About Ken Sugimori
Sugimori was born in 1966 in Fukuoka, Japan. In the early 1980s he drew for Game Freak, the fanzine Satoshi Tajiri had started, and in 1989 he was one of the founders of the game company of the same name. When Pokémon Red and Green came out in 1996, he had drawn and finalised most of the first 151 Pokémon, working with Atsuko Nishida among others. He has drawn the official artwork for every main game since.
When the trading card game began, Sugimori was one of its main illustrators. In Base Set, Jungle and Fossil he drew holo cards such as Blastoise, Mewtwo, Zapdos, Alakazam and Scyther; in Team Rocket, Dark Charizard; and he drew most of the holo cards in Gym Heroes and Gym Challenge – Blaine’s Charizard and Erika’s Venusaur among them.
His cards are recognisable because the Pokémon look just like they do in the games’ own artwork – which is no surprise, since he is the one who draws it. According to Japanese Wikipedia, his own favourites are Gengar and Venusaur.