I agree with @gengarbrigade. This is not only a logistic nightmare but completely unfeasible for any artist signing event.
The reason why artists draw the same sketch (or similar sketches) is because it makes it much easier to go through 500+ autographed cards over a weekend session. If you spend time thinking up a new sketch for each card, thinking of how to fit it on the card, thinking of how to fit the signature(s) and personalization and date and not obscure the original art too much…it just gets overwhelming.
I’ve seen this firsthand at things like the Saitou signing in Baltimore. Saitou would sketch anything, and my god the line was SLOW. The signed cards were amazing, and he had pages of reference material that he had prepped beforehand. However, anytime someone asked him to sketch something he hadn’t done a direct reference for, he’d have to spend a minute or so thinking about how best to do the sketch. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it adds up fast when each person is getting 3 cards signed and you have a line of hundreds of people.
Arita is good at sketching anything and doing it fast, but that’s because (a) he’s probably the most prolific and experienced Pokemon signer and (b) he just copies the style of Pokemon on the card–that’s why all Arita Base Set Zards look the same.
Either way, I don’t see how doing a separate pose every time is feasible or beneficial for addressing forgeries. Artists aren’t going to remember everything they’ve sketched on every card they’ve signed, and will likely repeat sketches even if they try to differentiate them. In many of the forgeries posted above, there are several other factors that give it away as a fake. It’s not like forgeries are impossible to distinguish and we need radical new artist practices to counter them. We just need grading companies to employ autograph graders with more than two brain cells to rub together, but they refuse to do so.
Yeah that’s a good point I didn’t really think of that the artists may not be familiar with the designs or have much time to draw freestyle each time. I sometimes draw little pokemon doodles for my customers and never ran into this problem but I also have every detail of most pokemon burned into my brain since childhood lol. But I’m also not doing it for hours and hours in a row I can see how you’d want a “template” to just crank em out.
Anyway, like I said, this is where PSA needs to require some sort of video proof but I don’t see that happening.
In this case, the artist doing the same sketch many times is actually helpful because it provides a good set of references to compare to. Like the sketches that were just posted, I can see that are all a bit off right away because I know what real ones look like.
I wouldn’t want to weigh in either way on this one because Arita can be so variable. But I will say that I think often times people focus too much on “does it look real?” and not enough on “does it look good?”
This one imo is just ugly and there are way better options available out there for Arita.
Hello everyone, I’m still fairly new to collecting signed cards. In the future I will definitely look at the cards very carefully and contact the sellers. I have already bought a few and would like to know whether they are original. Thank you for your help
