G is for ...

Today is April 8, 2016 and ...


* Draw A Bird Day
* Trading Cards For Adults Day


which leads me to share some info on


Artist Trading Cards


Basically they are 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" cards that are usually traded among adults.  Here are a couple YouTubes about them:


You "met" Cindy Angiel a couple of days ago (under D is for Doodle).  Here she shares her process for making a set of ATCs for a swap/trade:

While I go search out another ATC YouTube, here are 2 blog posts I've done about some recent ATCs I made for swaps ... Cactus ATCs and Spring Blooms.

While you were reading those (or doing the "National Geographic 'thing'" -- that is, leaf through looking at the pictures without really reading any of it ...) I will go find more YouTubes about ATCs -- since there are as many ways to make ATCs as there are to make a meatloaf and as there are grains of sand on the beaches and in the deserts of the world  ...

I found these to share with you ... Remember, there are many ways to create-a-mini-piece-of-art (2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches) -- these are just a few ...

Well, all that and we have not gotten to today's
Baker's Dozen Plus ...
so here they are:

1. gateau

2. gallimaufry
3. Gallifrey
4. gable
5. garble
6. Galloway
7. gamble
8. gargoyle
9. gargle
10. grow
11. gallant
12. goldfish
13. giraffe


14. ginger
15. goop
16. grime
17. grim
18. goofy
19. gorgeous
20. gross
21. goose
22. gannet
23. galumph
24. goblin
25. grandiose


So, I think I've more than covered crafty things for today and probably have overwhelmed you ... sorry.  So let's just get on to today's Call To Action linkies.


Actually, there really isn't much here about the letter G, is there?


So, wracking brain ... coming up with fog and mist ...
Well, duh!  GARDENS!  Hubby added in "How about 'Grouchy' or 'Gouda'?"


As my brain went into the Fog ... why don't you share some info about Gardens in the comments section ... a link to a favorite garden, your own garden story or anything about gardens.  :D
I'll suggest these three:
At Facebook, I found this awesome page:  My Small Garden Paradise
A garden my mom and I visited on a trip years and years ago -- Butchart Gardens
and one in southern New Jersey that is set up in a similar fashion (small gardens based on a color or type of flower) -- Leamings Run Garden in Cape May Courthouse, NJ -- I wish I could find the photos my hubby and I took there of the bamboo -- it reminded us a lot of pictures of Indian gods with many arms.

Call To Action


There are 5 things you can do to earn a free gift (probably a selection of Color-Your-Own SuseDoodle postcards from a forthcoming collection to be released soon! WOO HOO!)  All five  Call to Action options can be found here -- two can be  answered in the Comments Section here or via the InLinkz section at the end of the post ... I wanted to set the closing date as May 7 but InLinkz would not let  me run a link list for that long ... so the deadline is May 1 ...

 

 

The Hop is On!

Hop on over to Kerry Urbatch's blog for the Blog Roll for the March Journey Blog Hoppers' March Blog Hop -- Spring Blooms!

I visited all the blogs today and there is so much beauty, brightness, fun and cheerfulness in all the projects -- it both makes you smile and inspires to go out and make something!  I had lots of fun and am sure you will too!  (I'm "stop" number 2 ... just in case you were wondering ...)

The projects are so great I just had to "invent" a new acronym!  WCC!  Meaning a "Way Cool Card!" -- check out the stops and you'll see what I mean.

For a FREE digital ATC from me -- leave a comment and be sure to include "Hopping for an ATC" ...

Illustration Friday -- Dragon

It's Friday -- YAY!

It's "Illustration Friday" too.

Last week the theme was Childhood ... and my brain just could not figure out how to illustrate that topic -- there were just too many choices.  :-)

Back in high school, when in my senior year I finally chucked off a foreign language as my elective course and took Art 1, I had done an illustration that included a stack of alphabet building blocks, some kiddie scissors, a few crayons and a paint brush.  I thought about re-capturing the essence of that but then limited the scope by telling myself that the illustration needed to be done in ATC size -- 2 1/2" x 3 1/2".  Too small.  It did not happen.

This week, the theme is Dragon.

A few years ago, 2012 (further back than I thought it had been), I had done what I considered a fairly decent dragon in colored pencil.  I had watched a YouTube video by Cindy Angiel of Rainbow Elephant (find her channel here) -- she described her process for making a set of ATCs for a swap at http://atcsforall.com/.  I got interested in swapping some ATCs and went over to take a look at the swaps they had going.  One that I thought about joining, and actually made a series of trading cards for, had the theme of Chinese New Year.  I made a couple featuring cherry blossoms and one (then two "sort of copied" from that one) of a Chinese dragon based on a Google Images picture of a gorgeous painting of a dragon.  I wish I still had the link to that picture ...  **sigh**  In the end, I did not sign up for the swap because I did not like an attitude I saw at work at the site ... I have received ATCs and cards in swaps that are probably not the artist's best work and had felt slightly disappointed but I understood that things happen, supplies or time may be limited so that a do-over isn't possible, etc.   But swap after swap at the site had in its description "send only your best work."  It seemed just a bit too arrogant, or maybe demanding is a better word -- whichever word you choose, it was a bit too judgmental for something that should be fun.  I did not actually sign up for any of their swaps.  From time to time, I do visit for some ideas of what to work on if I feel I am getting stale or feel like I am just redoing the same thing over and over.

Since our move last fall, I'm not sure where those ATCs are that include that dragon that I enjoyed doing and was so pleased with the results.  Today's Dragon theme made me think of that trading card.  And, so, I grabbed a sheet of white cardstock and decided to "have a go."

Today's dragon is only a vague shadow of that one that was so good.  This is a just-for-fun Dragon.

It started with the eye -- using the finger hole in a pair of detail scissors to make the shape and then building the rest of the image out from that.  The dragon scales are more like the ones in my fishes and maybe should be a bit more squared off ... Dragons are, after all, products of the imagination ... so the shape of his (or her?) scales is really not a "should," is it?

If "should" does apply, then the snout needs to be longer, the teeth sharper and some horns need to be added in ... the spines on the back need to be longer and sharper and, and, and ... Eh, this is MY dragon based on my memory of that previous dragon -- a "mannerist" version of it in a way.
Wish my scanner was set up so the dragon could have been scanned and then printed out to be colored in using various color schemes.  The one I used was because it was the one I had the widest variety of pencils in ... (I ended up propping up the cardstock against the screen of the laptop and shooting a few digital pictures of it -- so there is a small curvature to the final image that really doesn't belong there ... **sigh**)

Hop on over to Illustration Friday and join the weekly fun!