December

Daily Drawing... continued...

For the first half of December, I continued drawing (and posting) each day.

I seldom spent a lot of time on the drawings, but I tried to post each day.

Sometimes the prompts excited me, or caused me to try something new.

Sometimes I just made a quick drawing and posted it.

December was a turning point for me, as an ATC artist.

I had earlier decided to write a book, and title it A Portrait of the ATC Artist as an Old Lady. (a parody of James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) Then I decided to play off of the Gilmore Girls A Year in the Life.

THEN I decided to make website instead. Creating a book for a niche market? Not very smart. Marketing it myself? No way.

The final thought came to me around December 17.
The same day I stopped using word prompts.
I would create my website, but I would also start planning for an exhibition. Will it ever happen? Who knows. I have eight months to complete the work.

We shall see how it goes. In the meantime, I hope you will join me on the journey.

1 Mole's Eye View

I haven't read the book, but I've seen lovely animations of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

by Charlie Mackesy. This little sketch was adapted from an image I found online.

2 Dream House

I really enjoy drawing buildings... when I have something to COPY.

But I was out of town on December 2, so I just drew a quick sketch. My dream house would be small, with an orchard, and plenty of animals.

3 Old Ruins

I have some lovely photos of Ha Ha Tonka State Park, taken back in 2021. But since I did not have them with me, I just copied this from an online image.

Honest. I took a photo from the same vantage point!

4 Creepy Carnival

This was supposed to be a "Sea Creature," but since I was on vacation, I did not have access to my personal photo library of images-photographed-by-me-for-use-making-original-ATCs.

Therefore, I am going to use the five days I skipped drawing to display five of the ATCs I made back in October. "Creepy Carnival" was the prompt for October 23.

5 Fear

The October 30 prompt was Fear.

This quick piece represents claustrophobia.

6 Ilustrate a Poem

Instead of "Universe," I used the prompt "Illustrate a Poem." This is from Jack Prelutsky's poem "Skeleton Parade." Appropriate, since I drew it on October 25 and I love Halloween!

7 Stack of Plates

The October 24 prompt was "Stack of Dinner Plates."

Because I had been looking at "Morphing" artwork by students (I frequent the Art Teachers group on Facebook), I decided to morph the plates into a tunnel.

8 Journey Between the Stars

I was rather pleased with my interpretation of "Journey Between the Stars."

This was the October 27 prompt.

I started the 365 Day group on October 23, so we now have all but one of the early 365-Day-Prompts on display. I'm not quite sure why I didn't put them in order....

9 Letter for a Loved One Lost

Unfortunately, I have used a keyboard for so many years that I am unable to write by hand without making mistakes. I love the concept of this one, and I WILL redraw it, slowly, to get a nice ATC for my AKC collection.

10 Bubbles

This could be called a "hybrid card."

I found an old photo, brought it into Procreate, added a layer, and drew an outline to get the proportions right.

Then I printed a very light rendition of the image onto heavy paper and make an over-drawing with ink.

Is it cheating? I don't think so. If this card were to be traded, I would describe my process on the back and let the trader decide.

11 Ice

Some days the word prompt just does not inspire me.

12 Fire

I tried to capture the idea of Fire...

three times.

The first two ATCs are very, very thick acrylic paint on canvas. The third card is alcohol marker on Yupo.

I think they look pretty good together, so I may figure out a way to mount them as a single piece of art.

Or... I may just leave them in the ATC box....

13 Graphite

The word prompt caused me to search for... and find... a stick of graphite that I have had in my hoard of art supplies since I was in college!

I tried drawing on Yupo and I am pleased with the little ATC-sized picture... but a stick of graphite just demands a larger piece of paper!

Chestnuts

I did not want to draw chestnuts.

But I remember chestnut is also a color for a horse.

Coconut

This one was fun.

Yes, I traced over a screenshot.

But I changed the leg positions and the hands holding the coconut halves.

And added a blotchy background.

And chuckled the whole time.

Travel

Today's prompt was not too inspiring.

17 Joy

It is always a good day when the word prompt immediately conjures up images that bring me joy.

When I first started painting, I made a mixed media piece that included black and white prints of my grandchildren, playing in the rain. That painting has been on the wall of my studio since 2019. I wanted to make an ATC-sized reproduction of that painting, but it didn't really work out.

Next I tried to just DRAW the images from that painting. Didn't work out.

