This was very cool! And appreciate the walls of text. 
Thanks very much, everyone!
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Honestly this is just incredible to me given how beautiful those artworks turned out. I think it would take me a year (while talking to no one) to get even moderately close to that. As you said, really showcases the level some of these artists are at.
Thank you for sharing with us!
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You all are forgetting the most important question from last night: his favorite dinosaur is a brachiosaur.
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After reading through this all, I was really hoping to see the 3rd drawing he did!
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I hope someone wins all three instead of them being separated.
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Looks like he added more to the frog after, looks a lot better with the extra detail!
I also have notes from the third day that @lookaclara will eventually post
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I just realized, He drew bulbasaur the first day then drew a frog, drew charmander the second day then drew a dragon, and drew squirtle the last day then drew a turtle!
How fun, there is no way he didnât plan that!
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The war tortoise is my fav there.
I was at the panel on Sunday, so here are the notes I took during the Q&A. It was really cool to watch Mr. Arita work on his sketch and we gained some insight into the mind of a great artist. I sat in the back so sometimes it was hard to hear the specific question or answer, but hopefully my notes are cohesive! Some of this might have been mentioned already. Enjoy! 
- In the beginning nobody really spoke up although Iâm sure many people had ideas about what to ask. So someone broke the ice by asking him his favourite flavour of ramen which was a great opener. Mr. Arita said he likes shio (salt) ramen!
- Mr. Arita is inspired by movies such as Blade Runner, Alien, Gladiator
- In his spare time he likes to exercise
- His favourite manga/anime is Cyborg 009 and Galaxy Express 999, the art directors inspired Mr. Arita in his own work
- When someone asked him his favourite pokemon, he responded by saying Voltorb - because it is easy to draw
- As PFM mentioned earlier, Mr. Arita has a computer science degree from university and thought he might go into software engineer
- Someone asked if he likes golf, and he said no
- He can work on up to 6 projects at a time, and he can keep up the high quality across his work as long as there is a theme to work towards (a goal)
- He liked his time in Toronto although he said if it had been colder he might not have enjoyed it as much. He originally thought that it would be more like an American city, but when he arrived he said it feels more like a European city
- He listens to instrumental music
- When working on a new project for Pokemon, he does research before starting the card artwork - how the pokemon looks in the game, its moves, etc.
- He doesnât have a specific favourite art or project heâs worked on
- He likes to combine hand-drawn with digital. There are pros and cons to both. For hand-drawn, he likes how it can be realistic. For digital work he says it feels more âspace-yâ (maybe not grounded in reality), like it doesnât exist. So by putting the two together he can work to fill in the gaps.
- He learned how to draw through sketching and repetition
- He doesnât hang his own work in his house, and he doesnât have any self-portraits (I think I understood that one correctly!)
- He said it is risky to put all his projects and time into one company/trademark, so he has also put effort and time into other brands. This way he avoids having his networth all in one basket. He is concerned that he is becoming a big Pokemon name
- Someone asked if he usually hides who he is in public, and he said he doesnât really do that but in fact his wife hides his identity from other people
- I think someone had mentioned above that Pokemon gives him copies of his cards but he said to us that he doesnât open them
- He is happy that his Lugia V is playable now
- When he first started playing the pokemon games, his starter was Charmander
- Since he travels so much, he likes to go camping in his free time. He said that he prefers to go camping in Japan since camping overseas feels more dangerous to him
- If you are able to visit Japan, he recommends seeing the architecture in Tokyo and the nature in Okinawa. For Pokemon fans attending Worlds in 2023, check out the Akihabara district.
