Collecting Pokémon Cards by Illustrator

Every Pokémon card is drawn by a named artist. The artist's name is printed along the bottom of the card. Some collectors focus on illustrators. This guide explains how that works.

The credit at the bottom

The lower edge of a card shows the illustrator's name. The same Pokémon has been drawn many times by different artists, and each version looks different. Once you notice the credit, you can see the cards as the work of individual artists.

Why the artist matters

Artwork affects a card's value. Two versions of the same Pokémon from the same era can be worth different amounts because of who drew them. Many recent sets include cards that exist mainly to show detailed artwork. Collectors often want these cards for their appearance rather than their stats.

A few names to know

The list of Pokémon illustrators is large. A few names appear often:

• Mitsuhiro Arita drew many early cards, including the Charizard from the Base Set.
• Tomokazu Komiya is a long serving illustrator known for a loose, playful style. He exaggerates the proportions of Pokémon and uses bold, vivid colours, which makes his cards easy to recognise.
• Shinji Kanda has cards that are highly detailed and build a full scene around the Pokémon, drawing on traditional Japanese art styles. They are popular with collectors and often sell for a premium.
• Many modern illustrators have their own styles, and their cards are often the highlights of a set.

Following an artist across sets

Once you find an artist you like, a common goal is to collect their cards across many sets. An artist may have cards in dozens of sets and in both languages, so this is hard to track by memory. A database can gather all cards by one artist onto a single page.

The illustrator gallery on Cardarium

Cardarium includes an illustrator gallery. You can browse the artists and open any one of them to see their cards together. Few trackers offer this. To find the illustrator credit on a card, see the guide to reading a card. To see how card art has changed over time, see the tour of the eras.