The more I look at it, the more upsetting it gets 
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Squirtle never had a neck
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agreed
its charizard. not like the artist can do much to make it look good 
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Just wondering if you agree on the Charizard and Squirtle proportions?
I do wonder how they pass through QC/revisions that other artists say TPC is strict about looking on model.
I agree Squirtle’s head looks like it’s not on right. Charizard… idk how that even happened.
Arita needed to hit the right arrow key a times on the head layer in Photoshop lol. Also I just imagine Squirtle is taking a wiz in the ocean.
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What gets me is that a non-artist like myself and others can immediately pick up something is off with the proportions and yet their many rounds of QC cannot.
Both cards are otherwise beautiful, but those kind of glaring ‘errors’ makes it so much harder to appreciate.
TPC hired the artists because they believe they’ll do the job to a certain standard. There is always an argument of “style” for example with the charizard although I’d argue it’s pushed too far. I don’t think TPC is in the business of telling artists how to do their job, nor do they have the time for it, so if anything they might skim to make sure it looks close enough to the pokemon.
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Not sure if you’ve read this but Behind the scenes: the process of creating a Pokémon TCG illustration - Column - Pokémon Trading Card Game Illustration Contest 2022 - PTCGIC2022
That’s what I mean by TPC QC. (You can see the notes on the Milotic)
So it’s kinda hard for me to believe that no one said, where is Charizard’s neck?
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What hurts is seeing the past finalists for illustration contests and some incredible stuff that never made it through. Then we get the Big Ed charizard SAR pop up out of nowhere
I don’t want to criticise miki kudo that much because I honestly do like the setting. They just got the proportions wrong which admittedly is a big issue, but easily fixable.
It’s not like this is 5ban Graphics’ Blastoise, which I suppose actually should have gone through QC as well.
For an artist whose style very much favours rounded bodies, the absence of a neck is quite consistent across AR Charmander/Charmeleon and their previous works. I don’t think there is a ‘quality issue’ at all, more of a disagreement here with kudo’s methods that TPC approved
This is the only card that has a neck(s) 
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LOL so hard at Big Ed Charizard 
Fair enough, but it does seem a case by case basis works better.
I have no problems with any of those you’ve linked. The style works.
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Makes me think of this muscle beach psyduck. 
Maybe baby squirtle hasn’t grown into his head yet. Or maybe it’s just an imaginary creature in an artist’s possibly stylized rendition of it. There are many examples, and I think they just want it to stay true to the spirit of the mon within the artist’s style. I mean, in the early days, we had this voltorb.