Pokémon Art Academy – as you may have guessed from the name – is a spin-off from both the Pokémon and Art Academy series. Become a Pokémon Art Academy student and learn about various skills and tools that will help you on your way to drawing Pokémon and becoming a Pokémon Card illustrator.
Booting up the game is completely on par with the Pokémon series asking if you’re a boy or a girl and introducing you to your “Professor” and teacher for the game, Professor Andy who is a Pokémon card illustrator and will show you how you can be on your way to be one too. You are also met with your friend/rival, Lee who sets off to be the best illustrator ever! You start off with a simple illustration tutorial of drawing the face of Pikachu, Piplup or Froakie to be accepted into the Academy and begin your journey through the Pokémon Art Academy.
There are 40 lessons in total including the 3 final lessons of each difficulty – Novice, Apprentice and Graduate. Each lesson will have Professor Andy teach and walk you through each step of the lesson that you are taking part in. It gets kind of grating after a while as sometimes you don’t want to have to skip through everything he says and illustrates, so you can do the next step and receive the next tool or colours that you need in the lesson. That said it is nice for complete beginners to drawing as it takes you step-by-step through making construction shapes and teaches you each “tool” that you have at your disposal. As you progress through the difficulties you get more advanced tools to play with and learn more skills to refine your drawings.
You begin with two simple tools, the outline pen and the marker which allows you to draw in block colour. As you progress you receive tools like the pastels that allow you to smudge the colours around to create more textures or the ability to use different opacities for the pens to make more sheer colouring and shading. As you complete the lessons you unlock more templates for you to use in free paint mode.
On top of the lessons you can access Free Paint and Quick Draw. Free Paint is a mode that allows you to draw without any of the walkthrough and allows you to use all the tools instead of being limited like in the lessons. In Free Paint you have the option to use just a plain canvas or you can use one of the reference Pokémon pictures to draw from; they have a download option as well for when they release new Pokémon references online. If you would rather use your own reference pictures you can also use photos from your 3DS camera to use instead. You are also able to add pre-existing backgrounds to your art that you can access from the start menu during the Free Paint mode.
Quick Draw is a mode that is designed to give you quick practise when you are pressed for time. In this mode you do not receive any tutorial from Professor Andy, but you visually see each step each time and are only provided with the tool for that step so there’s no erasing or going back to another tool like with the lessons. An overall problem that I had been annoyed with in most modes is the lack of drawing tapered lines. Whereas drawing on paper you are able to make a line thick and thin in one stroke, you can’t do that with Pokémon Art Academy so you need to use the eraser tool to taper off lines.
The menus are easily navigated and straightforward, and there is the option to undo (L) or redo (R) lines that you have made a mistake with instead of having to go through the hassle of erasing them perfectly. Everything in the game is fairly intuitive, even though at times it can seem very hand-holding it makes it good for children and adults alike who want to draw something dear to their hearts, Pokémon! If you’re proud of your drawing and would like to share it with people, then you can upload your art to the Miiverse for people to see and comment on.
Overall it’s a very simple idea of a game, but one executed well. It’s fun for people new to drawing (like myself) and has some options I feel would be fun for the advanced artist, though the lessons would probably drag on a bit. There may not be much of a draw to the game, if you are not a Pokémon fan or dislike drawing.
Pokémon Art Academy is available now in the UK and Europe for £29.99/€34.99 on the Nintendo e-Shop and for physical purchase, though re-sellers may have a different price. There is currently a Free Paint template distribution for Groudon ongoing until the 20th July, after that from the 21st July to the 8th August there will be a free distribution for the Kyogre template. If you’re an artistic Pokémon fan, then Pokémon Art Academy is for you.
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