Illustration contests: Difference between revisions

Illustration contests are contests in which entrants are invited to send in illustrations of requested Pokémon, and have them featured on a card in the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Shogakukan are the primary hosts of the contests in Japan, with the majority of them held through their monthly publications, such as CoroCoro Comic. Wizards of the Coast and Pokémon USA have also held contests in North America. The following is a list of contests held in conjunction with the TCG.

Pokémon Card Game Illust Artist Contest

The first illustration contest was publicized in the November 1997 issue of CoroCoro Comic, released on October 15, 1997 and invited readers to draw and submit their favorite Pokémon. The winning entries were announced in the January 1998 issue of CoroCoro Comic, released in December 1997. Three entrants received the Best Award, each of them receiving 20 copies of a Pokémon trading card featuring their illustration and a special Pokémon Illustrator promotional card. These cards were subsequently printed as part of Extended Sheet 1, available in special vending machines from March 23, 1998. 20 entrants were also selected for the Excellence Award, all of them receiving the Pokémon Illustrator promotional card. 100 entrants received the Special Award, each of them receiving a 1998 Pokémon Original Calendar.

Poliwrath Illus. Yuuki Kawamura

Snorlax Illus. Keita Takahashi

Mr. Mime Illus. Kasumi Matsuda

Mewtwo's Counterattack Commemoration Illust Artist Contest

Another illustration contest was publicized in the May 1998 issue of CoroCoro Comic, released in April 1998, in commemoration of the upcoming Pokémon movie in July of that year. The contest invited readers to create their own original Pokémon trading card, and was divided into two categories: illustration and attacks. The winning entries were announced in the July 1998 issue of CoroCoro Comic, released in June 1998. One entrant received the Best Award in terms of illustration and attacks, receiving 20 physical copies of their card and a Pokémon Illustrator promotional card. This card was later printed as part of Extended Sheet 3, available from November 24, 1998. Four entrants received the Excellence Award in the illustration category and three entrants received the Excellence Award in the attack category, each of them receiving a Pokémon Illustrator promotional card. 30 entrants received the Special Award, each of them receiving a Mewtwo's Counterattack and Pikachu's Summer Vacation teaser poster.

Mewtwo Illus. Kazuhiko Nishihara

Pikachu's Summer Vacation Commemoration Illust Artist Contest

A third illustration contest through CoroCoro Comic was publicized in the June 1998 issue, released in May 1998, commemorating the upcoming Pikachu short attached to Mewtwo's Counterattack. This contest was similar to the previous one, with both an illustration category and an attack category. Winning entries were announced in the August 1998 issue of CoroCoro Comic, released in July 1998. Although there was no Best Award, the four entrants selected for the Excellence Award in both the illustration category and attack category each received a Pokémon Illustrator promotional card. 30 entrants received the Special Award, each of them receiving a Pokémon Pikachu.

CoroCoro Best Photo Contest

CoroCoro Comic held another contest in May 1999 and invited readers to take interesting pictures of Pokémon from the recently released Pokémon Snap and submit them in the Best Photo Contest. The top five winning entries had their artwork featured on reprints from Expansion Pack. The five winners each received 20 copies of their card.

Bulbasaur Photo. Yuuki Tanaka

Poliwag Photo. Hiroyuki Sasaki

Magikarp Photo. Yuka Matsubara

Gyarados Photo. Ryouichi Abe

Pikachu Photo. Mina Akuhara

64 Mario Stadium Best Photo Contest

Much like the CoroCoro Comic contest, the TV Tokyo variety show 64 Mario Stadium also held a Best Photo Contest in May 1999. The top five winning entries had their Pokémon Snap photographs featured on reprints from Expansion Pack. The exact number of these cards in existence is unknown.

Koffing Photo. Natsu Sato

Charmander Photo. Tsukasa Hosono

Squirtle Photo. Miyuki Ogino

Articuno Photo. Yui Tanaka

Chansey Photo. Kaori Samoya

2002 Wizards Pokémon Illustration Contest

In mid 2002, Wizards of the Coast also ran an illustration competition for the English version of Keita Takahashi's Pokémon Card Game Illust Artist Contest entry. The chosen image was created by Craig Turvey.

