Trying to find the name of an artist, pretty sure they work for Nintendo.

Well, used to work for Nintendo, at least. You see, this piece of art is from a 1988 issue of Nintendo Power. Specifically, it's the banner piece for the Counselor's Corner section. And it's freaking adorable!

I really, really love the "quasi-realistic, but everyone has Kirby faces" style. now here's the thing: I've seen this kind of design done in only one other place: Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. And even then, just for the character portraits. (See below picture for reference)

Anyone got any idea of who might have done that drawing? Someone told me to look up Katsuya Terada, but his work is far more detailed and realistic. (Well, as realistic as you can be with Legend of Zelda monsters.)

Do you know which issue of Nintendo Power it is? Should be a good place to start.

Hard to say. Could it be Shuji Imai? I think he was the Howard and Nester artist around that time. His other work doesn't really look like that with the eyes and all though. Reminds me of Earthbound characters or something.

Imai seems to be a dead end, but I was thinking about the Earthbound connection on my way to work. I looked up the artist, Kouichi Ooyama, and it seems like I'm on the right track, but the guy is a ghost. He isn't a credited artist on any other games. Only other thing I found out was that he did a lot of art for Pokemon trading cards, and ended up putting himself in the game as Dr. Oyama (Dr. Mason for the US Release)! . Shame I can't find any other good examples of his art.

To Hassun, it's from Issue 2, but the same piece of art is used through several issues (and in fact repeated through the entire section in each issue!), and I'm not sure when they phased it out.

@dr_bruce_willis: Nester. NESter.

Wow, thanks! I actually read through that comic and never noticed those background characters. I looked up Imai and didn't find anything else he did that was in the same style, though. And what about Ooyama? Could he have been on the same team? And I completely forgot about Calvin and Hobbes somehow. Like, I totally forgot it existed. That's worrying.

Real late to the party here, but it's most likely Joe Haley who drew that. Compare the eyes to how the eyes are drawn for the side characters in the Simon's Quest Howard and Nester comic in the November / December 1988 issue of Nintendo Power.