Mitsuhiro Arita
722 cards illustrated by Mitsuhiro Arita.
If you only ever learn one Pokémon artist's name, make it this one. Arita has been drawing these cards since the very start — he's the hand behind the Base Set Charizard, the card that made a whole generation lose their minds. What I love is watching his style grow up: the early cards have that soft watercolour-and-pencil look with clean outlines, while his modern work goes full lineless realism — deep shadows and light so natural the Pokémon feel like they're actually standing there. Collecting his cards is basically collecting the history of the hobby in one artist.
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