The recent thread about altered art on cards has me really wanting a work of art done on a card or even in general by an actual Pokemon artist. Im aware of the prints that Sugamori has done like the ones on display at worlds this year, and I have been doing some digging on Arita but can only really find that you basically have to catch him at a event he will be at…since these odds are not really in my favor, I was wondering if anyone has tried to go down this route before to get commission work done via mail/email exc…Im finding that the Japanese artists really keep to themselves VS American artists like on the MTG side of things.
Im sure the legality of TPC owning the rights to the Pokemon species themselves would play a part in this but idk.
I find this really unlikely to happen or will require a substantial sum for you to get any commission work done specifically for you. The fact that aside from Arita, all autographs from the other illustrators are already difficult to find really illustrates the reluctance of any Pokemon artists wanting to do private individual artwork, and contacting them would not be an easy feat. Of course, this can be solved with more money. The more money you put on the table, the more I’m sure you can reach out to artists wanting to do commissioning work for you. However, I’m quite confident a lot of people had the same thinking as you and reached out to artists with terrible offers/begging for commissions, making them even more reluctant to do anything on a worldwide level. No joke, Arita is by far the most fan-friendly I think in regards to signing, sketching and having an online presence, and on his website he has this listed:
Read This First DON’T ASK ME ABOUT THE UPCOMING EVENT SCHEDULE INDIVIDUALLY. I’ll make a post in EVENT category when I certainly get the agreement to attend the upcoming event. If you don’t see anything in there, it just means I don’t have any plan. If you really want to have me at the event in your area, please suggest to the event. If a lot of people do that, the organizer would be thinking seriously to have me. I DO NOTHING OUTSIDE OF THE EVENT Please don’t ask me about mailing service. If you want to get something, please come to the event that I’ll attend. You can check future event schedule from here. Also, I’ll not hang out with anybody who just wants to get something. I AM NOT AN EMPLOYEE, JUST A FREELANCER I can’t help you to get a job related to Pokemon TCG. Basically, I’ll ignore anything about these. I hope you will understand it. Thanks.
I think that’s what you meant by your digging, and it really shows that he himself gets constantly bombarded by bad requests that he purposely took a Japanese Event page on his website and made a specific English text for people to stop hounding him. This really showed how frustrated he is about the overall situation, and I guess he thinks that if you manage to put the effort to chase him down at an event, you must show at the very least some seriousness in your request.
Yeah, next year at worlds I’ll have to see what I can accomplish. I was on the fence about buying someone’s wrist band for a signing this year and have been kicking myself since.