Mega Raichu X&Y

In my first posted Pokémon artwork, starring Mudkip, I explored using graphics to create a design from an illustration. I hoped this would give the artwork a more unique identity than painting a background or leaving it blank. Continuing with this idea, I wanted to illustrate and create a design of the newly introduced Mega Evolutions for the upcoming Pokémon Legends: Z-A.
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Mega Raichu X & Y
For this piece, I decided to put both forms of the Pokémon together, which presented an interesting challenge posing them. I played around with whether the two would interact cooperatively or competitively, but couldn't find a way to make this fit with the style that this series has been following, and so the poses I settled on were more ambiguous.
This changed when I reached the graphics stage for two reason. Firstly, I wanted to incorporate the letters "X" and "Y" in the background, coloured blue and red respectively, and this contrast in colour naturally presented them in a clash. Next, when thinking about how to add the text of their names in the piece, I came up with a clever solution that made the piece feel like a magazine cover while still clearly reading "Mega Raichu". This followed the book cover theme of the previous pieces, and also cemented the competitive nature between them.