Japanese Geisha Christmas card

Continuing on with my search for the new and the different for the holidays this year I'd like to tell you about this beautiful card I found at The Kawaii Supply Shop Click here to go to Geisha Christmas Card listing.

If you are tired of the usual holiday offerings and want to add a touch of the exotic to your holiday card exchange you won't go wrong with this one. Isn't she gorgeous?

This card has a beautiful Geisha with Mtn Fuji in the back ground.

And on a separate piece of washi paper is printed

"Season's Greetings and Best Wishes for The New Year"

Add a touch of the east to your holiday spirit this year.

Mini Art Pieces (ATCs/AECOs)

I decided it was time to try my hand at mini art pieces. For months now, I've been working in a larger size and then making mini prints. These are the first hand drawn mini originals. It was easier than I had at first thought it would be.

It was a matter of first sizing up the available space and then deciding what of my subject matter would fit. No different really from what I do with a larger space. Odd how we are sometimes our worst critic.

Here they are.

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