The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo have announced a new contest for Pokémon fans. The companies are inviting Pokémon fans and budding illustrators to enter an international Pokémon Art Academy Competition using the Pokémon Art Academy game. The game is of course available exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS.

The competition opens on Wednesday and closes on March 29th, with winners being announced in May.

Entries for the competition are being be accepted via Miiverse, through the Nintendo 3DS. The winning entries will have their artistic creation turned into their very own Pokémon trading card game card.

There will be six winners selected by a panel of judges comprised of some of the creators of the Pokémon universe. Each winner will receive a whopping 100 cards featuring his or her winning image.

There are two categories for Pokémon artists to enter: Dress-Up Pikachu and Your Favorite Pokémon.

Dress-Up Pikachu

Inspired by the special Cosplay Pikachu, which can be discovered in the recently launched Pokémon Omega Ruby and Pokémon Alpha Sapphire video games, this category gives entrants the chance to “play fashion designer” and create their very own Pikachu outfit!

Your Favorite Pokémon

This category gives entrants the chance to submit their own artistic impressions of a favorite Pokémon, which they can do using the Free Paint mode of Pokémon Art Academy. So, if Snorlax awakens an inner Leonardo da Vinci, or Rayquaza gets fans painting with flying colors, then this is their perfect category!

Full rules for the contest are available at Pokemon.com.

One thing that is a bit of a downer to the contest though is that the winners’ cards will not be made available for sale in regular Pokémon trading card game products nor will they be eligible to take part in Play! Pokémon officially sanctioned organized play events. So while the prize is definitely cool, no one but the winning artist will be able to get any of the cards.

It’s a shame as having your card potentially be available to the millions of fans of the game would have been an even greater prize.