Category Archives: Artist Trading Cards

Artist Trading Card Cousins

I haven’t made a lot of ATC’s in the past couple of years. Don’t know why, just haven’t. I do have a lot of cardboard cut and ready, though. I use discarded cereal, cracker, etc. boxes for this purpose. In January, 2023, the time was right. I came up with these little cards.

(ATC = Artist Trading Card = 3.5″ x 2.5″)

When I do other projects, such as collage or Tiny Houses, I always have extra scraps of paper left over. And when I paint, I have excess paint on the brush that I wipe off on to stray surfaces; sometimes it’s paper (I then keep it for collage) and sometimes it’s ATC or postcard cardboard.

These little guys arose from these processes. They are all made of scraps and leftovers. What I did this time was decorate the ATC surface with leftover paint and printing, and then I cut up some strips of heavier paper that came from collage projects (using paper decorated with excess paint. See how it all goes in a circle?)

I like the look of these. They make me feel as if I am peering into a microscope, or out of a window of a spaceship, or into a deep forest. Or maybe lying on the ground looking at plants at ground level, pretending I am only 2 inches tall…

Blue Bunny

Here’s what I did to get this blue rabbit to appear:

I painted some random colors on an artist trading card-sized background.

I put a blob of blue paint down and ran the brayer over it.

Yes, that was it. And then, after I gave him an eye, there was this blue bunny looking at me.

Artist trading card, August, 2020.

Ink and Paint ATC Display

I made these artist trading cards using India ink and diluted acrylic paints. They depict objects found in my house.

From April 2020.

ATC’s from Leftovers

Sometimes you have a scrap of something you just know will come in handy, or is too good to let go of. It waits around until its turn comes. Here are a couple of examples.

This animal was originally just a random ink blob surrounding an odd-shaped white section (the head part). I immediately saw it as a head, but didn’t get around to doing anything with it until one night, the scrap fell out of my leftover box. I got out my pen and made him a body. Next stop – ATC.

ATC sheep-like animal 4-2001

This is a two for one leftover meal – the card was painted for another purpose but not used, and the legs were a try-out sketch for a bigger drawing. Put them together and here you have another ATC.

ATC legs on a red background 4-2002

ATC’s Featuring Drawings

Here are a couple of artist trading cards featuring line drawings, plus an item done on a library card, from April 2020. Take a look.

This one features a drawing I did on a scrap of paper and later affixed to a card, along with some other papers.

ATC small green and blue scene01

 

Here is a tiny drawing I did as a try-out for an illustration I did some time ago. It was on another piece of paper that I cut out and glued to the cardboard backing, plus taking the opportunity to add more detail to it.

ATC small house and car 4-2002

 

Here is a lugubrious fellow lurking. That’s pretty much all I know about him. Done in acrylic paints with pen-drawn features.

Library card befuddled man 4-2003

Let’s Trade!

Here are a some ATC’s I made as part of my teaching duties at my mixed media class from earlier this year. I created them as part of our session on mail art and other social art (art meant to share), so that they could be part of a trading session our class did.

ATC Advice Emerging Out of Somewhere But Where?

ATC Advice is my own category for this kind of ATC card. Simple to make. Make an ATC. Put a phrase cut from print on it. Pick the phrase at random; do not try to match it to the card.

Read the words, look at the picture, and see what you get from the juxtaposition.

You may be surprised. The ATC Advice method quite often offers something astute or insightful or maybe just head-scratching.

Let's try it small

 

ATC Advice Can Be Cryptic To Say the Least

ATC Advice is my own category for this kind of ATC card. Simple to make. Make an ATC. Put a phrase cut from print on it. Pick the phrase at random; do not try to match it to the card.

Read the words, look at the picture, and see what you get from the juxtaposition.

You may be surprised. The ATC Advice method quite often offers something astute or insightful or maybe just head-scratching.

 

ATC advice his life 1-1911

Puzzled Faces

Here are a couple of ATC’s I made as part of my teaching duties at my recent mixed media class. I created them as part of our session on mail art and other social art (art meant to share), so that they could be part of a trading session our class did.