PN Featured Artist: Toby Allen

The PN Featured artist of the week is the very talented and creative, Toby Allen (@zestydoesthings). He does a wide variety of artwork and has created his very own unique ‘Real Monsters’ characters. He gets his inspiration from many different things ranging from Pokémon to Nintendo, and even a few things from reality that we all have to deal with everyday. These are just a few of his amazing pieces but if you’d like to see more there will be a link at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

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KD: Is there a specific art program you like to use? Or do you prefer drawing with pencil and paper?

TA: I use photoshop for almost all of my work. occasionally picking up a pencil and sketching out ideas when I’m on the go. I prefer to work digitally because im quite clumsy with traditional mediums and tend to make to much mess!

KD: I noticed quite a few original pieces on your page. Do you like to doodle a lot or is drawing something you have to make time for?

TA:  I work full-time as a freelance illustrator, within the games and children’s book industries, so I spend 90% of my time drawing. Whenever I have spare time in between freelance projects (which isn’t very often) I like to draw for fun indulging in fan art based on my latest gaming obsession or working on original pieces to relax.

KD: What made you want to start drawing Pokémon?

TA: I Have always loved the Pokémon series, with Pokémon Red being one of the first games I ever played, so one day I thought it would be a fun challenge to draw all the original 151 Pokémon and put my own spin on the very well known characters. It was also a test of whether I could keep up a daily challenge like this and 5 months later, I’m pleased to say that I did! 

 

KD: If you had to choose, what is your favorite Pokémon of all time?

TA: Oooh that’s a toughy… I’d probably have to choose Trubbish! Even though I’ll admit I’m a big sucker for cute Pokémon, there is something so endearing an loveable about Trubbish. If you don’t agree with that, then watch the Pokémon anime episode called ‘Here comes the Trubbish squad!’, you wont regret it.

 

KD: Your ‘Real Monster’ pieces are amazing. I really like how you took the symptoms of many real life human disorders and created monsters from them. What inspired you to do this?

TA: Thank you! The project was originally inspired by my own troubles with anxiety and a coping mechanism that involved imagining the condition as a little minister that I could flick off of my shoulder. I developed the project to help other people dealing with a multitude of other conditions. The designs of the monsters were very much inspired by Pokémon and the cool creature designs found in other RPG style games.

 

 

KD: What’s your favorite ‘Real Monster’ out of the bunch?

TA: Probably Anxiety, as it directly reflects my own internal battle with the condition but in terms of design, I also really like the Depression monster because its based on one of my favorite real-life animals, manatees.

 

KD: Where can our readers check out more of your artwork?

TA: My tumblr, twitter and instagram are good places to check out my fan art and other work, which I keep updated as much as I can. My portfolio site contains more professional work, the kinds of things I get up to when not drawing Pokémon and the like. Also feel free to add me on miiverse (zestydoesthings) so I can chuck a blue shell at you next time you’re on the Mario Kart track!

Toby Allen’s blog: http://zestydoesthings.tumblr.com/

Real Monsters: http://zestydoesthings.tumblr.com/post/61131470551/the-real-monsters-are-reborn-upon-getting-so

 

 I Hope you enjoyed this weeks PN Featured Artist! Any interested artist who would like to have their artwork in the fan art section of our magazine, PNM, or displayed on the website email me at Kaelyn@purenintendo.com I would love to see it!  To see artwork from artists featured in our magazine, PNM, please go to PureNintendo.com/magazine and subscribe!