Snorlax Illus. Craig Turvey

Poké Card Creator Contest

The Poké Card Creator Contest was a contest held by Kids' WB! in 2004. Applicants aged between five and fifteen were invited to create an image of one of five pre-selected Pokémon and submit it to Kids' WB! between February 16 and April 10, 2004. Pokémon USA designed five new cards using the winning illustrations. A total of 5250 Poké Card Creator Packs were distributed in July 2004; 50 packs to each of the five grand prize winners, and one pack to 5000 first prize winners. The grand prize winners also won a $500 Target gift card.

Treecko Illus. Mark Kraus

Wurmple Illus. Katie Gross

Torchic Illus. May Do

Mudkip Illus. Rowan Laidlaw

Pikachu Illus. Sylvia Forrest

2009 Pokémon Card Design Contest

In 2009, Shogakukan held the Pokémon Card Design Contest through many of their publications. Entrants were invited to design the artwork for Spiky-eared Pichu and Arceus. Aside from two magazines that held contests for original drawings, each one provided an outline of the requested Pokémon drawn by professional illustrators (whose artwork were also featured on the cards in the Movie Commemoration Random Pack). This contest was restricted to residents of Japan and had varying application periods across participating publications:

• Kindergarten; Televi-Kun; Elementary School 1st Grade: February 28 - March 31, 2009
• Elementary School 2nd Grade - Elementary School 6th Grade: March 3 - April 2, 2009
• CoroCoro Comic; Pucchigumi: March 14 - April 14, 2009
• Pokémon Fan: March 18 - April 20, 2009
• CoroCoro Ichiban!: March 25 - April 24, 2009

Cards were distributed in conjunction with theatrical release of Arceus: To a Conquering Spacetime on July 18, 2009.

A total of 552 winning entries were chosen across the twelve publications, broken down into four bands:

• Best award (1 winner; 12 total): 13 sets of the winning cards and a limited edition Daisuki Club Giratina Nintendo DS Lite.
• Excellence award (5 winners; 60 total): Jumbo copy of the entry along with a DX Monster Ball DP
• Special award (10 winners; 120 total): One copy of Pikachu's Ice Adventure DVD
• Lucky award (30 winners; 360 total): One Garchomp vs Charizard SP Deck Kit

It is unknown if there were 100 copies of the selected entries distributed to each of the winners due to the low numbers of complete sets that have surfaced within the collector community. It is speculated that there may only be twelve sets - one for each of the winners.

Spiky-eared Pichu Kindergarten winner Illus. Shunsuke Takemori	Spiky-eared Pichu Elementary 1st Grade winner Illus. Haruka Uekura	Spiky-eared Pichu Elementary 2nd Grade winner Illus. Taisei Fujita	Arceus Elementary 3rd Grade winner Illus. Shoki Nakamura	Arceus Elementary 4th Grade winner Illus. Arisa Sugino
Arceus Elementary 5th Grade winner Illus. Meiko Akiba	Arceus Elementary 6th Grade winner Illus. Mikako Nishizaki	Spiky-eared Pichu Televi-Kun winner Illus. Keita Mizuno	Arceus CoroCoro Comic winner Illus. Hikaru Okawa	Spiky-eared Pichu Pucchigumi winner Illus. Mahiro Shinozaki
Spiky-eared Pichu Pokémon Fan winner Illus. Shizuka Kusakabe	Arceus CoroCoro Ichiban! winner Illus. Ryoga Kawai	Spiky-eared Pichu Weekly Shonen Sunday winner Illus. Gosho Aoyama	Arceus Shonen Sunday winner Illus. Natsumi Nishiyama

2010 Pokémon Card Design Contest

In 2010, Shogakukan held another Pokémon Card Design Contest through many of their publications. Entrants were invited to design the artwork for Illusion's Zorua and Illusion's Zoroark, again using a pre-drawn template. This contest, much like the one held in 2009, was restricted to residents of Japan. The application period across all publications ran from February 20 to April 2, 2010. Winners were announced on July 27, 2010.

A total of 660 winning entries were chosen across the ten publications, broken down into four bands:

• Best award (1 winner; 10 total): 10 sets of the winning cards, a Nintendo DSi, and a copy of Pokémon Ranger: Locus of Light
• Excellence award (5 winners; 50 total): One Johto Pokédex
• Special award (10 winners; 100 total): One copy of Pokémon HeartGold & Pokémon SoulSilver: Super Music Collection
• Lucky award (50 winners; 500 total): Five booster packs of Reviving Legends

All selected entrants also received the regular prints of Illusion's Zorua and Illusion's Zoroark (660 total). It is also unknown if there were 100 copies of the selected entries distributed to each of the winners. It is speculated that there may only be ten sets - one for each of the winners.

