The Pokemon Company has run a Pokemon Trading Card Game art contest in recent years, imploring the many artists of the Pokemon community to create unique art for future cards. This has resulted in countless approaches to Pokemon from all Generations as the Pokemon TCG looks for the next community winner, and this year's contest includes an incredible Cramorant among the entrants.
Reddit user Technicalbuzz posted their Pokemon TCG 2022 contest submission focusing on Cramorant a few days ago, which has garnered the attention of thousands of Pokemon fans since. The Pokemon Company ran the same illustration contest in 2021 and entrants like Arcanine, Bulbasaur, Pikachu, Greninja, and even different versions of Cramorant that share minimal similarities with Technicalbuzz's were featured during that contest as well as this year. Pokemon TCG fans had from October of last year until February of this year to enter their fan art into the TCG 2022 illustration contest, with Technicalbuzz being excluded from the top three despite their fantastic Cramorant.
Technicalbuzz's Cramorant Pokemon TCG illustration shows the Flying-type Pokemon gliding down to what looks like the ocean in an attempt to catch some food. The perspective of the Pokemon is from the surface of the water, and it takes on a fish eye lens aesthetic commonly used in music and skateboarding videos, with Cramorant in the middle and the world distorting around it circularly. Unlike some other Pokemon TCG illustration contest entrants, Technicalbuzz's entry includes a Water-type Pokemon in the form of a fish that Cramorant is trying to catch called Barraskewda.
The winners for the 2022 Pokemon TCG illustration contest have been selected, and the top three include two Gen 1 Pokemon, Arcanine and Bulbasaur. The odd Pokemon out in the winning circle is Gen 6 starter evolution Greninja, which is one of the most popular Pokemon in the world. The overall winner is a Pokemon fan known as Rend who entered with an amazing resting Arcanine, while Japan's winner was Kasai Taiga with a cheering Bulbasaur, and the US winner was Julie Hang with a foreboding Greninja.
Although the Pokemon TCG community has celebrated the illustration contest winners, Technicalbuzz's Cramorant fan art has gained the attention of over 11,000 fans on its own. While many Pokemon fans expected the usual suspects in this year's illustration contest like Charizard, Squirtle, and Pikachu, many replies to Technicalbuzz's post celebrated the unique choice of Pokemon. Some comments agree that the winning Pokemon Arcanine, Bulbasaur, and Greninja have each earned their place in the top three of this year's illustration contest, but many Pokemon TCG fans lament that Technicalbuzz's Cramorant didn't make the cut.