Pokémon TCG legend Mitsuhiro Arita on illustrating his first Magic: The Gathering card

polygon.com:

It’s hard to overstate the impact artist Mitsuhiro Arita has had on trading card games. Nearly 30 years ago, as a member of the original design team on the Pokémon Trading Card Game, Arita contributed to the look and feel of the franchise’s original 150 monsters. He also authored the art for some of the most iconic Pokémon cards, images that have global recognition — including some of the first interpretations of Pikachu and Charizard.

Since then, Arita has remained one of the Pokémon TCG’s most prolific illustrators, while occasionally contributing art for other card games such as the Shin Megami Tensei Trading Card Game, the Monster Hunter Hunting Card Game, and even the Power Rangers Collectible Card Game.

And now, for the first time, Arita’s work will appear on a Magic: The Gatheringcard as part of its latest expansion, in a world of anthropomorphic animals known as Bloomburrow. Although his art will only feature on one card in the set, a special, full-art treatment for a new creature called Lumra, Bellow of the Woods, the massive elemental bear highlights the detailed approach that makes Arita one of the most cherished TCG artists in the world.

Polygon was able to share questions with Arita ahead of Bloomburrow’s official tabletop release on Aug. 2. What follows are his professionally translated answers, which have been lightly edited for clarity and concision.

Polygon: Was working on a Magiccard different from your typical process with the other card games you have contributed to?

Mitsuhiro Arita: In Japan, it’s very common to have detailed checks at every stage of the drawing process. Character consistency in particular is strictly controlled. I’m used to making changes all the way through the process. Usually you present the piece for detailed feedback around 60-70% of the way through, so you can make adjustments before starting on the final details. With Magic, the most thorough checks were at the conceptualization stage. After that, there weren’t any