the last Pokémon of the generation, so the starters were on top. And then, if the Pokémon only had 1 evolution, I put them with 2 other Pokémon like that in a vertical arrangement, so they felt together. Before posting, I had to plan how it would all look. Here you go, all the 1st gen designs:
