Loteria ATC's

I've just started making, trading and collecting Artist Trading Cards inspired by the Mexican Game Loteria.

I'm just playing around with different ideas now, heading toward creating a deck of my own one day. Until then, here are the cards I've made, and traded so far. I've used scans from the original deck I've had for years.

Loteria ATC: #6 La Sirena

Loteria ATC: #7 La Escalera

Loteria ATC: #41 La Rosa

And here are photos of cards I've received from artists:

47-La Corona. Received from Belinda Shields, 4-18-12

If anyone's interested in trading please leave me a message below

Torn Photo ATCs

I made four Artist Trading Cards for the Torn Photo ATC Swap on the ATCs for All.

It was an interesting process and required all the discipline I could gather to just glue the photo onto a plain backing and not slather it with mixed media collage elements. I'm clearly stuck doing the same, familiar things over and over, and trying to make myself believe that I'm changing things by using different materials. But it's still the same process. So this was a welcome, if slightly uncomfortable change.

2012-9  "Torn Photo ATC #1: Granny"

 The first card ended up being very simple. With just a slight skew to the image to make it appear a bit jarring.

2012-10 "Torn Photo ATC #2: Granny and Great-Grandfather"

Tried to go a little farther this time. But feels like I did the really obvious thing in switching heads around.

2012-11 "Torn Photo ATC #3: Granny/Baby"

For this one I tried to not look so much at the imagery, but at the way the shapes and colors and torn edges and use those elements for the composition. I still see things and immediately name them (head, arm etc.) which is keeping me from seeing it as much as an abstraction as I'd like.

2012-12  "Torn Photo ATC #4: Chicken Coop"

Like this the best of them all as far as having interesting lines and intersections of lines and shapes. Glad I stuck through it. Good exercise in abstraction that I can see using to develop drawings and paintings. Glad to get away from my tried and true mixed media collage. And it's a great way to upcycle all those old photos that aren't interesting enough to keep for the imagery, but that you still can't part with because they're family heirlooms and mementos of earlier times in your personal history.

Flower ATC's

a random assortment of Artist Trading Cards I've done using flower images and themes:

2011-91 "White Flower" ATC

 Rubber stamp, embossing inks, pen and ink, marker and stamp pads on bristol.

2011-92 "Yellow Flower" ATC

 Rubber stamp, embossing inks and marker on bristol.

2011-93 "White Flower #2" ATC

Rubber stamp, embossing ink and marker on bristol.

Vintage ATCs

a random assortment of Artist Trading Cards I've made using vintage images and/or themes:

2011-90 "Emotional Intensity" ATC

Vintage photos, text from Carl Jung's "Man and His Symbols" using encaustic, acrylic & metallic markers on watercolor paper.

Zentangled ATC's - Assorted

A random assortment of ATC's featuring "Zentangles" (learn more about zentangling here) :

Cara (11/29/2011)

 Zentangle Pattern Organza: 6 variations

My favorite pens for tangling. They come in a set so they're easy to through in your bag and take with you. Plus the plastic sleeve keeps them organized. I also find having them all together reminds you to switch sizes when working on a piece. And this is a great price compared to my local Aaron Bros....
:


My favorite reference book for ATC's is 1000 Artist Trading Cards. It's a source of endless inspiration.

Mixed Media Collage ATCs: Profiles

A series of ATC's using cut out profiles and mixed media techniques:

Profile ATCs

I used the same profile shape in each of these Artist Trading Cards. Some of the profiles were cut out and glued on top of another image, and sometimes I used glued the negative space left from where the head had been cut out on top of other images. I wanted to have so many layers of paint, paper, and found bits of stuff that the original layer could not be seen at all.

I was once again inspired by, and used several techniques from, my favorite book on the subject: Artist Trading Card Workshop: Create, Collect, Swap. Highly recommend it!

These cards were swapped as part of the ATCs For All "Artist Choice" swap.

2011-86 Redhead 

 Maps and decorative papers with encaustic, melted wax, paint and markers.

2011-87 Linear Thinking

 Found book pages with melted wax, handmade paper and decorative papers with pen & ink and marker.

