A Retro Ignition: Pokémon #004 Charmander (Pokémon Day Special!)

What better time to kick off the next stage of my challenge than right now?

This week is extra special because February 27th is officially Pokémon Day! It’s the anniversary of when the very first games were released in Japan all those years ago.

To celebrate in style, I’ve decided to seriously turn up the heat here on the blog. Instead of spreading them out over weeks, I’m going to release the entire fire-starter evolution family over the course of this week!

Today, we start at the very beginning with the absolute fan-favourite: #004 Charmander.

Meeting Charmander

If you aren’t familiar with this little guy, Charmander is a mild-mannered orange lizard, instantly recognisable by the flame burning perpetually on the tip of its tail.

Lore says the flame indicates its life force and mood—it wavers when he’s happy and blazes fiercely when he’s angry. I was excited to try and capture that blaze in book form!

A Retro Design Shift

For the first three books in this challenge (the Bulbasaur family), I stuck to a clean, smooth line-art style to keep them looking cohesive. But for Charmander, I decided it was time to mix things up a little and pay homage to those original Game Boy games where it all started.

I went retro!

This design is fully pixelated, made up of tiny block squares rather than swooping curves. To maintain some consistency across the whole collection, I still used my trusty standard cut-and-fold technique, and I still inserted black cardstock to define the outlines. But instead of smooth edges, the black cardstock now defines the individual “pixels,” giving the whole book a very distinct, old-school gaming vibe.

The Peril of Pixels

Switching to a pixelated design was an interesting experience craft-wise. You might think a design made entirely of straight lines and squares would be easier than complex curves.

In a way, the actual folding process was quite straightforward and relaxed. It was an “easy” project in terms of technique. However, I quickly discovered that pixel designs are surprisingly unforgiving!

Because the entire image relies on perfectly straight grid lines, if a fold is even a millimetre off, it sticks out like a sore thumb. With curved designs, you can sometimes hide tiny imperfections, but with pixels, there is nowhere to hide. I had to be really precise with my measurements and creasing to ensure those blocky edges lined up perfectly straight.

Bringing the Heat

Once the precision folding was done, it was time to add the colour. I grabbed my trusty Promarkers again to bring him to life.

Interestingly, although the actual technique of colouring in these pixel blocks was straightforward it was actually deceptively time-consuming. Filling in so many tiny individual squares seemed to take forever! But it was worth it to see those bright oranges and the vibrant yellows and reds of the tail flame glowing against the stark black cardstock outlines.

I am really enjoying this retro look on the shelf; it really stands out against the smooth lines of the previous three.

That’s the first fire-type done and dusted to kick off our Pokémon Day celebrations. Keep your eyes peeled, because later this week Charmander gets bigger, redder, and a lot more attitude-filled as we move on to #005 Charmeleon.