Today was another day for my coach Sylvia to pass by, and we made the decision to immediately start drawing, since we know from experience that whenever we start doing drawings AFTER we walked our Labradoodle Yani in the nearby forest, there won't be enough time left to start drawing, let alone detailing our artworks.

Sylvia remembered doing her picture of Houndoom, a Johto Pokémon, so she apparently decided on going on with this trend and create another illustration of a Johto Pokémon. This time she chose the Gen 2 Grass type Starter, Chikorita! I think this is a really interesting and surprisingly fun choice, because I've noticed that Chikorita gets a lot of hate from the fans (which it doesn't deserve), simply because it is the Starter the player will struggle the most with when fighting against the first couple Gym Leaders, especially Falkner, the Flying type Gym Leader from Violet City. Actually, back when I booted up a ROM of Gold Version on a PC emulator a year or so ago, I picked Chikorita as my Starter. And it honestly wasn't that big of a hassle for me, especially because some early-route Pokémon in Johto level up quite quickly. There might be a type disadvantage, but if you play strategically and teach your monsters the right attacks, I promise you you won't struggle as much as when you use just the basic options given to you. Sure, having to grind your chosen Starter, a Pidgey, a Rattata, a Sentret and a Metapod up a dozen levels before being able to overcome the first major challenge in the game, sucks. But Pokémon has always been about strategies and elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors, and you can play with this and tweak certain battle elements in order to get the upper hand, like using potions and berries at the right time.

Tell me what you think of Sylvia's amazing work on this drawing! I'd love to hear your opinions! 🍐🍃