Illusion's Zorua Kindergarten winner Illus. Megu Taniguchi	Illusion's Zorua Elementary 1st Grade winner Illus. Mayumi Fujimura	Illusion's Zorua Elementary 2nd Grade winner Illus. Kousuke Mori	Illusion's Zoroark Elementary 3rd Grade winner Illus. Ryusuke Mori	Illusion's Zoroark Elementary 4th Grade winner Illus. Kozue Omi
Illusion's Zorua Televi-Kun winner Illus. Yuta Koike	Illusion's Zoroark CoroCoro Comic winner Illus. Kouhei Yoshihisa	Illusion's Zorua Pucchigumi winner Illus. Miho Sugano	Illusion's Zorua Pokémon Fan winner Illus. Izumi Sakaga	Illusion's Zoroark CoroCoro Ichiban! winner Illus. Kazuki Yamane

Gallery

Unlike the contest ran in 2009, all 660 chosen entrants were showcased on the Japanese Pokémon movie website. Below are the top six entries for each publication, including some additional entries from Pokémon Fan magazine.

Kindergarten winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 谷口芽玖 Megu Taniguchi 2 - 丸山美音 Mioto Maruyama 3 - 神谷汐音 Shione Kamiya 4 - 山岡たつや Tatsuya Yamaoka 5 - 島津尚矢 Naoya Shimazu 6 - 大嶺れな Rena Omine

Elementary School 1st Grade winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 藤村真弓 Mayumi Fujimura 2 - 根本光騎 Kouki Nemoto 3 - 穂崎隆広 Takahiro Hozaki 4 - 渡邊茉耶 Maya Watanabe 5 - 冨野美幸 Miyuki Tomino 6 - 宮地香穂 Kaho Miyaji

Elementary School 2nd Grade winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 森康介 Kousuke Mori 2 - 佐藤あやか Ayaka Sato 3 - 大川すずか Suzuka Okawa 4 - 葛窪悠也 Yuuya Kuzukubo 5 - 船場光顕 Mitsuaki Senba 6 - 平川知奈 Tomona Hirakawa

Elementary School 3rd Grade winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 森龍介 Ryuusuke Mori 2 - 山本葉月 Hazuki Yamamoto 3 - 山本樹冬 Huyuki Yamamoto 4 - 木村珠稚 Tamawaka Kimura 5 - 立吹優晴 Masaharu Tachisui 6 - 綾部慎一郎 Shin'ichirou Ayabe

Elementary School 4th Grade winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 尾身こずえ Kozue Omi 2 - 原口こころ Kokoro Haraguchi 3 - 高橋直暉 Tadateru Takahashi 4 - 平岡侑真 Yuuma Hiraoka 5 - 陶山咲希 Saki Suyama 6 - 市村綾香 Ayaka Ichimura

Televi-Kun winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 小池祐太 Yuta Koike 2 - 伊藤穂来人 Hinakuruto Itou 3 - 青木新樹 Shinki Aoki 4 - 良峯有梨沙 Arisa Yoshimine 5 - 大西一聖 Issei Oonishi 6 - 永尾優磨 Yuuma Nagao

CoroCoro Comic winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 吉久航平 Kouhei Yoshihisa 2 - 藤崎太郎 Tarou Fujisaki 3 - 秋葉昌利 Masatoshi Akiba 4 - 市川大輔 Daisuke Ichikawa 5 - 平塚瑞紀 Tamaki Hiratsuka 6 - 大橋優一 Yuichi Oohashi

Pucchigumi winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 菅野美穂 Miho Kanno 2 - 桝田琴音 Kotone Masuda 3 - 道場美夏野 Minatsuno Doujou 4 - 野主葉月 Hazuki Nonushi 5 - 千且侑生 Yuuki Chikatsu 6 - 後藤菜月 Natsu Gotou

Pokémon Fan winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 坂賀泉美 Izumi Sakaga 2 - 野田苑恵 Sonoe Noda 3 - 櫛引健希 Genki Kushibiki 4 - 名倉由理江 Yurie Nakura 5 - 三木知也 Chiya Miki 6 - 高浜ゆか子 Yukako Takahama Special award Lucky award 9 - 萩谷公美 Kumi Hagiya 10 - 中村有里 Yuri Nakamura 12 - 宿さつき Satsuki Yado 14 - 城越ももこ Momoko Shirokoshi 15 - 日下部静香 Shizuka Kusabe 31 - 川村瑠奈 Runa Kawamura

