Pokemon Fan Makes Impressive Watercolor Painting of Dragonite

Highlights

• Scottish artist Kelly Duncan captures Dragonite’s friendly demeanor in a beautiful watercolor painting, adding it to her portfolio of Pokemon artwork.
• Dragonite, despite being an original first-generation Pokemon, still has a strong fanbase and is considered a valuable addition to a player’s team.
• Early Pokemon media portrayed Dragonite as a rare and mysterious creature, known for its friendly and helpful nature, which contributes to its enduring popularity.

A Pokemon fan recently shared their remarkable watercolor painting of Dragonite. The evolved form of Dragonair, Dragonite was part of the original 150 Pokemon included in Generation 1.

The card game and the first generation of Pokemon video games launched in Japan in 1996 and arrived in the US and Europe in 1998. While the franchise’s roster has grown steadily over the last 26 years, many first-generation Pokemon remain popular. While Pikachu is the series mascot and the starters and their evolved forms get a lot of attention, the Flying Dragon Type Pokemon Dragonite still has plenty of fans.

Scottish artist and illustrator Kelly Duncan seems to be one of those people. The artist’s latest creation, shared on Reddit, adds Dragonite to their catalog of watercolor Pokemon. The painting shows the Dragon Pokemon waving at the viewer, the same pose used in some official artwork. The artist shared their creation on the Pokemon subreddit, where it was met with positivity. One person even suggested that Duncan should try to get a job as an official illustrator for Nintendo.

Duncan’s style does an excellent job of capturing the friendly demeanor that Dragonite’s official artwork tries to convey. Its design already wouldn’t look out of place in a children’s book, and the watercolors only add to that effect. The Pokemon is surrounded by splattered orange and blue paint, a style that Duncan uses in their other artwork. While she advertises her watercolor depictions of animals, her portfolio also includes several Pokemon. Previous paintings include depictions of Squirtle, Pikachu, Charmander, Gengar, and the Eevee evolutions Leafeon, Vaporeon, Flareon, and Jolteon.

Dragonite evolves from the more serpentine Dratini and Dragonair, gaining arms, legs, wings, and a visible mouth. Dragonite can access a wide range of Moves in Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet. These include Normal, Dragon, Water, Fire, Flying, Psychic, and Electric attacks from leveling, and Dark, Rock, and Fighting Moves from Technical Machines. The Pokemon is still a valuable addition to a player’s team despite its origin being nearly three decades ago.

Early Pokemon media played up its rarity and mysterious qualities. The Pokemon anime, for example, introduced Dragonite as an enigmatic creature unknown to humans. Sometimes called the “sea guardian” or “sea incarnate,” Dragonite is a large but friendly Pokemon with human-level intelligence and a penchant for saving people from drowning and guiding sinking ships to safety. It’s hard to say whether it’s battle performance, cute design, or friendliness that makes Dragonite so popular, though Kelly Duncan’s artwork definitely emphasizes the latter two.