While there are many artists whose art I like, Fukuda and Saitou have been my top 2 for long time 
3 Likes
Tokiya, Arita, Sowow does traditional style art work, Yuka Morii is very good and it’s great she got a full art, also Asako Ito crotchet style needs to get a full art!
I might be biased since he also made my favorite artwork of all existing Pokémon cards, but I’d say Naoyo Kimura.
Here some well-known examples of his art:
And my favorite of course:
Greetz,
Quuador
8 Likes
Atsuko Nishida is mine. Her art style resembles a gentleness and softness…almost dream-like. Fun fact: she also designed Pikachu and Charizard - so give credit where credit is due!
Here are most of the cards she’s illustrated - my favorites are the Espeon from Neo Discovery and Pichu from Expedition. There are so many others I love but these two are the ones that come to mind when I think of Nishida.
1 Like
Ken Sugimori, #ShiningGyarados
1 Like
Kizuki Sumiyoshi! Love the clean paper cut look. He card have a nice simplicity and pop that love. Tropical Wind series and Vending Haunter are some of my favorites.
I wonder if some of these “smaller” artists ever do autographs?
3 Likes
Do you see any resemblance between Naoyo and Sekio?
Oh my lord, I love that wailmer card! (sorry I’m so late to this post
1 Like
Ken Sugimori
And
Hajime Kusajima killed it on Vs Tyranitar and Vs Umbreon and Expedition Mew and and and
Masago
Arita
Imakuni?
Saitou
sowsow
There are so many more incredible artists, I could go on and on but these are some of my favorites!
2 Likes
@thundermoo, described it really well but Arita really immerses you into the pokemon world. And his art is just god damn amazing. I have a lot of artists that kinda compete for 2nd place but Arita takes 1st place by far
A little newer to the TCG than a lot of the artist already mentioned - and not necessarily my all time favorite; but sui has really caught my attention as of late. Her style is instantly recognizable. Here are some of my favorites.
Not Pokemon related, but just look at these Yoshi!
6 Likes
Personally it’s arita and ooyama for me.
1 Like
Mines pretty obvious Mitsuhiro Arita Base Set (Squirtle).
Naoyo Kimura
Kimura’s Wizards-era work is absolutely stunning, and shows his skill at depicting all sides of Pokémon; from calm, cute, and friendly to strong, mysterious, and intimidating. I’m not a fan of his brief stint with mediocre digital art, so I’m glad to see he has returned to his original drawn style in his more recent work - though his originals are still my favorites.
Yuka Morii
I absolutely adore Yuka Morii’s clay models. Them being tangible, hand-made objects placed in real environments immediately sets her work apart from that of other illustrators. These are the cards that got me back into collecting, and I’ve been greatly enjoying putting them all together. Just a few more left to pick up, though all those Pokémon Center 10th Anniversary Pikachu are probably going to take me a while!
Sekio
Sekio’s illustrations feel like they were torn straight out of a storybook. I love the texture created by the paper and paint. Their work is all from recent sets (Guardians Rising on), so this is a very affordable artist collection to pick up!
sowsow
Another recent artist, sowsow’s unique and recognizable style probably needs little introduction here. I especially appreciate the care put into the backgrounds; they fit each Pokémon perfectly, and there’s always something more to see than just the image of a Pokémon.
I’ll also give an honorable mention to the already oft-mentioned Tomokazu Komiya.
8 Likes
Ryo Ueda
Sugimori and Himeno.
Masago, simply because I like every one of his illustrations, there’s not a single bad one.
This guy makes magcargo look badass, and magcargo is one of my least favorite gen 3s.
5 Likes
My #1 gotta be Mizue. I feel like she’s most similar to Nishida with the soft palletes and nearly ethereal glow to a lot of the illustrations. On top of that I feel like she’s super unrecognized by most of the community and she makes the best commons in the game hands down
EDIT: I just thought of a comparison. If cucumber finger sandwiches and lemon water were an artist it would be her
3 Likes
