Pokémon Art Academy

I was once told by my GCSE art teacher that, though I wasn't very good at art, I was a champion-level critic. Mr Baines was right: I can't draw for toffee.

So when I had the opportunity to improve my drawing skills in Pokémon Art Academy I leapt at the chance. My new teacher is Professor Andy, and he's set up the titular academy to help artists around the Pokéworld draw better Pikachus.

In some respects, like Mr Baines before him, Professor Andy has failed me. I still can't draw a decent Ditto. However, if you're a budding arty type with a 3DS, there's a lot to like here.

Lily is really bad at drawing

The "campaign" is essentially a series of tutorials. These guide you through the basics and onto more advanced techniques.

After that you move on to even harder stuff that made my head spin and my hand ache.

I found it difficult enough to cope with the first tutorials, let alone the later ones. But that's predominantly due to me being an incompetent artist.

The game starts you off with outlines to trace and colour in. After that you start dabbling with perspective and shading.

Tougher lessons see you drawing from basic shapes rather than a predefined pattern. You have a picture to work from at the top of the screen, which helps.

A girl named Lily joins you at your digital easel. She's used to highlight potential pitfalls. She'll colour outside the lines, completely screw up the dimensions, and make plenty of other mistakes.

She's a neat tool to make you feel less terrible about the atrocities you commit to paper.

If you think you'll make as many mistakes as Lily (or myself) then you'll be happy to know that undoing a brush stroke is as simple as tapping the left shoulder button.

Accessing the pastels, pens, pencils, and other tools you need for each job involves tapping a small button at the bottom of the touchscreen.

You can zoom into your drawing by pressing up and down on the D-Pad, and the Circle Pad lets you scroll around the image.

The 3DS makes for a surprisingly useful artistic tool, albeit with one exception: it can't detect pressure. That's not going to be an issue for the younger audience that this game is aimed at though.

Graduating

Each of the main tutorials is complemented by additional smaller lessons that serve to reinforce what you've learned. These also unlock more content in the game, such as new Pokémon portraits to work from.

The main issue is that Pokémon Art Academy can't really teach you to be good at drawing. It can only teach you the techniques that an artist needs.

It'll teach you about layers, sketching, and methodology, but actually implementing them is all down to you. The game also doesn't judge your drawings, so you can draw anything you want and still progress.

However, if you're prepared to put in the time, and you're actively interested in visual art, there's so much here to fascinate and delight.

You learn as you practise, and there's a great satisfaction when you finish a drawing of an Oshawott and it all just works.

You can share your creations on Miiverse, export them as a 1024x768 .JPG, and use them in SpotPass too.

The game also reveals small pointers about capturing the essence of Pokémon that fans will appreciate. It certainly gave me a better understanding of the craft behind making a Pokémon.

Pokémon Art Academy is a fun learning tool. It's not a replacement for Photoshop, but it's a tentative step in that direction that's straightforward and easy to understand.

Pokémon Art Academy

Pokémon Art Academy won't make up for you being inherently bad at art, but if you're interested in Pokémon, and drawing, it's a solid purchase
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Peter Willington
Peter Willington
Die hard Suda 51 fan and professed Cherry Coke addict, freelancer Peter Willington was initially set for a career in showbiz, training for half a decade to walk the boards. Realising that there's no money in acting, he decided instead to make his fortune in writing about video games. Peter never learns from his mistakes.