Artist Trading Cards

Artist Trading Cards

The link above is to the official site of the Artist Trading Card movement.  ATC's are a miniature work of art that is traded, not sold, among artists and collectors.  I've done a few, and in spite of my sometimes status as an artist, one of my favorite methods is the cut and paste technique that allows me to use the images of some of my favorite people.  You know, Beatles, Men from UNCLE, etc...

In honor of the coming Valentine season, and in conjunction with the MFU Gallery, I'd like to propose an open invitation to make your own Artist Trading Card that features your favorite MFU character(s), embedded for all to see and featured in the Gallery.
ATC is a specific size...  2 ½ X 3 ½ inch or 64 X 89 mm.  You can use anything for a background, such as scrapbooking paper, magazine clippings or original art (crayons are fine, everything is fine).  Layer on whatever makes you happy and finish with the image that makes your heart sing.  Trading can be arranged by the participants at their pleasure.

 I hope to see many creative sparks flying in response to this event.  Let's face it, our fascination with Napoleon and Illya rests as much on their physical beauty as the altruistic bent they show us in the heroism of the job.  Now's your chance to indulge a little.

I am showing a few of my own, just to get things started.

First I had an image that I wanted to use, so copied it into a size that would fit the ATC dimensions.  Next, I needed a background.  In this instance I used a canvas, applied some paint in a random manner and then made a copy of it as well.  I positioned the illustration where it seemed best, used my trusty glue stick and then glued the finished piece onto a pre-cut form that is the correct size for an ATC.  I used a metallic marker to outline the figure and the border of the ATC.
Easy.  I used original artwork on this, but that's just one option.  You can see from the next example that I freely use photographs as well.




On this one I printed the photo of the Beatles on a paper that is partially transluscent, allowing the background to bleed through their images.
The background for this is from an Indian print, the foreground is a photo of a \ pillar.  It's just layering the elements until you have what you want.
And of course... Romantic, mysterious, elusive...

And there you go.  We can discuss it further if you like, ask questions and share the process.  We'll post these works of art on Valentine's Day in
mfu_gallery .  A change of pace from storytelling with words, we'll do it with pictures.

The one pictured here is inspired by the cult favorite series Sapphire & Steel.  It is another David McCallum vehicle, and one of the strangest shows ever, but much loved for that quirkiness.  This image of the two characters, caught in a sensual pose that leads them... not where we'd like.  It's all about suggestion with these two.
I call it A Degree of Separation