08 January 2008

ATC

Crowzma asked what an ATC is. They're new to me, too. It stands for Artist Trading Cards. The idea is that you make a little piece of art, using whatever medium you want. The piece is the same size as a baseball card: 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. Then you trade them with other people, either in person or by mail. You can't charge money for them (not that I'd make a fortune off mine anyway). There are some hugely talented people out there making these things; I'm just having a lot of fun with bits and scraps of papers and things. This site is by the people who invented the idea; Art in Your Pocket has info on the basics and examples; this guy has some really cool ones in his gallery; Mirkwood Designs has a template for the cards (and a lot of other cool paper shapes, too). I have the idea ATCs could become addictive, but they don't require much in supplies, at least. I've done a couple ATC swaps on Swap-bot.

I know some of you are really talented artists. I wonder what sort of ATCs you could come up with?

2 comments:

Crowzma said...

Thanks for the explanation!

mim said...

Great! Glad you found out about this...it's addictive! I had the thrill, really thrill, of meeting Vanci Stirnemann in Paris last year. You can see me with him, me grinning like a crazy fan, in my archives. If you get going on them and want to swap, I have the ones I made in Paris this fall available for trade. See Nov. 2007 on my blog to see what they look like. Yay for ATCs.