Posted in: Card Games, Games, Pokémon TCG, Tabletop | Tagged: pokemon, pokemon cards, Pokemon TCG, wizards of the coast, Yukiko Baba

Pokémon Trading Card Game Artist Spotlight: Yukiko Baba – Vintage

Yukiko Baba has been drawing Pokémon TCG cards since the Wizards of the Coast days, beginning with four cards in the Neo Discovery set.

Throughout the years, the Pokémon Trading Card Game has featured a variety of incredible art styles. Now that the hobby has been around for more than a quarter of a century, we have seen the artwork of Pokémon TCG cards elevated by daring new artist choices as well as illustrators who have been veteran contributors since the very first releases. Let's take a journey through the eye-popping, mind-expanding history of Pokémon TCG artwork by exploring some of the hobby's most interesting and unique artists. Today, we will spotlight Yukiko Baba. This will be a three-part series showing Yukiko Baba's work over the years, including their vintage, classic, and modern work. First, today, we begin with Baba's vintage work.

Yukiko Baba's first-ever credit in the Pokémon TCG was in the Johto-themed set, Neo Discovery. This was back in the Wizards of the Coast days. Baba contributed four cards to that first set, including one Kanto species with Kakuna and three Johto species, including Wooper, Spinarak, and Dunsparce.

One thing that was unique and interesting about Baba's artwork from the very start was their dynamic use of line weight. On the Wooper card, light lines are used to create underwater vibes. Darker, heavier lines are used on the forms of Spinarak and Dunsparce on their own cards to make them stand out from their background. Finally, Kakuna is a very ink-heavy drawing, with black line art that becomes a bit of an aura.

continued delivering stylized takes on Pokémon throughout multiple vintage sets. Above, you can see two cards from Japan's VS set (Jasmine's Jolteon and Jasmine's Raichu), which was sadly never adapted to English. Baba's style was consistently cartoony from the jump but noted the different levels of detail used for each card depending on the scene.

We then move into the e-series of the Pokémon TCG. Baba pushed into a more simplistic and stylized look during this era, which you can see in their Gengar. The next era, the ex era, took Baba's art to an entirely different place that was more reminiscent of their work on that Neo Discover Wooper. Their cards from this time leaned into lighter lines and increased detail, as shown on the Sableye from ex Crystal Guardians.

Next time, we will move into the classic era with Yukiko Baba. Be sure to check Bleeding Cool every day to follow our in-depth Pokémon TCG coverage as we explore the hobby's past, present, and even future with upcoming set reveals.

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