After that last pic, I thought I'd post something a little more happy...this was something I did in art class awhile back, started out as a rough pencil sketch. My renditions of a Pichu, a Pikachu, and a Raichu. I like the way they look in the anime/games, yes, but I wanted to try them in my own style. Which was a little difficult because I didn't have references. I've looked at Pikachus enough to memorize every trait that they have, but the Raichu and the Pichu especially were pretty tough. I think I forgot a few things on the Pichu, it STILL doesn't look right. =/

This was a color experiment in which I did the background first over the main drawing layer before adding the colors in the characters. It worked pretty well--it also garauntees that there won't be any fuzzy white lines around the drawing itself. The background was sort of a cheat, really...I used several grunge-brushes for the effects, then added the Smudge tool in to give it a less choppy effect. I think it turned out okay.

Raichu, Pikachu, Pichu © Nintendo/Gamefreaks, Inc.