The illustrators of Pokémon cards: from Arita to the modern alt arts

On every Pokémon card, bottom left below the illustration, there is a name: the illustrator's. For twenty years hardly anyone read it; since 2021, with the alternate arts, it has become one of the factors that set the price. These are the names a collector needs to know, from the Base Set to today's SIRs, with the cards in our catalogue that carry their signature.

Where to read the signature

The wording Illus. followed by the name appears in small print on the lower border of the card, on the left, below the illustration frame. On modern full-frame cards it has moved to the bottom corner, above the copyright. It is printed, not hand-signed, and it is part of the official text: the same card in the European languages carries the same name.

Learning to read it changes the way you look at a collection: you notice that cards twenty years apart are by the same hand.

Mitsuhiro Arita: the 1999 Charizard

Mitsuhiro Arita is the illustrator of the Charizard 4/102 from the Base Set, the most famous card in the game, and of the Pikachu 58/102, the most famous common. His too are the Venusaur and the Gyarados of the Base Set. He has been active from 1996 to today: in the catalogue his signature is also on the Blastoise ex SIR from Pokémon 151, from 2023, and on the Team Rocket's Mewtwo ex SIR from Ascended Heroes, from 2026.

Thirty years of continuity is a rarity, and his name on a modern card is, for many collectors, one more reason to look for it.

Ken Sugimori: the designer of the Pokémon

Ken Sugimori is the artist who designed the original one hundred and fifty-one Pokémon for the video games. On the cards he is the author of many Base Set holos, including Blastoise 2/102 and Mewtwo 10/102, of the Dark Charizard from Team Rocket and, in 2001, of the first shinies: Shining Gyarados and Shining Magikarp from Neo Revelation. His line is the official one, the reference all the others start from.

Atsuko Nishida, Hironobu Yoshida and the others of the Wizards era

Atsuko Nishida created Pikachu's design and illustrated the most expensive card in the world, Pikachu Illustrator, as well as set cards such as the Charizard from Expedition in 2002. Hironobu Yoshida signs two cards that have among the highest PSA 10 values in our catalogue: the Lugia 9/111 from Neo Genesis and the Shining Charizard from Neo Destiny. Keiko Fukuyama is among the recurring signatures of the first expansions, between the late 1990s and the early 2000s. For the vintage collector, these names are a map.

2021: the alt arts put the illustration back at the centre

With Sword & Shield, and in particular from Evolving Skies in August 2021, the alternate arts change the rules: full-frame cards that tell a scene, with the Pokémon in its environment, and an artist's name that collectors begin to look for in its own right.

The Umbreon VMAX 215/203, the Umbreon on the rooftop in the moonlight, is by Keiichiro Ito: it is worth between €1,500 and €2,100 ungraded and about €3,400 in PSA 10 according to PriceCharting in October 2026. The Rayquaza VMAX 218/203 from the same set, the dragon in flight above the clouds, carries the signature of the studio Anesaki Dynamic: between €950 and €1,300 ungraded, about €1,850 in PSA 10.

Other names from those years: sowsow, author of the Gengar VMAX alternate art from Fusion Strike; kawayoo, author of the Lugia V alternate art from Silver Tempest; Naoki Saito, who back in 2018 had signed the Lillie Full Art from Ultra Prism, one of the most sought-after Trainer cards.

Shinji Kanda and the Magikarp case

The name that best explains how much the illustration counts is Shinji Kanda. His is the Giratina V 186/196 from Lost Origin, with the Pokémon revealing itself in the distortion world above a forest: between €750 and €950 ungraded and about €3,100 in PSA 10.

And his is the Magikarp 203/193 from Paldea Evolved, an Illustration Rare from 2023: an aquarium full of Magikarp looking back at whoever looks at them. A Pokémon with no pedigree at all, an intermediate rarity, and a PSA 10 value of about €3,200 from an ungraded range between €200 and €250, almost 12 times. No Charizard, no secret rare: an illustration people want, and a light background that shows every printing flaw and makes the 10 hard.

How much the signature weighs in the price

The signature alone does not make the price: the Pokémon, the rarity, the print run and the condition do. But all else being equal, a memorable scene and a recognised name shift demand, and the Magikarp case proves it. When you look at a listing on Pokechrono, the illustrator and the year are shown next to the card; when the card goes to auction, the copy you receive is a PSA 10 with that illustration, by that hand, verified before going online.