At my high school (VGS) we had a final art project during our third year. We were given free reins to make the assignment ourselves, as long as it fulfilled one requirement:

“Take inspiration from an artist or art period from 1900 till now.”

With these restrictions, I decided that for my final art assignment, I wanted to illustrate Pokémon cards in the style of various historic artists, each representing a different art period that we had learnt about that year.

The art periods that I wanted to explore were impressionism, expressionism, art noveau and cubism. For impressionism, I chose Camille Pissarro, for expressionism, Edvard Munch, art noveau, Alphonse Mucha, cubism, Jean Metzinger, and also Theodor Kittelsen. He doesn't fit into any of the art periods, but I really like him so I included him anyway.

Theodor Kittelsen

Theodor Kittelsen is known for depicting characters from Norwegian folklore, such as Nøkken, Huldra and Pesta. In the artworks I wanted to take inspiration from, he uses hatching, has a high value contrast and clear silhouettes.

Grayscale illustration of a young woman in a field. A cow's tail sticks out from under her dress.

"The Wood Nymph", 1892

Grayscale illustration of an old woman walking towards a house, three figures huddled outside, watching her.
She is bent over, and carries a rake and a broom.

"Mother, there's an Old Woman Coming", 1900

When deciding which pokémon to use for Kittelsen, I knew that I wanted either a fairy- or ghost-type Pokémon, considering his connection to folklore.

I ended up with Phantump. Phantump's whole deal is that it's the spirit of a child that got lost in the woods, died, and possessed a tree stump, which felt fitting for Kittelsen.

Process pictures

Final Artwork

Camille Pissarro

This guy often depicts nature, and has a light colour palette inn his paintings. He uses a technique called "hamring" in Norwegian, which I think is "stippling" in English, but I'm not sure lol.

Here are some of his works:

Painting of a garden with houses in the background.

“Peasant House at Éragny”, 1884

Painting of a garden. A woman stands between the trees.

"Late Afternoon in our Meadow", 1887

The pokémon I chose for Pissarro was Lotad, because I felt it fit well with Pissarro's usual colour palette.

Process pictures

Final Artwork

Edvard Munch

Munch has a very distinct style, characterized by soft brushstrokes, unique colour choices, outlines, and the iconic i-shaped sun/moon reflection.

Painting of people dancing by the ocean at night. In the foreground are three women.
On the left, she is wearing a white dress. In the middle, she is wearing a red dress and dancing with a man.
On the right, she is wearing a black dress, alone, her hands folded.

“Livets dans”, 1889 - 1900

Painting of the moon reflecting in the ocean at night.

“Måneskinn”, 1895

The pokémon I chose for Munch was, of course, Psyduck, due to the similarity in Psyduck's classic pose to “The Scream”.

Process Pictures

Final Artwork

Jean Metzinger

Cubistic painting of a table with fruits and cups.

“Nature Morte”, 1911

Cubistic painting of two naked people. The background is abstract.

“Deux Nus”, 1910-1911

He does cubism, which is hard. So, to make things easier for myself, I chose Porygon as his Pokémon, since it is already cubism-ified.

Process Pictures

Final Artwork

Alphonse Mucha

Mucha is iconic for the Art Noveau period, and his artworks are characterized by floral details, thick outlines, geometric shapes in the background, and a focus on the feminine.