Artist dared to dream about the Pokemon GO concept years before its release

Many people might have thought about the idea of catching Pokemon in the real world before the release of Pokemon GO this year, but taking that concept and presenting it in art-form is a completely different story.

Well, that's exactly what Dane Cozens did.

Back in 2013 the illustrator and concept artist started to put together a series of pieces that would make any Pokemon fan dare to dream. Cozens' realism-styled Pokemon artwork proved to be a hit with fans of the franchise and as a result of such a warm reception, he decided to pursue a career in this field.

Cozens' first piece, which can be found below, was centered around one of the most popular Pokemon from the original series, Venusaur – the grass and poison type Pokemon (if you read that in a PokeDex voice, it's so much better).

As his artwork went viral, many people started to question the originality of the concept that he had portrayed.

"I think it's kind of funny how some people think I added the cell-phones after Pokemon Go was released, but I always intended for them to be designed after smart phones," Cozens told GameInformer.

"At the time, Apple was litigating against Samsung for patent infringement, which inspired me to draw a realistic Pokédex like a smart phone."

The smartphone, or PokeDex, that Cozens describes is very much a hallmark of his Pokemon concept art too, featuring in each of the three designs that he has created so far.

With Pokemon GO now available, Cozens has been enjoying the game that so nearly matches his vision for Pokemon, although he does have other ideas about the ways in which the concept could expand.

"I’d love for it to be this sci-fi world where suburban heroes go on a wilderness adventure," he said.

"In case the posters don’t show this already, I have possibly thought about a realistic Pokémon movie too much. When I think about the cinematography, I imagine a hybrid of Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are, Sean Penn’s Into The Wild, and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings.

"To me, that would be really awesome. While I was working on the posters, I listened to a lot of Alt-J, so I think it would be cool for them to do the soundtrack. Of course, I’d love to do some of the concept art and promotional art myself."

If you would like to check out more of Dane Cozens' work, head over to his official website by clicking here.

[GameInformer]