How To Make Pokémon Cards Even Better: Paint Them

That is, paint them awesomely. You know, like Lunumbra does.

For the past few years, Lunumbra has been creating one-of-a-kind Pokémon paint jobs that sometimes, but not always, cover the text so you can appreciate the card’s beautiful main art.

This what makes these cards so great. The customization doesn’t detract from the original art’s intrinsic beauty, but rather, enhances it.

Here’s Lunumbra explaining his process:

Each piece is hand-painted with acrylic paint onto real trading cards . Details are added with gel pens or metallic ink and then two coats of a clear, protective gloss are added to give the card a shine and to help remove any unwanted texture. I take care to ensure every card is as flat as possible with few indications that paint has been added. If text is to be shown or if holographic details are wanted, a toothpick is used to slowly and carefully remove any unwanted acrylic.

Below is a short video showing how he does it:

Lunumbra prefers not to paint old or rare cards as he does not want to, as he says, “deteriorate their value.”

Via Lunumbra’s Facebook and Instagram, have a look at his work:

Terrific work. For more, check out Lunumbra’s Facebook page.

This article was originally posted on February 28, 2017. It has since been updated.