ATC Cards

ATC's  - Artist Trading Cards - Day 4

Bear Paw Studio - Kid's Art Camp

Art Safari - Sept. 24 - 27, 2012

Our last day of camp was busy and fun, with our challenge being to use what we had learned about colors and drawing to make some great artist trading cards for ourselves and to trade with our friends.  Artist trading cards are always 2.5"x3.5" (the same size as playing cards or baseball cards).  There are very few rules to follow in making these cards, except that they must be the maker's original art,   signed and dated on the back, and should only be traded, not sold.  Artists all over the world trade these cards with their artist friends or with other artists via the internet, clubs, and at special ATC events.  

Here are the samples we had to get us going.  You can tell that we had been studying African wildlife and that we used a variety of materials to make the cards.  Just about any medium or subject will work on ATC cards.  The more creative, the better!

We had six bins full of different materials to use, one per student.  After working on a card for about 10 minutes, we rotated the bins so that each person eventually got to use all the bins.  We tried to make between 6 and 9 cards each during this time.

When we started to work, it got pretty quiet as everyone focused intently on making their cards look their best.  

Emma uses markers to color a brown camel.

Gretchen uses oil pastels to make a happy hippo in the water.

And there it is, pretty in pink.

Hailey uses watercolor pencils to draw and paint her snazzy zebra.

Melody gets her colored pencils busy taming Mr. Lion.

For this card, Melody tries the watercolor paints.

Cassidy makes this card into a beautiful collage using fancy papers.

Unfortunately,  the photographer missed getting a photo of Danielle making her beautiful cards, and, worse yet, didn't get any photos of the fun everyone had trading the cards!  It was so exciting that the photographer got a little distracted, I think.  She'll have to do better next time, or I'll have to let her go.

Now, back to the story!  After about an hour, all students had completed their 6 or 7 cards, signed and dated them, and were ready to start the trading.  Each chose three of their cards to trade and saved the others in a plastic card holder.  The cards to be traded were then pinned up on the wall for everybody to see.  Each person then went to the wall in turns to choose another artist's card in exchange for their own.   Everyone got three new cards to add to their collection and take home. 

Now the artists know all about ATC's and can continue creating new cards to share and trade with friends, family, or other ATC artists around the world, if they choose.

See you on the next art trip!

Safari Guide, Betsy Bear