Thursday, July 12, 2007

From the drawing board - July '07


I've been busy making ATCs and AECO's.


ATCs

ATC stands for Artist Trading Card. The idea for this comes from the sports trading cards many of us used to get for free in a pack of bubblegum. ATCs are created as an original work of art (hand drawn, painted, etc.), or collage, or by any other craft medium you can think of and/or also created as prints. The size for these is 2.5 x 3.5 inches. ATCs are not to be sold. They are intended only for trade or swapping from person to person.

AECOs
AECO stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. Again this appaarently originated on EBAY.


The main difference between ATCs and AECOs is that AECOs are not given away but are created with the intention for them to be sold.


Colour Pencils
I think I may have finally gotten 'it' with this media. It is extremely time consuming and a big tip 'o' the hat goes out to all those who work in this media every day. It requires a huge amount of patience - patience to work on the painting and patience to keep sharpening those pencils!!!


I've tried 3 different kinds of pencil sharpeners - plastic, metal and battery operated. It is unbelievable how often the pencil leads break off when sharpening. With the cost of the pencils these days it just adds to the frustration.


The trick with these pencils is layers - many, many, many layers. I also used a solvent after the first 3 layers to blend the colours together. I used rubbing alcohol because that is what I have on hand. I used a q-tip and just a very light dab of the rubbing alcohol. I used it in such a small amount that any ill effects from the odor would be small. Others have used turpenoid. I don't know what this is but I have used turpentine and know that I can't use that.


Anyway, I was very pleased to finally have some success with this media. It didn't scan very well but here is a glimpse at my grapes in a bowl.
Cheers,
Mau


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