It's a Full Exhibit! CGC Cards Grades Two Sets of Pokémon Art Academy International Winner Promos

CGC Cards™ recently certified some very special Pokémon cards: two sets of Pokémon Art Academy Competition winner promos! Unlike most cards, this set wasn’t illustrated by Pokémon TCG staff or contributors; instead, they were illustrated by talented fans using a spin-off 3DS game.

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Pokémon Art Academy was released on the Nintendo 3DS in 2014. The game teaches players how to draw various Pokémon characters in an educational format, including lessons covering different art mediums, techniques and concepts. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company designed the game with the TCG in mind — all the player’s art can be transferred to a Pokémon TCG card border upon completion, and the game’s story revolves around the player — and the player’s rival — working to become Pokémon TCG artists.

To celebrate the launch of the game, The Pokémon Company International announced its first true international illustration contest, inviting players from Japan, North America, Europe and Oceania to use Pokémon Art Academy to create Pokémon illustrations and send them in for judging. While Japan hosted its own contest in 2014, North America, Europe and Oceania participants were invited to participate in an international version of the contest in 2015.

The contest was split into two categories: Dress-Up Pikachu, in which players could draw Dress-Up Pikachu from the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire 3DS games, or Your Favorite Pokémon, in which artists could send in a portrait of their favorite Pokémon using the Free Paint game mode. Twelve total winners were chosen across both competitions, including illustrators identified as Me! and Phanpy, who drew these Dress-Up Pikachu and Mew cards, respectively.

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Each winner was shipped 100 copies of their illustration printed on an official Pokémon TCG promo card in a special Pokémon Art Academy box. These cards came sandwiched in between two large pieces of foam packaging, which may explain why many of the international competition promo cards exhibit minor edgewear.

Additional copies of these Art Academy promos have surfaced on the secondary market, so it is unknown how many complete international sets exist. CGC Cards has graded at least two full sets of the Pokémon (2015) Art Academy Contest international winner promos, according to the CGC Cards Population Report.

About CGC

Since revolutionizing comic book grading in 2000, CGC has grown to include certification services for a vast variety of pop culture collectibles. These divisions include CGC Cards, CGC Video Games and CGC Home Video. CGC Cards provides expert card grading for sports cards, TCGs and non-sports cards. CGC Video Games is dedicated to video game grading for the most popular consoles, including Nintendo, Sega, Atari, PlayStation and more. CGC Home Video provides expert VHS grading in addition to other types of videocassettes, DVD, Blu-ray and more.