Pokémon Card Artist Paints Original Cards Into Awesome Illustrations

Most people who’ve spent good time, money, and memories collecting Pokémon cards would throw a fit if you brought up the idea of painting over anything from your prized collection, but there has to be a special exception for custom card artist Lunumbra.

Lunumbra uses acrylics to paint and expand the backgrounds of Pokémon cards to cover the whole card, and in the process shows off both her own talent and imagination while also honoring the original art.

More: Instagram h/t: grapee

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*Bidding is over* . Hey guys! Just paid my taxes and am running a bit low in my wallet 😅 so here's an impromptu card for sale. Ill have a couple more like this one for sale this weekend so if you miss this one, don't stress too much. . How to buy: This is a bid sale! Starting bid is $25. Reply to the person you are outbidding so that they know. Your bid will not be accepted if you do not reply to the person you are outbidding. Please increase each bid by at least $1. Bids increasing by any cent amount will be ignored. . Info: Please pay in USD via PayPal friends and family. Card will come in a frame. This card has not been glossed so if you want text to show let me know if you win. Shipping is included if you are in the US and comes with tracking. Otherwise you will be asked to pay for shipping. . Starting bid: $25. Minimun increase per bid is $1. Reply to the person you are outbidding. Ignoring any of these rules will disqualify your bid. There is no autobuy price. . Bidding ends at midnight tonight (about 6 hours from now)

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Apr 13, 2018 at 2:49pm PDT

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Vulpix alter – Sorry the "before" picture is a picture of my monitor 😂 If you are a Vulpix lover, I painted one yesterday as well and I will upload it in a bit. . Materials: Acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: About an hour and a half . Not for sale – prints coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Apr 24, 2018 at 11:19am PDT

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Electabuzz alter – Im not too sure of the last time I painted an Electabuzz card…? I really enjoyed this one though. I considered adding more trees in the background, but he seems to be trying to reach the lightning. Its easier to get struck if you're on the tallest thing around 😊⚡ . Materials: Acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale, prints possibly available soon

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Apr 25, 2018 at 11:39am PDT

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Umbreon alter – Painting on a Saturday? All my friends are at work/not around so might as well get some work done myself 😅 Ive been asked to do this card a lot so here you guys go. This is probably the 5th or 6th time Ive painted it, but it is fun to work on. . Materials: Acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale, prints coming soon

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Apr 28, 2018 at 11:54am PDT

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Pidgey alter – sorry for the lack of posts recently 😅 Took a few days off for spring cleaning and moving things around. Got my office back up to par so back to work we go! No before picture this time (who knows where all my cards are right now) but it is a base set. I repainted the sun because it looked so weird the first time I tried to match it 😥 . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale, prints will be available soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 8, 2018 at 4:18pm PDT

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Paras alter – Paras really needs more love 😭 He is so cute! The episode "The Problem with Paras" was one of my favorites from the anime and I had it on VHS way back when. I took a few creative liberties with this one since the original background was pretty abstract. . Materials: Apple barrel acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour and a half . Not for sale, prints coming soon ❤

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 10, 2018 at 2:45pm PDT

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Exeggcute alter – Such a beautiful illustration but with such a bland background! This is by far one of my favorite renditions of this Pokemon, but because it had just a light green background I wasn't too sure what to add. Decided to just play around with some grasses and such 😅 . Materials: Apple barrel acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale, prints will be available soon.

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 11, 2018 at 12:51pm PDT

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Grimer alter – Whew what a card! Manmade things are not my strong suit so the buildings were a bit of a struggle but Im happy with the result. Slowly but surely finishing up the original 151 😅 . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About 2 hours . Not for sale, prints coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 9, 2018 at 3:21pm PDT

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Machop alter – Look at the colours in this card! Soooo fun to work on. Again, not satisfied with my rocks 😥 I just need to do a full month of rock types for practice haha. . Materials: Apple barrel acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: About an hour and a half . Not for sale, prints coming soon

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 13, 2018 at 4:12pm PDT

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Nidoran ♀ alter – Another rather abstract card. As hard as these are to match, I love the creative freedom they give me. Its fun to try to decifer the blotchy, watercolour figures in the background. 😅 . Materials: Apple barrel acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale – prints of the entire original 151 coming soon 🎉

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 17, 2018 at 9:35am PDT

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Gengar alter – Weird post #2 just to confirm the pictures line up properly! Will be posting just once a day from now on for awhile. . This Gengar card was painted back in October as a spooky reward for my Patreon peeps. It was originally a Sabrina's Gengar from one of the Gym Challenge sets and continues to be one of my fave Gengar cards to date. It was tricky painting his body as most of it was missing, but I think it turned out pretty good. Small cameo of the recent Exeggcute card as well 😉

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 25, 2018 at 3:26pm PDT

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Arcanine alter – Probably one of my favorite renditions of this card to date. I don't know why, but I really felt "on my game" that day. Do any of my artist friends get those days too? Where you feel like you can create anything you set your mind to? Anyhow, I really wanted to try to make the field look more lively than I had done in the past so I tried to paint some somewhat abstract-ish wheat blowing in the wind. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and I hope the owner of this card is too :)

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 26, 2018 at 11:13am PDT

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Dragonair alter – Also, its about time I announce my new Patreon support rewards 🎉 Starting the first of next month the rewards will begin as shown (may have to swipe to view them). The $35 and $50 tiers are currently full, but there are plenty of other cool tiers to join. I will be giving away three cards each month on Patreon, so depending on what tier you join you may get a shot at a free painted card each month. If you like what you've been seeing and you want to send some support my way, (and get some cool rewards for doing so) I would appreciate it greatly. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments and I will answer them the best I can 😊

