Pokemon Art Academy

Pokemon Art Academy is a 2014 educational drawing game developed by Headstrong Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is a spin-off of the Art Academy series featuring characters from the Pokémon media franchise. The game was made available as both a retail and downloadable release from the Nintendo eShop, and is the first 3DS title with built-in Miiverse support for sharing artwork. Pokémon Art Academy is an educational art game designed to teach players how to draw various Pokémon characters through 40 advancing lessons.

Players progress through three skill levels – Novice, Apprentice, and Graduate – while learning new techniques and art concepts, with additional tools such as pastel and paintbrush being unlocked along the way. The Novice course begins with skills such as drawing head-on portraits, angles, and construction shapes, while later stages introduce shading, hatching, opacity, and freehand sketches. Each drawing can be transferred to a Pokémon Trading Card Game card border upon completion, with the option to add a background image.

The game also includes a Free Paint Mode that allows players to draw whatever they wish, with the option to load templates as reference, as well as Quick Sketch Mode, which requires making a simple drawing with limited tools. Additional templates can be obtained by progressing through lessons, or as downloadable content through special promotions over Nintendo Network. Pokémon Art Academy features Miiverse functionality that allows for drawings to be uploaded to Nintendo’s Miiverse Community, as well as take part in art contests. 

Unlike the main Art Academy series, this title features non-traditional tools such as layers and an undo function. These digital art tools are usually avoided in past titles to encourage an authentic experience with traditional art, albeit on a digital medium. Since Pokémon Art Academy is focused on teaching drawing Pokémon characters, a series geared toward young children (albeit not specifically), this title is lenient with these digital tools.