Pokemon Fan Art – What if Bulbasaur came in every type?

The Bulbasaur-as-every-type project is finally complete!  This project was so much fun and involved a lot of really great feedback from the Reddit community. I want to say thanks to everyone that gave a hand through their encouragement, ideas, and criticism.

Below is a very long compilation of all the images and blurbs about these little Bulbasaurs we drew as Normal, Bug, Fighting, Ghost, Electric, Flying, Steel, Psychic, Poison, Fire, Ice, Ground, Water, Dragon, Rock, and Dark pokemon type.

I want one, my kids want one, and its OK to admit that you’d want one. Forget about Pikachu or any of those new-gen, Pika-clone Pokemon. get on this.

Bulbasaur as a normal type has a giant puff ball on his back. What is it, it’s tail? In any case, they are snugly and warm to sleep next to. They breed rapidly and are popular pets for small children. You can buy them at any pet store. These little guys vary in size, color, and temperament. Is there a hamster type Pokemon? Someone check that.

During this project, I wanted to draw a bulba-face inspired by the animated Bulbasaur using Whirlwind. I know.. ‘what the heck?’ What is it going to learn next… dig? That would be insane. Wait, he did learn dig.

For flying bulbasaur, I admit that I was temped just to slap a jet pack on it’s back and call it a day. It’s probably one of my weakest designs.

I looked into flying dinosaurs for inspiration and I found out there are none. Apparently, they are technically flying reptiles. I didn’t fact check that or anything but it sounded smart AND it was published on the internet so seems good enough to me. (Lon Lon interjects.. what is a pterodactyl?)

Flying type Bulba is based off a Quetzalcoatlus and his color scheme from an old American flag. He doesn’t look very aerodynamic, so I expect he would fly about as well as a baked potato. Can I get a pass on this one?

This Ground type bulbasaur is one of my favorites. He’s personal to me because I drew and inked him and passed it to Lon Lon for full coloring. I think she did I really good job. We made sure the green tongue contrasted the orange-y skin and the ground still had an earthy tone without distracting from the subject.

Ground Bulbasaur is inspired by this screaming frog! Have you seen that thing?? It is real. It exists in real life. Why are we playing with Pokemon? We should all be out there digging for squeaking frogs and finding more weird animals.

But anyway… back to fantasy. Ground Bulba digs by eating the earth, dirt, or sand and it expels it out its back (like a whale?), which is how it uses its ground attacks.

Careful! Don’t scare it away… dragon type bulbasaurs are very reclusive. Can you see the sphere on its back? At this stage in it’s evolution, it has to hold the ball in place with it wings, rendering it flightless. New wings grow as it evolves (see the smaller set coming in?).

The dragon ball on its back hold all of its power and wisdom. While young and vulnerable, dragon bulba parents keep the little ones at the inner most chambers of their treasure holds. Gold sustains them, as the dragon bulba’s simply absorb nutrients through their bellies and skin.

Admittedly, I heavily based this on Smaug the Magnificent and a little pewter trinket I saw once as a kid in one of those shops you wander into and think: “how is this place still in business?”

This rock-type Bulbasaur sports a geode on its back. When he uses certain attacks, bits of the rock break off and they can be controlled as they levitate around him. Rock Bulba’s stomp can crack the earth, so be careful! Once all of the outer rock is broken, he’s ready to evolve.

The effects on this one were so much fun to draw. Lon Lon painted this one and I think she did a great job, despite me being a perfectionist. Thanks to RumbleTTT for helping inspire the idea.

The vortex on Dark bulbasaur’s back is actually very small. Everything drawn is actually energy being pulled into it. This Pokemon consumes positive energy any good thoughts or happy feelings get pulled into the vortex. The smaller balls are a Dark type leech seed attack, pulling in more energies. If there isn’t any thing around for him to leech, the leech seeds will start draining the Bulba’s positive energy, making him get very sad and depressed.

Fairy type Bulbasaur is neither pink nor is he fluffy. He is not winged or glittering with magical dust. Why? Because goblins and gremlins are fairies, too!