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 28, 2018 at 7:29pm PDT

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Nidoran alter – The final image of my little collage. Thanks for hanging in there :) Tomorrow we will be returning to the normal before/after posts. Everyone excited for Let's Go Eevee and Pikachu? I think they look really fun but I am so thankful that they are just side-games for the most part. Really looking forward to the 2019 games!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 30, 2018 at 5:38pm PDT

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Sandslash alter – Woo boy what a card. I asked you guys if I should extend the original background or paint my own and "paint my own" won. So here you go! Desert scenes are not my forte, but I really wanted to play with the colours some. Sandshrew is up next 😁 . Materials: Acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: About an hour and a half . Not for sale, prints coming soon

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 31, 2018 at 2:01pm PDT

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Sandshrew alter – Finally have these completed for my quest to paint the original 151! I don't know why I took so long getting to these two… Mankey and Primeape should be coming up tomorrow 😊 . Materials: Acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: An hour . Not for sale, prints coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on May 31, 2018 at 3:22pm PDT

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Butterfree alter – Finally 😅 I know a lot of you have been wanting this card for awhile and I finally completed it. The flowers were soooo difficult. Mostly just outlining them. Im probably still going to touch up some things but its pretty much done. Now for Caterpie and Metapod 😆 . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: An hour and a half . Not for sale but prints will be coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 7, 2018 at 1:12pm PDT

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Caterpie alter – Thank you all who voted! The Metapod poll is sitting close to 50/50 right now so I will let it sit over night. I may just end up redoing most of his background but not all. Caterpie on the other hand was pretty one-sided so here he is with a completely repainted background 😊 . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale but prints are coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 7, 2018 at 5:13pm PDT

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Charmander alter – Finished this guy up recently along with the other 2 starters. I wonder how many times I've painted that trio? It's tough trying to make each one unique. This time I went for a little extra fire in the foreground to help frame the 'mander and to cut out some of that boring sky. I know its a classic, but that sky is never fun to paint… 😅 . Materials: Acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: About an hour and a half . Not for sale, but prints are coming soon. You can already find some of my Charmander prints at bit.ly/lunumbracards

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 11, 2018 at 4:23pm PDT

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Victreebel alter – Thank you guys for voting in my poll 😊 It was a close call again so I only redid some parts of the background instead of the whole thing. The style of these older cards is soooo hard to replicate. It usually ends in me just dabbing my brush over and over again. . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale but prints will be coming soon

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 14, 2018 at 3:29pm PDT

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Zubat alter – Contrary to most, I love Zubat. I always have one on my team when I can. Crobat is one of my all time favorite Pokes to use (yes, competitive Crobat is legit) and I was sooo excited in Crystal when my Golbat could actually evolve! It was tough choosing a Zubat card to paint for the big 151, but I went with this one since I love this artwork. . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale, prints coming soon !

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 18, 2018 at 9:33am PDT

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Golbat alter – And of course what better to follow Zubat with than Golbat? I struggled again with figuring out which Golbat card to go with but I thought this artwork was pretty cool. It also makes me realize how terrifying Golbat would be if Pokemon were real 😳 . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: An hour and a half . Prints coming soon~

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 18, 2018 at 1:38pm PDT

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Beedrill alter – Continuing with the "terrifying Pokemon I am thankful aren't real" 😌 This card had a strange background but I decided to make it into leaves and I think it fit pretty well! Forests are one of my favorite things to add – I go through a lot of green paint 😉 . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: An hour and a half . Prints coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 19, 2018 at 12:49pm PDT

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Kakuna alter – Im actually really surprised you guys wanted me to keep the original background on this one 😂 I understand the nostalgia but the giant leaf is a bit strange! I couldn't come up with much so I hope this is okay 😌 Weedle coming up next~ . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Prints coming soon~

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 20, 2018 at 2:04pm PDT

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Weedle alter – Another bug! Beedrill's line is now complete 😊 I think Venonat is the last gen 1 bug I have left to paint, and Ill try to complete that one tomorrow. I feel like Ive made so much progress on the original 151 but there's still so many left 😌 . Materials: Acrylic paints and liner brushes . Time: I think a little over an hour . Prints coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 20, 2018 at 3:21pm PDT

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Diglett alter – Ive been wanting to do an "underground" card for awhile and what better Pokemon card to work with than Diglett? These 3D cards are tough. I will be working on Dugtrio as well today and he's even worse 😅 wish me luck! . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour and a half . Not for sale but prints are coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 21, 2018 at 11:18am PDT

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Dugtrio alter – You guys killed me with the Diglett post 😂 maybe next April fools I will paint a buff Diglett. I kept it a little more simple with this guy (or, guys?) And honestly the 3D cards are starting to grow on me. Also, thanks to those who added me on PoGo! My friends list is full now so I cant accept any new requests but hopefully we will get more space in the future 😅 . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale but prints coming soon!

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 22, 2018 at 12:22pm PDT

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Ekans alter – not a very detailed card but Ekans needed to be done! The dirt path was strange to me so I changed it up some although in hindsight I probably should have added back some rocks. I just got a bit carried away blending the oranges and browns 😌 . Materials: Acrylics and liner brushes . Time: About an hour . Not for sale, prints coming soon

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jun 26, 2018 at 1:31pm PDT

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Vaporeon alter – My buddy @artofthecards shared with me a way of altering holos using sharpies and while her technique is much more refined than mine, it was still quite useful for this card. Thanks dude 😊 . Materials: Acetone, sharpies, acrylic paints, liner brushes, toothpicks . Time: 2 hours . Not for sale, sorry 😅

A post shared by Lunny (@lunumbra) on Jul 3, 2018 at 12:00pm PDT