2011-88 Reality

 Tissue overlay on chalk resist (instructions here), found book pages, marker and liquid embossing.

2011-89 Blue Head

Tissue paper on printed paper.

2011-99 Deep Interest

 Pen & Ink drawing with decorative papers and fortune cookie fortune.

Zentangled ATC's - Pattern Variations

I'm participating in a series of Zentangle Pattern variation swaps on Swap-Bot.  Each Artist Trading Card is made using one or more Zentangle Patterns beginning with a particular letter. Tangle Patterns is a great resource for an alphabetical listing of patterns with links to instructions. And here's a link to the list of "Official" Tangle Patterns.

Zentangled Pattern Series: A

 Zentangle pattern afterglo using .05Copic marker on polka dot paper.

Zentangled Pattern Series: A

Zentangle Pattern Aah using Copic .05 marker on hand painted paper.

Zentangled Pattern Series: B

The ATC on the left is the Zentangled pattern Bridgden. The card on the right has: Beadlines, Bateek, Bales, Barber Pole, Basketweave and Baton. First time I've used so many patterns in such a small space. very busy.....

Zentangled Pattern Series:C

 On the left are the Zentangled patterns Carres and Chard. I used the cover of a Tiffany catalog and a Copic .05 marker. On the right is teh Zentangled pattern Cockles 'n Mussels drawn with a white Sharpie Poster Paint marker (the best white pen I've found for Zentangling) on dark blue card stock.

Paisley ATCs

ATC 2011-74: Zentangled Paisley ATC

 white ink drawing on business envelope liner

ATC 2011-75: Paisley #1

 Rubber stamps, book pages, and ink on paper

ATC 2011-76: Paisley # 2

 Rubber stamp and ink on collaged papers

ATC 2011-77: Paisley # 3

 Ink on paper

ATC 2011-78: Paisley #4

 Alcohol ink, metallic paint, rubber stamps and ink on paper

ATC 2011-79: Paisley #5

 Ink and embossing powders on paper

ATC 2011-80: Paisley #6

 Acrylic paint, embossing powders and ink on paper

ATC 2011-81: Paisley #7

Acrylic paint, alcohol ink and ink on paper

ATC Background Technique: Oil Pastel Resist

purple oil pastel with blue acrylic paint

 I happened upon a new technique for ATC backgrounds using gesso, oil pastels & acrylic paint.

orange oil pastel with purple acrylic paint

 As I make more I'll take photos of each step.

Supplies: ATC (needs to be pretty sturdy stock - junk mail postcards are a good free possibility); Gesso, Oil Pastels, Acrylic Paint, Paper bigger than ATC

Tools: Pallet knife or gift card, paint brush, brayer


1. Cover card with gesso. It should be unevenly spread, leaving ridges and valleys. I generally use either a pallet knife or credit/gift card to spread the gesso on. Let gesso dry completely.


2. Draw over card with oil pastel. Make it sort of uneven with some areas heavier than others.


3. Paint over card with acrylic paint. I use a pretty dry brush and paint unevenly over the whole card. Have the brayer & paper right at hand before you start painting.


4. As soon as you've finished painting, quickly lay the paper over the card & roll the brayer over the entire card. Lift paper to see what's happened. If you like it, you're done. If not you can lay the same paper over again & roll it with the brayer, which may deposit some of the paint from the paper back onto ATC. Or, you can use a clean piece of paper and remove more paint from the ATC. The images on the paper can be interesting as well. And you can reuse the same paper on different ATC's/colors to have layers of contrasting colors.

Swap-Bot's 100,000th Swap

I've been swapping on Swap-Bot since February of 2008. I've completed 105 swaps & Swap-bot has just celebrated their 100,000th swap, with 653 people swapping any piece of Swap-Bot themed snail mail. My assigned recipient listed Miss Kitty as her top favorite thing so I gave a stab at a Miss Kitty themed ATC. Miss Kitty's sense of style most certainly doesn't come naturally to me, but here's what I came up with:

I used a new (to me at least) oil pastel resist technique that I describe here.

ATC Background Technique: Tissue Overlay on Chalk Pastel

I came up with this technique while working on a Sentence-A-Day Art Journal, and have started using it as an ATC background as well. I wanted to be able to write on top of chalk pastel without having it smear.