CoroCoro Ichiban! winning entries Best award Excellence award 1 - 山根一貴 Kazuki Yamane 2 - 佐々木啓翔 Keisyo Sasaki 3 - 仙田虎太郎 Toratarou Senda 4 - 八木誠司 Seiji Yagi 5 - 福田海豊 Umiyutaka Fukuda 6 - 所村龍成 Ryuusei Shomura

Pokémon Art Academy Competition

Bulbanews has an article related to this subject:

Pokémon Art Academy competition announced

The first international illustration contest invited players of Pokémon Art Academy to create original Pokémon illustrations with the opportunity to have their artwork featured on specially created Pokémon TCG cards. Overall, there were three separate instances of the competition:

• Japan (where the competition was named Pokémon Art Academy × Pokémon Card Game) – open to residents of Japan.
• North America – open to residents of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
• Europe and Oceania – open to residents of Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia (Italy was specifically excluded).

The Japanese competition began first, with the submission period open from December 13, 2014 to February 1, 2015. The North American competition and European and Oceanian competition began simultaneously on February 18 and ran until March 29, 2015. Each competition comprised two categories: Dress-Up Pikachu and Your Favorite Pokémon. Dress-Up Pikachu required players to portray Pikachu in a costume of their design, inspired by Cosplay Pikachu as featured in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Your Favorite Pokémon invited players to create an image featuring any Pokémon. Once entrants had completed their chosen image in Free Paint mode, they were required to upload it to Miiverse and submit it as part of the competition.

The 5 winning entries from each category in the Japanese competition were announced in March 2015. The 3 winning entries from each category in the North American competition and European and Oceanian competition were announced on June 8 of the same year. The top entrants in each competition were selected from a panel of judges including Pokémon Trading Card Game illustrators. Each of the winners received 100 copies of the card featuring their illustration.

Japanese competition

Pikachu Illus. gogotake	Pikachu Illus. pikamania	Pikachu Illus. Mame Akimaru	Pikachu Illus. Y. Fujishima	Pikachu Illus. Sayaka Maruyama
Goomy Illus. Mio Muroi	Sableye Illus. iwaiya	Gourgeist Illus. rina	Mudkip Illus. Daisuke Ochiai	Pikachu Illus. Ginga

North American competition

Pikachu Illus. Xime	Pikachu Illus. Ashley	Pikachu Illus. Me!
Primal Kyogre Illus. Mireil	Tangrowth Illus. Gosha	Chespin Illus. Gabi

European and Oceanian competition

Pikachu Illus. Lily-Chan	Pikachu Illus. Rhivern	Pikachu Illus. Meli
Mew Illus. Phanpy	Kecleon Illus. Scarlett**	Delphox Illus. Peegeray

Gallery

Illustrator names when originally submitted to Miiverse appear in brackets, where applicable.

Japanese competition

Dress-Up Pikachu winning entries Illus. gogotake Illus. pikamania (ゆきち) Illus. Mame Akimaru (しらたま) Illus. Y. Fujishima (おにぎり) Illus. Sayaka Maruyama (さやか)

Your Favorite Pokémon winning entries Illus. Mio Muroi (ダノンミオ) Illus. iwaiya (イワイヤ) Illus. rina Illus. Daisuke Ochiai (メガネ) Illus. Ginga (☆ゆーり☆)

Notable entries as selected by judging panellists Entries selected by Mitsuhiro Arita Illus. チハヤ Illus. アマナツ Entries selected by PLANETA Illus. っつさん Illus. パンマニ～ア Entries selected by Kouki Saitou Illus. ほしるび Illus. CARDA Entries selected by Kagemaru Himeno Illus. Poké Mania Illus. かまし Entries selected by Tomokazu Komiya Illus. ももん Illus. えのむし Entries selected by Creatures, Inc. Illus. はにぃ Illus. くいダレたろう

North American competition

Dress-Up Pikachu winning entries Illus. Xime Illus. Ashley Illus. Me!

Your Favorite Pokémon winning entries Illus. Mireil Illus. Gosha Illus. Gabi

European and Oceanian competition

Dress-Up Pikachu winning entries Illus. Lily-Chan Illus. Rhivern Illus. Meli

Your Favorite Pokémon winning entries Illus. Phanpy Illus. Scarlett* Illus. Peegeray

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.