ATC MATERIALS & MEDIA
Artist Trading Cards can be made with all sorts of media, materials and techniques including markers, watercolors, acrylics, oil-pastels, colored pencils, inks, rubber stamps, linoleum blocks, sewing, pattern papers, old photographs, newspaper clippings, magazines, stickers, digital images, found items like tickets or stamps, and so on.
In addition to various types of drawing and painting tools, you’ll want to have different types of adhesives available for collage work such as glue sticks, hot glue guns, gloss acrylic medium, gel medium, mod podge, or white glue.
Many ATC artists use photo-transfer methods to add images that have been photocopied or printed on an ink-jet or laser printer to their cards. Directions for doing photo transfers using clear packing tape, gel medium, or nail polish remover can be found in many craft magazines and on the Web.
ATCs are usually made on a card stock base, although they don’t have to be. You can also use stiffened fabric, foamcore board, canvas, arches watercolor paper, discarded greeting cards, cereal box cardboard, and many other materials. Some artists use old playing cards that have been sanded with fine sandpaper and then covered with a thin coat of gesso for paint and collage materials to adhere to.
ATCs can be either two- or three-dimensional, but remember that the finished card must be thin enough to fit in a standard trading card sleeve.
ATC THEMES
ATC swaps are sometimes organized around a theme or topic such as:
- Altered Faces
- Ancestors
- Animals
- An Art Element or Principle
- Bygone Era
- Community (Where I live)
- Familiar phrases
- Family events
- Heroes & Heroines
- Historical events
- Holidays
- Identity
- Journeys
- Letters of the alphabet
- Mythological creatures
- Quotes
- Seasons
- Song and poem excerpts
- Special places
- Windows & doorways
ATC STARTERS
Here are a few ideas to get you started on making ATCs:
- Make a card that pays homage to an artist or musician you admire.
- Try a Round Robin ATC where one artist starts working on a card and then passes it on the next artist, and so on.
- Create a series of four cards that relate to a particular theme, art element or principle, or medium.
- Make a card based on a classified ad from the newspaper.
- Create a card that uses a written description of a person or place as source material.
- Create a card using images and words that give a sense of a particular time or place in history.
- Make a card that focuses attention on a particular social or ecological issue.
ATC TIPS
When creating a card, follow the “Rule of Three” by including a background, focal image, and an embellishment. This principle is especially helpful when working with young artists as they have a tendency to overwork their compositions.
When working on collage, arrange the main shapes on your card before adhering them to the surface. Apply an adhesive to the back of your shapes and position them on the card. Lay a sheet of scrap paper over the surface and use a brayer or your fingertips to make sure that good contact has been made over the entire surface and that air bubbles are removed. Any excessive adhesive will stick to the scrap paper when it is removed.
Tone the edges of cut or torn shapes with a soft-leaded pencil to help them blend into the background.
