Completing the Trio: Pokémon #003 Venusaur
We’ve had Bulbasaur, we’ve had Ivysaur, and today it’s time for the massive finale of the very first evolution line in the Pokédex.
Following on from my last post, I am thrilled to share the completed book fold for entry number three in my “Pokémon 151 Challenge”: the mighty Venusaur. It feels like a real milestone to have the first “family” completely finished already.
Meeting Venusaur
If you’ve been following the progression, you’ll know that Venusaur is the final evolutionary stage of Bulbasaur.
That little bulb we first saw has now bloomed into a gigantic, fully-grown tree-like flower on its back. Venusaur is much bigger, wider, and looks a lot more imposing than its younger selves. Apparently, the flower on its back takes on vivid colours if it gets plenty of nutrition and sunlight, so I had to make sure my colouring did it justice!
The design approach and the right book
As I mentioned with Ivysaur, consistency is absolutely key for this project so that the whole collection looks cohesive on the shelf. Once again, I stuck strictly to the same clean line-art style, using the standard cut-and-fold technique with black cardstock inserts for those crisp outlines.
However, to reflect Venusaur’s imposing bulk compared to its pre-evolutions, I knew a standard-sized book just wouldn’t cut it. He is, after all, “a wide boy”! I specifically hunted down a shorter but much thicker book for this project, landing on a hefty 650-page tome. This gave me the canvas width needed to really convey his size.
Battling the paper (again!)
While the squat, thick dimensions of the book were perfect for Venusaur’s bulk, the actual printing inside presented a major challenge. The original text on the pages was printed very close to the outer edges. This meant that as soon as I started folding the tabs over, the dark text was right there on the fold line, showing through messily.
Honestly, it looked so bad at one point that it nearly made me abandon this specific book entirely! But I decided to push through, hoping the final colouring would disguise it.
Once again, I grabbed my trusty Promarkers to bring him to life. Interestingly, despite the massive size change, Venusaur’s main body, leaf, and flower colours match Ivysaur exactly, so I was able to use the same pens again. The only new addition to the palette was a bright yellow for the newly formed tree trunk on his back. I painstakingly coloured deep into the folds as well as the edges for the best coverage.
Thankfully, I stuck with it. While that print show-through was incredibly annoying during the process, the final dark colouring has hidden most of it, and I’m really happy with how the final piece turned out.
Three down, one family complete!
I have to say, seeing the finished Venusaur sitting proudly next to Bulbasaur and Ivysaur is incredibly satisfying. You can really see the clear progression in size and growth across the three books, even in folded paper form.
That’s #003 done and dusted! Next time, we are switching gears—and colour palettes—entirely as we move on to the fire-type starter family, beginning with #004 Charmander.