(Oh my gosh Iâm getting tired and still have more to type up, how did I take so many notes lol)
- Someone asked Mr. Arita if he finds any inspiration from any particular region in the world (Contintent, country, etc.) when drawing - especially because of all his scenic backgrounds. I wanted about to ask a similar question so Iâm glad it was asked! However, Mr. Arita replied this is not the case. When he watches movies or shows, he creates a mental library of inspirational images that he can refer back to. So when he starts a project, he often finds something from these images he remembers rather than specific landmarks or regions in real life
- Someone asked him if he had a favourite restaurant he visited while in Toronto, or what his favourite food here was (there are so many great options in Toronto!) however Mr. Arita said that during the weekend they only had time to eat at the hotel
- Someone asked Mr. Arita how he uses the interplay between technology and nature in his art. He said that as an illustrator, he needs to understand both so that his art is better
- Mr. Arita said that emerging artists should have a wide skillset to combine digital art skills, observation skills, and understanding of the subject (There was something here about a specific card or set of cards but I didnât catch it)
- He said that whenever he draws Mewtwo he always feels like it is the coolest Mewtwo heâs ever drawn
- Someone asked whether it is important for emerging artists to stick to their own style, or to be more flexible. Mr. Arita said that both are good, but as a professionally paid illustrator he is practical and believes being flexible is more important than sticking to just one specific style which might restrict opportunities for work.
- He has no clue if he has more fans in Japan or in (North) America
- When asked if he has a specific studio or home office where he likes to work, Mr. Arita said that he feels more productive working at the companyâs office
- As mentioned elsewhere, near the end of the session he asked the room, how do fans recognize his work? Is there something about his work that stands out? People mentioned several aspects - it is dynamic, it makes the viewers feel something. I sat beside @professorsamphire (whom I met on Friday and hung out with over the course of the weekend, and who is also an artist - theyâre on IG @thebinderinstitute ) who said that Mr. Aritaâs work tends to have a unique grain-y or gritty quality, as a positive feature that makes the art feel like a photograph.
- Mr. Arita seemed happy to hear these answers. One of the important parts of his work is finding the âcenter of gravityâ or the âweightâ in the image, to create that dynamic feeling in his art. This tip came from an old Disney art book. Mr. Arita said that lots of beginners might have the observation skills (i.e., working with reference pictures), but if they donât think about the gravity/weight in their work, the end result will look flat and lacks that quality Mr. Aritaâs work has.
- Arita also said that out of the 3 sketches he did this weekend (frog rider, blue dragon, war tortoise) the tortoise on Sunday was the most challenging. He had to think of a way to draw something wide (the turtle) on a vertical canvas, it was tough to fit everything on there.
- He will turn down a request from any company if he thinks the final piece wonât give him the feeling he wants in his work - although he said he doesnât have a specific mood that he wants his viewers to feel exactly.
- As well, if he starts a project and then decides that it doesnât have the right mood heâs aiming for, he will try to adjust or change the work to reflect the mood he wants (as much as he can within the guidelines heâs given)
- E.g., the war tortoise was originally going to be more fantastical, like a mythical creature. However since it was challenging to figure out the proportions on the canvas, he changed his idea to be more realistic (inspired by war elephants)
Okay, thatâs all from me! It was a fun weekend and attending the panel on Sunday was the perfect conclusion to an exciting event!
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@lookaclara Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of these responses out. Your effort is so appreciated. 
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Thank you @lookaclara !! This is super helpful â you rock!
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Thanks everyone who took the time to post the panel discussion here, it is really appreciated 
. It was a great read and shed light on the mind of a great artist. Arita-san seems to be very humble and down to earth. His work ethic is also reflected in his artwork.
Cheers!
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Amazing work! Thank you for sharing and taking the time - fills in so many of my gaps as it was a long but enjoyable time! Hope you say hi at the next one and maybe meet you and @professorsamphire!
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He did back in 2004/2005.
EDIT: I still have no idea why 17-year-old me thought that, of all cards, Dark Ursaring was the one I wanted signed by him (In addition to my shadowless charizard, venusaur, dragonair, dark dragonite, and dunsparce).
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Nice to see another thanks. I do hope he will again.
I had a few signed with just Japanese back in 2016. I should get the others out of storage but here are a couple:
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They look really clean when done just like that. I hope to get at least the birds trio done the same.
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Thanks to all of you who transcribed his answers!! Itâs really cool to see some of the behind the scenes and mindset that goes into illustrating these cards. The most interesting one to me is that he tries not to pick a favorite Pokemon because he wants to stay neutral when illustrating.
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Bless you â Iâm hungry to read about the next Q&A now
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