Pokemon Card Inspires Cool Gyarados Wood Carving

One reason Pokemon's endured as a franchise is because its iconic monster designs grab onto fans and never let go, no matter how many years pass. One artist decided to go ahead and make a wood carving featuring an old childhood favorite: Gyarados from Gen 1.

The artist, who goes by "FrigginBoomToys," runs a YouTube channel about designing cosplay and props (and then doing parkour while wearing some of those props). The Gyarados wood engraving is a break from tradition, but it's soothing to watch the piece evolve (hah) from a simple sketch on a piece of wood to a finished, fully varnished piece.

The Gyarados design FrigginBoomToys chose is based on the "Misty's Gyarados" Pokemon card. FrigginBoomToys didn't engrave the entire card (though he admits he might give it a try one day) but decided to focus on the titular Gyarados splashing up a storm in the card's illustration. FrigginBoomToys also admits the engraving job is a little therapeutic, because Gyarados was the one Pokemon he found a bit too difficult to draw as a child.

Gyarados definitely has a complicated design compared to many of Gen One's Pokemon. See, Ditto is a good Pokemon to illustrate if you want to start off simple. Draw a piece of gum that's been stepped on, then raised up a bit as if the person who stepped on it is checking the bottom of their foot. Add dot eyes and a gormless smile. Boom, you're done.

FrigginBoomToys hopes to do more Pokemon wood carvings in the future. He'll certainly have an audience when he gets around to it: Pokemon Let's Go sold like crazy on the Switch last year, and we're on the edge of our seats waiting to hear some scrap of information about Pokemon Gen 8. Maybe FrigginBoomToys can make one wood engraving for every Pokemon in the menagerie. Come on, there's only 721 of them. No big.