ATCs: Still Stretching

Oh my, it’s been a while hasn’t it? 

Here are some of the better cards I worked on last week.  I had signed up for a artist card trading game called a PAT  or Pick-a-Theme.  People are split into groups of five and each member picks a theme for the other artists to work on.  This can be a bit nerve-wracking sometimes because if you enter early you can end up in a group where people request things that you may have never worked on before.   This happened to me on this game.  The themes were PEZ dispensers (?!), dragons, outerspace, and monochromatic blue. 

I ended up doing better than I imagined on these themes.  I fortunately had an old PEZ dispenser shoved away in the back of a drawer (whew!).  I just drew the thing in my hand.  Not original or an artsy, but I liked how my drawing turned out and it got the job done. 

The outerspace theme really threw me.  What was I going to do?   I found some gorgeous pictures of the Milky Way in an old copy of Smithsonian.  I had no idea how to go about representing it.  Fortunately,  a kind soul had sent me some black illustration board blanks.  I knew I would have to use those.  After that, I threw caution to the wind.  I just looked around at what I had and just threw everything at it.  I splattered on some white acrylic with a toothbrush, then I tinted things with some scarlet ink I had about.  Then I started layering black ink marker, china white watercolor, some watercolor.  I just shut off the reasoning side of my head and went at it like I was in kindergarten.  I was having so much fun playing around I didn’t really care how it turned out.  Fortunately, when I felt finished, it looked like the Milky Way.   I had had an amazing time, felt exhiliarated and pleased with myself, and made a really cool card to share with someone.   I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the afternoon!