August 14, 2005

What is an ATC?

In response to a comment left on my last post, I will be glad to explain a little about ATCs. ATCs are Artist Trading Cards. I am really fairly new to them and just got started making them within the past 2 weeks thanks to my art pen pal, Tammy, who pointed me in the direction of a Yahoo! Group that has a plethera of swaps to join.
ATCs must be 2.5"x3.5"(the size of sports trading cards) and an ATC must never be sold...only traded. An ATC is a mini work of art and I love meeting new people through the cards I trade (Ok...I haven't actually received any I am trading yet) and seeing all of the different styles and ideas people come up with. Usually ATCs are made in sets that follow a theme, such as my architecture set below. If you want to find out more about ATCs and what techniques and media are used to create them, you may want to check out this very helpful article I have found. It has a lot of good information in it.
As to how I made them, the cards I made below were collaged from maps and images I printed from my computer. Only a couple were my photos. And then I tinted them with marker and stuck them on the card. The words are stamped. I drew on the first one, but decided it didn't look so great, so I didn't do it on the rest. The Dr. Seuss cards I drew from the characters and a picture of Dr. Seuss. Hope that answers the questions you had about how I made them. I will explain that better when I post images of my future ATCs. Also, that document I mentioned above explains alot about how ATCs can be made. But mine are not done digitally...I have not mastered Photoshop enough yet to be able to do that. I like cutting stuff out and sticking things together anyway.

3 Comments:

Blogger carla said...

I was wondering about what you did with those...I was actually thinking about it while I was walking my dog on the trail this afternoon...I saw your cards and then I saw someone else's cards...and I started thinking about how much I like to draw things that a small! Very nice. BTW, I happened along this today because I was getting your URL to add you to my blogroll. I really enjoy looking at your work and reading what you say about it. I hope it's OK!

2:40 PM  
Blogger ste-pha-nie said...

Julie, Do you know about the ATC group at flickr? I need to check out the yahoo group. It is so much fun getting mail art, and collecting artist trading cards! There is an amazing specialness about trading art.

A sunflower painting day sounds like a super idea! I love painting and drawing plein aire.
Take care!

12:02 AM  
Blogger Valerie Millett said...

I'd never heard of these before until I found TONS of them on Ebay....

Personally, for me, there too small to enjoy...I really have to see something on a wall!!

11:35 PM  

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