Sleepy the Sumo Snorlax

A Pokémon picture with quite a few characters I haven't drawn for a while.

So, Sleepy the Snorlax has been away from his teammates for a while, training in sumo wrestling. He feared that he was slowing the team down due to his lethargy and running up the food bills with his large appetite, so to be able to become stronger while keeping his healthy appetite, he took up a new job and a new form of combat training - becoming a food taster for Chef Candy the Slurpuff (a character I created a while ago) and training in sumo wrestling. This has resulted in Sleepy becoming quite popular - and Asumo the Pangoro has traded his usual training coat for a Sleepy the Snorlax T-Shirt..... which I'm surprised hasn't ripped under Asumo's muscular frame, and some Sleepy the Snorlax sponsored Rice Balls (I'm not changing them to ice cream or sandwiches like 4Kids stupidly did ). He's also wearing a different shirt due to Tank the Tauros attending - Tank does not take kindly to the colour red being thrust right into his face. I thought it would be a nice idea if he and Asumo were training buddies, along with Conker the Chesnaught, Knockout the Primeape and Ribby the Toxicroak.

To show his friends how he's trained, he's invited them to watch him fight against a Pokémon who volunteered to 'win over the ladies with his manly bod' - a certain Pyro the Charizard. And..... Pyro has definitely met his match. Kindle the Typhlosion is trying not to laugh at Pyro's expense, and while his son Jian the Mienfoo is entertained, Dynamique the Raichu, Tyson the Lucario (I STILL CAN'T DRAW LUCARIO'S SNOUT CORRECTLY ), Feng the Mienshao and Tinder the Cyndaquil find Pyro embarrassing. And I'm watching too and.. finding it interesting.

I tried to show a full house of spectators with coloured silhouettes in the background to show different coloured Pokémon.

I really enjoyed drawing this. I was partly inspired by how I've been looking up more anime over the past few months, how I've been really trying to research Japanese culture (Japan is a country I'd like to go on holiday to in the future) and my calendar this year shows Japanese woodcuts. As a part of drawing it, I looked up pictures of sumo rings, the judges they have during the match (Sassy the Lopunny is acting as the judge for the match and is dressed in the appropriate attire, and Bessie the Miltank is there to provide first aid - she's holding a pail of MooMoo Milk) and even some Japanese woodcarvings (Plumage the Pidgeot is cheering while holding a famous Japanese woodcarving - Toshusai Sharaku, 1794-1795  www.metmuseum.org/toah/images/… ). Buggins the Butterfree and Maestro the Kricketune are just as inspire by sumo wrestling as I am - as they're composing while watching this.