AAA (No. 3): Study in Blue and Golden Afternoon

Hello everyone! Happy Friday! Today I decided to try something different for Katie’s (katielikestocreate) Amateur Art in August. I’m sure many of you have heard of Swap-Bot.com. If you haven’t and you like sending and receiving mail (as well as crafting a good portion of it too), then you really ought to check it out. One of my pen pals from Hellobee.com put me on to it and I have been dabbling in it ever since. My inspiration for today’s piece comes straight from Swap-Bot.com.  But before I explain, allow me to introduce you to “Study in Blue” and “Golden Afternoon”.

What Medium: Colored Pencils, Paint Chips, Glue, Stickers, Gold Heart Confetti, Paper

Estimated Time: On and off all day, starting at around 9 o’clock in the morning and finishing around 3 o’clock in the afternoon. If uninterrupted, probably about 2 hours for both.

Title: “Study in Blue” and “Golden Afternoon”

Study in Blue, ATC No. 1

In the process shots for “Golden Afternoon” and explanation of ATC:

The blue is my base, my ‘card’, and the rest is the color pallet for the card. They’re paint chips from my local Sherwin-Williams.

It’s called an Artist Trading Card. I have never sent or received an Artist Trading Card (or ATC) before and was unsure at first how to go about creating one. After pouring through all of the available swaps open to newbies (which I still am, despite having completed several swaps since joining) I stumbled across a beginner’s ATC simply titled “Five Minute Flower ATC – Newbie Friendly“. Pretty self explanatory, no? In essence it’s a swap for those of us who have never swapped an ATC before because we’re unsure of how to go about it, would like to improve our ATC skills, etc.

Then I sketched a flower design on the back of the paint chips and proceeded to cut them out.

But what exactly is an ATC? Well, get a playing card. A regular, run of the mill deck of cards. Any card. Got a card? Now imagine that card, that exact card, covered in stickers, paper, paint, glitter, buttons, odds and ends, until it looked unrecognizable. Some of them look like a miniature piece of art. Others look like they should be remade by a fashionable card company. And some of them look like exactly what they are recycled, up-cycled, and your own design. Each one is unique and while some might not be to your taste for whatever reason, they should be treated with respect. Someone made that and it is their voice being sent out into the world.

After I cut everything out, I arranged it first. I didn’t like my original in-head-design so I went back to the drawing board and pulled this design out instead. I Like it much better than my original idea anyways 🙂

Anyways ATCs should be no more and no less than 2.5″ by 3.5″ of whatever – cardstock, cardboard, a playing card – decorated on one side, signed, titled, and dated on the other side. And they are exactly what their name implies. They’re trading cards. They’re made by artists for other artists and are meant to be shared, swapped, traded. The only thing to keep in mind is that unlike other trading cards, ATCs are never, and I mean never meant to be sold. That’s just not how it’s done. ((If I’m wrong on any of this, please feel free to correct me since I am as stated a ‘newbie’ and am trying to learn)).

When I decided I liked the design, I had to figure out a way to adhere it. After trying (and failing) to use regular stick glue to adhere to paint chips to each other, I then turned to my spray-on adhesive which did wonders. I don’t suggest doing this while there is a toddler running around. I waited until nap time in the afternoon when I knew I wouldn’t be rushed!

These are my first attempts at ATC so critique gently. With the gold flowers, I went over the design with a brown colored pencil. That’s what gave everything their lines and shape. I was happy with it then but it lacked a little luster so I decided to use some of the gold foil stickers that I had used in “Study in Blue” on this card as well, to tie it in. It was then that the name “Golden Afternoon” came to me since 1) I was doing this ATC in the afternoon, 2) the flowers and the stickers were gold, and 3) calling my ATC ‘Golden Rod’ or anything else seemed inaccurate since I think I drew a daisy. Not sure though.  Anyways, here’s another shot of it!

Golden Afternoon, ATC No. 2

In other un-related-to-art news, I finished weeding my garden today and looks like Gordon and I will try to convert Henry’s crib into a toddler bed tomorrow. And if that fails, we’ll just put it back as a crib. Ah weekends where you have time to make decisions like that then fix them. Unlike Henry’s first haircut this past Monday…