A 365 day art project… one drawing a day
Yesterday’s ATC’s were unfinished. So today I finished them. 
I like the 2nd two better than the first two, but I like them all, and loved just playing with the Qor paints. (introductory set linked here)
Artist Trading Cards… 2 1/2×3 1/2 inches. Treehouses. The fronts, top and right using daniel smith paints, bottom left using qor…
The backs… one unfinished, the school house uses Jane davenport mermaid watercolor markers (they are really a waterbased color in a waterbrush) Vivid colors, difficult for me to control, and they lift off a bit too easily, but quite fun. I think they’d be great for something larger, especially art journal pages, or calligraphy. The country store uses daniel smith.
Oh, and about halfway through I found this gift from my newfoundland dog dripping off my table right in front of me. I don’t know how I didn’t get slimed. Don’t get a newfie if you can’t handle the Sloober. He’s not allowed in my studio alone, but he snuck in a bit earlier. Obviously. That Sloober would literally be there in a week if I hadn’t removed it… looking like a thick shiny… dried… disgusting hangy thingy… I tried it once just to see. Ugh.
So I finished the giraffe ATC. I don’t know about adding any other elements. Maybe a 3d leaf or something, otherwise it’s done. I also played around with some new waterproof ink that arrived today and a couple of fountain pens. I’ll discuss them more later. I have spent a long time looking for good waterproof fountain pen inks and pens, and am hoping I’ve found them. (I don’t know if anything can beat my Uniball Micro Deluxe, though, for either reliability or convenience. Or for the look of the ink itself)
The beginning of one anyway. Haven’t decided where to go with it yet. Front and back pictured.
I used this Uniball Deluxe Micro pen .5, be sure to get black as there are other colors of ink. The ink is waterproof and goes on smoothly. I paint right over it. Right now it is a little over $5, sometimes it is less (sometimes more!) on Amazon… I’ve purchased a set of three previously but couldn’t find it tonight. Only a set of 12, but that was close to $24. In the past I’ve used different width Micron pens instead, and I was really surprised and pleased with how well this worked. I’m thinking maybe I can consider eliminating a few of my extraneous supplies (ARE any art supplies ever really extraneous???? My addiction says no. But yes, yes they are and I need to admit it.)
I forgot to finish these, and left the masking fluid on one for several days (it should come off within 24 hours) It still removed easily and did no damage. It is that Molotow masking pen, 2mm… (link here)… and does really well on tiny spaces.
Remember, and ATC (artist trading card) is 2 1/2 ” x 3 1/2 “… a very small space for painting a lot of detail. How many watercolored ATCs do you think are equal to a set of hand knitted or crocheted fingerless gloves?? It’s a swap, and I feel like 4 is not nearly enough.
SO CLOSE. But not finished yet. My goodness these are tiny. (And hard to work on.) You’d think they’d be finished so quickly!
Not completed yet, but getting there…
An ATC is an Artist’s Trading Card. This one is nothing special, and I made it this morning for a partner on a site I’m in (Swap-bot)… an ATC has only one hard and fast rule: It must be 2 1/2 inches by 3 1/2 inches. You can do pretty much anything you want to them, and on the back the artists generally write their names, location, the date or year, name of piece, and what they used to create the piece. As the name implies, these are always traded, or given, never sold. If created to be sold, they are called ACEO’s (Art Card Originals and Editions). Frequently they involve many layers, and several different media, but they don’t have to. Most collectors have many, many cards from all different artists, not just one or two.
My partner wanted a daisy, so naturally I used ink and watercolor. I drew the back of the daisy, looking up at the sky through it’s petals, (weird, I guess) and added a little dragonfly brad. (Because I had to mail it in a card and thought the ladybug that I preferred was too fat to travel in a flat envelope!) I’m not sure why my light was so odd for the photo with the dragonfly? Careless.
ThreeSixFiveArt 