Thursday, January 26, 2012

Working Even Smaller: ATC's


It's been a fantastic year for me. After many years of dabbling here and there with my art, and not being at all consistent, I've finally broken out of that holding pattern. It feels wonderful to be energized and inspired to create. All of the excuses I used in the past are still true -- I'm busy, I don't have a studio, I'm not sure what I should do, which medium should I use etc.. and etc... Discovering mixed media has been a breakthrough for me. I no longer have to choose just one medium to work in. Since I love drawing, painting, printmaking, and now, collage, I couldn't be happier. I hadn't tried working in the Artist Trading Card size before, but became inspired to try it out as a way to consistently work on collage and art every day.




It's great fun working in this format! It's a wonderful way to use up bits and pieces of papers, and it's extremely motivating to have some finished pieces in a short amount of time.



These pieces all began with a large piece of watercolor paper I'd painted with a blue background. I then did some quick doodling with a soft pencil before I cut the paper into the smaller cards. After that, it was quick, intuitive and fun collage work. Let me know if you're interested in trading a card!

4 comments:

  1. Susie Seefelt LesieutreJanuary 27, 2012 at 7:50 AM

    These are beautiful, Debbie! How big are they? And how can I get one?

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  2. Hi Susie! Thank you for visiting my blog. The general "rule" with ATC's is that you trade, and do not sell them. So technically, you should make me one and then we could trade. But I think artists are now selling them to the general public as ACEO's (this website has a short explanation http://www.art-cards.org/). I was just playing around with this format -- it's really small. You can go to my Artist Trading Cards Album link on the right hand side, look at what's there, and let me know which one you like. Maybe we can cut a deal! :)

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  3. Hi, and thank you for visiting my first Flickr Sketch Book post.
    I love your ATCs - I enjoyed trading textile ATCs some time ago, pics still in a set on Flickr. I like to work to the small size - I'm sure you will have fun!
    I'm not trading now as I can't get to the post easily and was not keeping good time in sending things off.
    I'm interesred in following your altered old postcards. I have a small collection and may get inspired to use them in some way. Best wishes, Connie, UK

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  4. What fabulous ATC´s....all gorgeous collage indeed!!

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