While brainstorming his design I tried to take in consideration how they would behave what they would do every day. These guys are thieves and mischief-makers. A lot of people asked about the sack on his back– ‘What is it?,’ ‘Where did he get it?,’ ‘Is it something he found and just threw on his back or did it grow?’

The answer is: I don’t know… But it probably has something to do with fairy magic. Fairy magic, by definition, cannot be explained . The colors were inspired by these little guys from Breath of Fire 2.

I had a few challenges making a Steel typed Bulbasaur. Mainly because I wasn’t sure which direction I wanted to take. I ended up sketching out 3 different ideas.

The first little guy is some sort of Helmet-mon. I don’t know how this kind of adaption would actually help him out in the wild or in a battle but, it sure does look funny. Second, I made a tank Bulba. I have mixed feelings about him but he kinda looks badass.  Lastly, I was inspired by Sven from Dota 2 and created sword & shield Bulbasaur.

Depending on feedback with these guys, I thought I might take the most popular one and do a more thorough drawing.

By the time I started designing a psychic type Bulbasaur, I realized I wanted to push the design a bit more. See what could be done other than just replacing his bulb with an element of the new typing.  With those thoughts in mind, Psychic type was created. A little guy that rides on a floating crystal ball and uses tarot cards like a razor leaf attack!

I later realized there is something actually unsettling about seeing a Bulbasaur with nothing on its back. It just doesn’t look right.

I had a lot of fun with Ghost type bulbasaur, even with drawing all those chain links. Ghost Bulbasaur possesses a tombstone and, after 100 years, rises from the grave.

Sometimes all you can see is the tombstone floating in the air. Ethereal ghostly chains make for a great vine whip attack. The padlocks were inspired by  Jacob Marley from A Christmas Carol.

When I asked my daughter what type of Bulbasaur would this be, she said “umm… lock type?”

I’m honestly not that big a fan of bug type Pokemon.

My first attempt at bug type Bulbasaur was to make him look like an arachnid. The idea was to have a huge, bulb-like abdoment on his back and lots of creepy little legs. The result? It was just wrong. It didn’t work with bulbasaur’s face. I also tried a scorpion but… Eventually I had to settle for a cutesy looking bug type Bulbasaur.

My design for Ice type Bulbasaur was neat and I enjoyed trying to get the ice fragments just right. I imagine he would shoots out ice shards in a path in place of the standard vine whip attack, and he’d have frosty breath.

When I started drawing fighting type Bulbasaur, this was the first thought. It started as a joke, I promise! But… I think I like it.

This little dude is a glass cannon, putting all of his attack into one punch. I suppose that, if it misses, he’d be in trouble. It takes a long time to rewind that spring coil.

Poison type Bulbasaur got a lot of great feedback, too.  I came up with 3 designs for this one as well, unsure of where I wanted to go with it. I agree with some comments that the first one is too much like Muk, and Bulbasaur loses a lot of his shape/cuteness.  The second one I imagine would shoot smoke bombs from a gelatinous mass of toxic goo on its back.  The third is probably my favorite, a poison type Bulbasaur that can throw poisonous quills from his back.

Water Bulbasaur is one of the first 3 I drew in this massive Bulbasaur-as-every-type-Pokemon project.

I thought I should call him ‘Bubblesaur.’ I imagine he’d be very lazy and enjoy sunbathing on the beach. Bubblesaur would make bubble nests on his back that him float.

I imagined that an electric type Bulbasaur would need a lot of energy to keep going. So I thought I’d draw him consuming electricity from a light pole.

 Last but not least, the very first Bulbasaur as every type drawing I did… Fire type. I’ve had this idea for years,  and am so glad I finally got around to drawing him.

Of the suggested names provided, I really liked Bulbasear, Bulbascorch, and Embersaur.

I think he would be aggressive, but the truth is that he can’t use any fire attacks yet.

I can’t say enough how fun this project was. I really can’t wait to start doing more cross typed pokemon, starting with a water typed Charmander. The idea seemed to get some good ground on the Reddit community, which lead to someone making a subreddit /r/deltaproject.