Ponyta Portrait

This portrait was the final assignment of Beginning Painting, which I took as a course at Juniata College as an undergraduate student. We were tasked with recreating a classical art piece of our choice (among the pre-curated options provided by our professor), BUT to change part of the piece to make it our own.

In the original painting I imitated, the young woman holds a unicorn in her lap. I chose to change the unicorn into the Pokemon "Ponyta," a young horse with a flaming mane. I used photographic references of flames in an attempt to make the fire as realistic as possible, to match the hyper-realism of the original unicorn foal. My professor advised that I add another subtle detail to indicate that my piece was referencing the Pokemon franchise, so I added some additional Pokemon to the background of the piece; Charmander, Charmeleon, and Charizard (the first-generation fire-type starter and its evolution line).

The still photo below depicts the final illustration; the embedded YouTube video showcases a series of "work-in-progress" photos that I took throughout the creation of the piece.