ATCs, ACEOs, and Digital Art

The subject of this pen & ink ATC is the Spalding Inn. I’m not entirely sure why that hotel fascinates me, but it does. My husband and I have stayed there several times. And it helps that my uncle and his wife used to vacation there. There’s a sense of heritage, I guess. But… I

For me, this ATC (artist’s trading card) was about design.  I wanted to see if I could use a simple subject and create enough visual interest so people don’t simply glance at it and say, “Ho-hum, it’s just a rose.” I’m not 100% certain that I achieved that, but I think the various shading techniques

This ATC is typical of the scribbles that decorated my class notes starting around age 12. Bored out of my mind in junior and senior high school, I only half-listened to teachers. (Yes, I regretted that later.) Instead, I drew a variety of designs, usually a series of connected images like the one at left.

The next ATC (artist’s trading card) in my pen-and-ink art experiments features my husband’s desk chair. I drew it with a Size 0 (zero) point technical drawing pen.  I’ve been using this kind of pen for art since I was introduced to them by a college friend, Darcy Grimm. The ink is called Ultradraw, and

My second ATC in this series  of six shows our living room fan.  It’s one of those huge grey fans that, on the high setting, blasts you like you’re in a wind tunnel. Drawing it was sort of a challenge.  I mean, there’s a lot of detail and shading in the actual fan.  Deciding what

ATCs have always been dear to my heart.  From the 1990s when many ATCs were created on 3″ x 5″ cards, to the 2.5″ x 3.5″ size that became more standard, to the smaller variations that have emerged: ATCs are fun, fast art. Recently, I purchased a new rapidograph, also called a “rapido sketch pen.” 

Continued from ATC Tutorial 3 – Memories – Giving it meaning The card was very nearly finished. I liked the colors and the general design of the image, but it needed just a little… something else. I didn’t know what, yet. This is the part of the process that can take forever, since it’s trial

Continued from ATC Tutorial 2 – Memories – Adding More Layers At this point, the card was pretty… but it had no real theme or meaning to it. And, while “pretty” art can stand on its own merits, I rarely choose to make art without another layer of meaning. So, I started examining the card

This card was designed to document the creative process when I’m working on digital ATCs. I’ve written four pages–with thumbnail images of each step–to explain how I work on these cards.  It shows you how to go from initial idea to finished card. This card, with documentation and HTML work, took about three and a