I just got back to the hotel after a wonderful panel discussion with Kagemaru Himeno. I’ll summarize what I remember from the panel but anyone else who was there please chip in with the things I inevitably missed!
Himeno started out in art by being a manga artist, and was trying to get noticed and picked up to do more manga projects when she was asked by a gaming magazine to draw some Pokemon for them. She did so, and this got her noticed by Ishihara, who invited her to start doing Pokemon card art.
Back in 1999 when she was doing the first Pokemon drawings, there were very few reference images to go off of. She relied on a Pokemon reference book to do her drawings, which included some basic images and descriptions of Pokemon. Because of this, she originally drew Jigglypuff as being fluffy, before Ishihara told her that Jigglypuff should have a more flat texture and not be furry.
Himeno says that in the early days, she had more freedom to alter Pokemon’s designs to make them more realistic or more interesting. But once the anime and GSC came out, Creatures/TPC started being more strict and ensuring that artists were drawing the Pokemon correctly.
She started out doing her art using airbrushing, watercolors, colored pencils, and pen sketches, but transitioned to CG art in the early 2000s. The first CG cards she drew were Annie’s Espeon and Oakley’s Ariados for the Theater Limited VS Deck. Because the CG files were so big, they couldn’t be emailed, so she had to put them on a flash drive and head over to the Creatures office to drop off the artwork.
Himeno believes that Pokemon live in a fantasy world where anything is possible (like pink trees, exotic plants, etc). But Creatures/TPC didn’t necessarily share that view, and wanted her background art to be more realistic. She struggled with this, but said that EX Ruby & Sapphire Donphan represents an example of how she overcame this challenge and created a card she felt was realistic but also fit with her desires.
Himeno collects copies of the cards that she illustrates and showed off several in the panel. She particularly enjoys the Pokekyun/Generations Pikachu and likes when fans ask her to draw in a fifth Pika as a sketch on the card. I asked her if she collects any other cards from other artists, she said she likes Komiya’s art and always tries to get his cards and also any Pokemon products that he designs.
Himeno’s favorite Pokemon is Psyduck because she can empathize with Psyduck constantly having a headache and indecision about what to do.
She never went to art school, believes anyone can be an artist, and says that practice is the most important thing.
Her hobbies include being active, specifically exercising and mountain climbing.
She has a white cat named Leo who supervises her art.
Overall, this was an amazing experience and I learned so much about Himeno’s process and path through Pokemon illustrating. Thank you so much to @Alec and the entire staff for making this possible!
This sounds like a wonderfully wholesome panel. So awesome that she was able to give such involved answers about the whole process including some history. The specific examples are awesome to know.
Jungle Jigglypuff was her first card, the donphan mentioned in the OP is her favorite card (if she was forced to pick one)
her earlier digital art often has a black outline because she would sketch it out in pencil and scan the lines. Later her art would stop having the outline when she was confident with going 100% digital
her favorite product line she worked on was the pokekyun box/pack art. Apparently a lot of artists really want to do pack art
she thought she could do a lot better than the sugimori art she originally used as a reference- Jungle butterfly was a notable example and she mentioned how she would not be allowed to draw it so freely today
sometimes they give her strict guidelines about what to draw, sometimes it’s entirely up to her
Himeno is so wholesome and super nice I was on the Friday panel and she was the sweetest person ever and ken the translator really knocked it out of the park. Glad I was on the Friday panel because my wife went into labor that evening (false alarm she’s due Monday) so I had to fly back to New Orleans Friday evening
Besides a few standouts like the Vileplume FA, Pikachu FA and Reshiram FA, Himeno’s work pre-DP is leagues better than after.
Probably not the thread for this but I really dislike most of the DP work onwards. Everything feels so artificial and the lighting makes it even more so. Can any artist enlighten why this is the case?
It can’t just be because it’s digital since I think most of them work digitally anyway?
It’s kind of crazy to think that the amazing art she made for Jungle goes against what TPC wants. Jungle was incredible because of Himeno and I wonder how it would be remembered if they had used Sugimori stock art like the gym sets.
Himeno was awesome. What a great experience she was friendly and open to answering questions, she made me feel like she was so lucky to have all of us(fans) when we were so lucky to have her. Great experience overall.
A couple of interesting answers from the Sunday panel to add:
Someone asked about the trend in her art (around the late ex era/early DP era) where the Pokemon are “sideways”. She said she wanted to fit the whole Pokemon in the frame, since many Pokemon have tall bodies and the card art frame is small and not very tall. Pokemon asked her to stop drawing that way at some point.
She doesn’t like to use animals as inspiration for Pokemon very much. She said “animals are animals and Pokemon are Pokemon”. For instance, Lopunny may behave much differently from a bunny, even though it’s obviously based on it. She does use the settings that animals are found in as inspiration sometimes though.
Thanks for sharing - very interesting, especially the stuff about Jungle (Her Butterfree, Exeggutor and Psyduck are iconic childhood cards).
And great question on the other artists she collects; I love that she has a Komiya binder and merch collection! I wonder if she started that right at the beginning with Vending…
