ATCs

The other day I was inspired to draw some more ATCs (artist trading cards).

This one is called "The Last Burst of Light."

Watercolor paint & black ink.

This one is not my usual style, but it needed to be drawn.

It is called "Clinging Chameleon."

Watercolor paint & black ink.

I recently did an ATC trade with knityoga (ravelry name) who lives in England.  This is the ATC that I received from her.  Isn't is cool?  I love that she did embroidery / string art on an ATC.

She also sent me 2 fabric postcard that she had made.  I sent her 3 ATC's, 2 originals and 1 photo copy of one.  Some of mine are hard to give up/trade, so I made copies of them on card stock.

More Artist Trading Cards

Here are the 5 artist trading cards that I made today.  I had watercolor painted them a few weeks ago.  Today I drew on them with a black pen.  My favorites from this set are "Rocky Mountain High" and "Pondering."

Rocky Mountain High

Wilting in the Heat

Pondering

Radiating Heat

Growing Towards the Sun

My iPhone Case

My husband's and my iPhone cases arrived today!  We were able to order personalized ones through getuncommon.com.  We ordered capsules.  The bottom of the case separates so that you can easily slide your iPhone in and out of it.  The look GREAT!  I've been using mine all day with no problems.  The picture above is a scan of them (from my printer) which is why there seems to be a small mess up here and there with the image quality.  They look way better than they do in this picture.  

For mine I choice to use the artist trading card that I had made called "fetal elephant."  The background is watercolor on watercolor paper (blue and pink), and then I drew on it with a fine tip black pen.  

My husband choice to use this one.  It really does suit him well.  The image above is doubled so that if you cross your eyes a certain way the image becomes 3D.  This is one of his doodles that he scanned into the computer and then colored it in photoshop.

It is pretty cool that we can carry our artwork around like that.  We might be ordering a 2nd set at some point in the future.  Maybe for Christmas.

ATCs - 3rd set

Bzzz

I decided to have some fun experimenting with different animal themes on some artist trading cards (ATCs).  The background was one of the pre-cut ATC papers that a friend had sent me.  The flowers seemed to say "bee" to me.  But I couldn't just make a regular bee, it had to have some of my abstract design in it.  I wasn't sure about it, but my husband liked it.

Hide & Seek

Continuing with the animal theme, I made this giraffe.  There was someone who last year was trying to collect at least 1000 new giraffe pieces of art (via images sent to her by other people).  I had sent two basic drawings to her.   I thought about that challenge when making this card.  The card seems very child like to me.  Its not one of my favorites, but it is fun.

Fetal Elephant

After working on this for a little while, I started to see an elephant in it.  So I added to the elephant where I thought that it needed more detail.  My husband saw a seahorse instead.  Because its abstract, each person will see something different and that it how its suppose to be.

Tigress

For this card I wanted to try to make a different kind of floral pattern but I wanted to use some of the basic design elements that I had used before.


P.S.  These cards have sent me over my goal of making 365 items this year!

Video of My Artist Trading Cards

Artist Trading Cards - 2nd Set

Floral Snow

I drew all of these artist trading cards yesterday on the paper that I watercolor painted on.  To achieve a certain look on some of them, I sprinkled salt on the paper while it was still wet with paint.  When dry, then I scraped the salt off.  Its been fun to experiment on these 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of paper.  My husband wants me to keep it up.  Maybe I can get him to make a few to.  I love his character doodles.  You can see some of his characters here.  Its also been fun naming them.  Some I won't trade.  Thoughts of how to display them (framed) are dancing through my mind.

Releasing Steam 

And the Darkness Comes

Solar Flares

Eclipse

Do Snails Dream of...?

Artist Trading Cards - First 5

Katniss & the Hanging Tree

This week I received 2 envelopes full of precut ATCs  in the mail from a friend.  ATC stands for artist trading card.  They are around 3.5" x 2.5" which is about the size of a baseball trading card.  There are various groups of people who make them and trade them with each other.  The one pictured above was my first one.  I had just finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy and needed to release some of what I was feeling.  This little piece of paper helped me to do just that.  I just started doodling with a size 005 black pen, and this is what it turned into.

Wisps of Summer

Then I moved onto this card.  This is a slight variation of an image that I drew ages ago, one that I want to make a tattoo out of.  I've been tweaking the image in my head for several years.

Wings of Fire

Then I broke out the watercolor paper and paints and did some experimenting.  I haven't done any watercolor painting for 5 years, so it was nice to do a mini refresher.  I let my 4 year old sprinkle salt on the wet paint.  He loved watching what it did to the painting.  While painting, he told me that I am a good artist because I am a good painter.  So sweet (especially since I was just painting a plain background).  Then when I was drawing the picture below he said that I am a good artist because I'm a good drawer.  Melts my heart.

Starfish Glory

After the paint had dried, I cut 2 of the 3 pages that I painted into 3.5" x 2.5" cards and drew on them with a size 01 pen.  I really like the gradation of color from the watercolor paints.  It really adds to the image.

Sending Messages to Space

I started doing a certain type of doodling with black ink in high school (maybe even earlier than that).  It has slowly evolved from just swirls to having more of a nature feel to it.  Its all very organic and not planned out.  Sometimes I'll have something in mind and see if I can keep with that theme, but I still let the image develop and grow the way that it wants to.

It feels good to be doodling again.  It reminds me that I am more than just a crafter.  It reminds me that, like my son said, I am an artist.