Finished Page

Materials & Tools:

Paper (this is a medium weight watercolor paper), Gesso, Chalk Pastels, Tissue, Mod Podge

Steps:
1. Apply gesso unevenly to paper with palette knife or gift card, leaving ridges. Let gesso dry completely.

2. Color randomly over the gessoed surface. It's a messy, chalky process.

3. Add a second color of chalk pastel, being mindful that it's easy to smudge what you're working on.

4. Cut tissue a bit larger than the paper. Carefully apply Mod Podge (matte used here) to one side of tissue, bieng very gentle as tissue tears easily. Carefully lay tissue onto paper. If you move it around as you lay it down it will smudge the pastel. Rub over the tissue to make sure it's completely attached. Apply a coat of Mod Podge over the whole surface. I rubbed a bit in some areas to tear away the tissue and reveal the pastel layers below. The Mod Podge will seal these spots.

ATC's for October 2011

Here's what I've done in October:



Mesh on Wax 

Melted Wax on paper with embellishment of mesh & metallic ink drawing.

Zentangled A ATC

Micron .25 mm pen on paper 

Zentangled B ATC

 Micron .25 mm pen on paper

Zentangled C ATC

 Micron .25 mm pen on paper

Zentangled D ATC

 Micron .25 mm pen on paper

Zentangled E ATC

Micron .25 mm pen on paper

Zentangled H ATC

Zentangled I ATC

Zentangled J ATC

Zentangled K ATC

Zentangled L ATC

 ATC 2011-58: "Art/Mysticism"
Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Acrylic paint, vintage text and embossing on paper

 ATC 2011-55: "Black Flower"
Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Acrylic paint, sponging and tissue paper on paper

ATC 2011-56: "Flower"
Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Alcohol Ink, Rubber Stamping and Distress Inks on paper

ATC 2011-61: "Flower"
Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Napkins, sponging and direct to paper inking on paper

ATC 2011-57: "Instinct is Enough"

Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Acrylic paint, alcohol ink and rubber stamping on paper

ATC 2011-62: "Old Pond"

Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Direct to paper inking, collage and found poetry on paper

ATC 2011-63: "Tree"

Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Torn paper, tissue layers and distress inks on paper

ATC 2011-59: untitled

Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Melted crayon, acrylic paint & sponging on paper

ATC 2011-60: untitled

Made for the ATC's For All Swap, A'La Carte Mixed Media
Tissue layers, direct to paper inking & embossing on paper

The above ATC's were made for the ATC's For All swap titled A 'La Carter Mixed Media. The challenge was to use at least 3 techniques from the following list:
Vintage sheet music
Vintage text
Foreign language papers
Torn paper technique
Text pages
inks
Beeswax 
Rubber stamped images 
Tissue layers
Pen or Pencil drawings
Acrylic Painting
Watercolor Painting
Distress Inks
Collage 
Vintage Ephemera 
Transfers – i.e. gel medium/packing tape 
Transparencies
Stenciling
Printing with bubble wrap 
Embossing
Direct to paper inking
Used postage stamps
Alcohol inks
Altered Photos
Paint over technique
Water soluble oil pastels
Resist techniques
Melted crayon background
sponging
Napkins
Found Poetry
Watercolor pencils
Embellishments (light and not too high off the card)

ATC's made for the  Blue & White ATC Swap on Art 42:

ATC 2011-64: "Blue & White". Mixed media on paper.

ATC 2011-68: "Buddha Blue". Torn tissue, acrylic paint and ink media on paper.

ATC 2011-69: "Homage to Ellsworth Kelly". Acrylic paint and paper cut outs on paper.

ATC 2011-65: "Snowflake #1". Acrylic paint and ink on paper.

Created for the ATC's For All Swap "Winter Potluck Mystery Swap":

ATC 2011-66: "Snowflake #2". Acrylic paint and ink on torn paper collage.

ATC 2011-67: "Snowflake #3". Acrylic paint and ink on paper.

ATC 2011-70: "Winter Citrus". Acrylic paint and ink on paper .

ATC 2011-71: "Winter Storm". Ink on paper