{"id":2904,"date":"2022-02-28T05:08:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-27T20:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ptcgic.creatures.co.jp\/?post_type=column&p=2904"},"modified":"2023-08-29T20:27:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T11:27:20","slug":"article-5","status":"publish","type":"column","link":"https:\/\/test.ptcgic-cr.com\/en\/column\/article-5\/","title":{"rendered":"A Conversation with the Winners of the Pok\u00e9mon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Jiro Sasumo<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Jiro Sasumo<\/strong> is an office-worker and part-time illustrator who won the second Pok\u00e9mon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix. The creative goal for Sasumo is to draw illustrations that can make the viewer feel the atmosphere and story of a particular scene as if they were there. Sasumo\u2019s favorite Pok\u00e9mon generation is Pok\u00e9mon Gold and Pok\u00e9mon Silver, and favorite Pok\u00e9mon is Charizard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yuu Nishida<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Yuu Nishida<\/strong> is an illustrator from Akita prefecture and a part-time high school teacher who won the first Pok\u00e9mon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix. Since 2019, she has been a Pok\u00e9mon TCG official illustrator. Her creative goal is to draw illustrations that fill the viewer with warmth. Nishida\u2019s favorite Pok\u00e9mon generation is Pok\u00e9mon Black and Pok\u00e9mon White, and her favorite Pok\u00e9mon is Yamask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q<\/strong>: First of all, please tell us about your careers as illustrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sasumo<\/strong>: I started drawing and publishing my art on the internet when I was still quite young. I continued doing so even after starting a career. And, after winning the second Pok\u00e9mon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix, I became a part-time professional illustrator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nishida<\/strong>: I have been drawing since I was a child. I started working as a freelance illustrator in 2017, and I\u2019ve been part of a group of illustrators from my region in Northeast Japan called the \u201cTohoku Illustrators Club.\u201d Currently, I am a part-time teacher and advisor to the art department at the high school I attended in my youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q<\/strong>: How did you learn your illustration techniques?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nishida<\/strong>: I didn’t actually have the opportunity to formally study art at school. As a junior high school student, however, I did take a correspondence drawing course. I have been drawing every single day since. I think that daily practice over the long term is the most important aspect of refining one\u2019s technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sasumo<\/strong>: I attended art school, and there, I learned about drawing and basic composition. This experience provided the groundwork for my art, but since I majored in the fine arts, the things that I learned there weren’t immediately applicable to illustration. What I think had the most direct impact in that regard is how I have been constantly drawing illustrations since I was a student and how I exposed myself to a variety of different works of art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q<\/strong>: What materials and equipment do you use to create your illustrations, and what makes you choose them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sasumo<\/strong>: I’ve been using Photoshop with a pen tablet for many years now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nishida<\/strong>: When I do it for work, I mostly draw digitally. I used to use a pen tablet, too, but I eventually made the switch to a touchscreen tablet. I like to draw as if I were doing it on paper, so being able to draw directly on the screen feels more natural to me. It\u2019s how I still do it to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q<\/strong>: And what software do you use?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nishida<\/strong>: I use CSP (Clip Studio Paint). I\u2019ve been using it for three or four years now. CSP has many brushes that recreate the feeling of a real brush, making it very easy to use. You can download all kinds of different brushes; the ones I like and use the most have a somewhat rough texture to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q<\/strong>: How familiar were you with the Pok\u00e9mon franchise to begin with?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sasumo<\/strong>: My generation has a very strong bond with Pok\u00e9mon. Many of my happiest childhood memories are associated with Pok\u00e9mon\u2014I played the video games, watched the anime on TV every week, and every year, when a new Pok\u00e9mon movie came out, I would watch it in a movie theater with my dad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also used to collect TCG cards and play against my little brother with them. We were too young to understand the actual rules, so we played according to a simpler set of rules that we had come up with on our own. Even as an adult, I\u2019ve kept following the franchise. I often see illustrators I like announcing on social media that they had provided artwork for a new Pok\u00e9mon TCG release, and every time I would be surprised by how many talented artists were working on it. Showing Pok\u00e9mon as imagined by such an incredible variety of different illustrators is a truly special feature of the TCG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nishida<\/strong>: Pok\u00e9mon has been all around me since my childhood. I received Pok\u00e9mon FireRed for the Game Boy Advance when I was in elementary school, and that was the first video game I ever played. I also love the Pok\u00e9mon anime, which I started watching with the Pok\u00e9mon: Jirachi\u2014Wish Maker movie. I started collecting the Pok\u00e9mon TCG cards while in elementary school, mainly going after cards with particularly cute or cool illustrations. One time, I even received a TCG gift box for Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Q<\/strong>: Now, let\u2019s talk about your winning illustrations for the Pok\u00e9mon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix. Tell us about the reasoning behind your choice of Pok\u00e9mon or a particular story about the process of drawing it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sasumo<\/strong>: I mainly chose to draw Charizard because I simply love them. The theme of the 2nd Pok\u00e9mon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix was \u201cPok\u00e9mon Being Cool.\u201d I was worried that using Charizard to convey coolness would be unoriginal, but what can I say? They really are cool! (Laughs.) So I stuck with my initial choice and took on the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I started drawing, I realized that fitting Charizard into this theme was very difficult. The problem was that the subject was too cool to begin with. I ended up telling myself that maybe there were a lot of other artists who could pull it off much better. If that were the case, what was the point of me drawing Charizard? Finding meaning in what I was drawing was very difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCharizard<\/a>\u201c Illustrator: Jiro Sasumo Q<\/strong>: How did you manage to do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sasumo<\/strong>: I tried too hard to make my first rough sketches look like existing trading card game illustrations. Then I realized that wasn\u2019t my style and went back to what made me think of Charizard as cool during my childhood. I changed my focus to drawing what I liked. As a kid, Charizard’s size and its sturdy look left a big impression on me. To recreate this awe, I composed the illustration from a perspective close to the ground and put emphasis on the tail. I wanted it to feel as if we\u2019re rooting for Charizard as it heads into battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n
Learning Illustration Techniques and Choosing the Materials<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Memories of Pok\u00e9mon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The Stories Behind the Contest-Winning Illustrations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\nPromo card from the second Pok\u00e9mon Card Game Illustration Grand Prix (only released in Japan)<\/p>\n\n\n\n