I remember this one from the stream, nice one Chris!

Thanks, Steven!  I'm glad that's what you got out of it! 

Some artists followed the GBC restrictions a lot more loosely, albeit to a far greater visual effect, to be honest.
It's true that in my case, I wanted to be more faithful to GBC graphics, and to study how they affected the way Pokémon games look. I also really liked the brown-blue-white palette the original Cianwood town had, and I didn't want to detract from that with green vegetation or other things.
I saw Johto Redrawn less as an opportunity to make a polished reskin, and more as an opportunity to creatively re-imagine parts of the game while keeping a GBC aesthetic!

On the one hand it's kind of a pity the artists are all expected to stay within GBC restrictions, since HeartGold and SoulSilver have me intrigued in a remade version of Johto where the kid gloves are taken off and the artists flex their muscles. On the other hand, staying within restrictions (even to a certain extent) is a fun challenge in and of itself, and this piece is difficult to fault for its aesthetic faithfulness - it's a testament to your skill in adoption and adaptation. You could have given me this map without the 'Johto redrawn' context and passed it off as beta content or a Japan-exclusive thing, and I would be none the wiser.