The third attempt was to capture the feeling of a pile of my favorite photos, with the children in hte ocean, in the rain, and in the MUD. Joy!

Finally, I gave just made a little ATC of the photo library on my phone. It brings me so much joy.

Each of these cards has elements that are good. I plan to explore this concept again.

November 18-22, the word prompt from the 365 Days of Drawing group were dolphins, sandy beach, gecko, start of the day, and fungi.

After my momentous decision to stop posting ATCs online, I had a hard time getting motivated to draw.

On the 21st, a box of new art materials arrived. It contained two dozen Legion 2.5 x 3.5 tablets and a set of metallic watercolors.

So I made four ATCs on the 21st:

"Doodle Lizards" and "Doodle Toads" are the kind of simple ATC that I make when I can't think of anything elses to draw. These are what I call Signature Cards....

Next I finished a shark card that was started on December 4 .

Then I tried out the new metallic watercolors. The greens are disappointing, and It isn't a great ATC. I will be adding it to the "swap pool" at the Art Lab.

251221

Doodle Toads

Tiger Shark

New Art Materials

On December 23 I started working on this website. I had planned on finishing up the month of word prompts, so I drew another doodle card that worked for the topic of Several. But then I changed my mind and decided that enough is enough. I didn't draw on Christmas eve or Christmas Day or The-Day-After-Christmas. It was a weird Christmas season in 2025. Every family was impacted by the flu. No company on Christmas. Sad. Weird. I should have had time for art but I did not feel like it.

As I write this on December 27, I am trying to find a "system" to continue making ATCs.

23: Several

On this ATC there are several of animals that have appeared on my "Doodle Cards." I usually draw cats, but these other animals have also appeared on doodle cards.

24: Giraffes: DCH2

The word prompt for the 24th was lighthouse, but I already did a lighthouse in November. So instead of doubling up on lighthouse, I am introducing my own word prompt for the day: giraffes. These were drawn on my iPad, using Procreate.

This will become a coloring card for the Art Lab.

25: Christmas Day

I did not make any ATCs on December 25, 2025.

But I needed one more image to make this three-card layout work, so I chose this image from my 2022 December journal.

I made this set of ATCs to gift to family members. Little easels always dress up an ATC!

If Vincent had Metallic Watercolors...

On Instagram today, I saw a series of images made by Alireza Karimi Moghadam. The artists depicts a little cartoon Vincent Van character, reacting to the modern world. It's clever and fun.

Today I made an ATC
....inspired by Alireza Karimi Moghadam,

....who was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh.

I used my new metallic watercolors.

December 27, 2025 TRADED (for a lovely linocut)

Inspired by Laurie Lipton

On my computer, I have a folder titled "Inspiration."

Today I went to the "L" folder and clicked on a random file. That file was an Instagram screenshot, showing the artist Laurie Lipton.

The next step was to look up more of her work. It is amazing! The images I found online were all black and white, highly detailed, and immediately engaging.

So I set off with high hopes, since I like to draw black and white, somewhat detailed ATCs that tell a story.

...Inspired by Laurie Lipton, cont.

I failed. Size is important.
Lipton's works are large.
An ATC is not.
Lipton's works take a huge amount of time.
I avoid spending hours on any single ATC.

But I am delighted with my day's work, not because of the ATC produced, but because I discovered an artist... and a person... that I greatly admire. Look her up! She's on Instagram, but she also appears in many great short videos.

December 28

From the Partial Pile...

Sometimes I do not finish an ATC, for varioius reasons. Often, the card just needs a little bit more... or I don't have the right materials... or I just am not in the mood to finish.

These cards go into a little box, and today I decided to finish one. It started out with alcohol ink on Yupo.

Faces

I used a "clear" marker to reactivate the ink, and draw faces on the card. This one came out a little bit odd. I have not used this technique in a while.

But it is easy and fun.

Traded to Rachel M.

Acrylic plus Overdrawing

Sometimes, it's good to be "one card ahead," so I took another card out of the "Partial Pile."

It was another SmSsS card. Usually, an SmSsS is in the partial pile only because it needs a backing. But this tie I decided to add an overdrawing.

December 29, 2025

Two many Turtles?

On December 30, I decided to continue working with the pile of partially-completed ATCs I have collected. First out of the box was a little doodle card with about a dozen turtles on it. I finished it up fairly quickly and decided to add it to my AKC collection, since it is the first of its kind.

SmSsS: Prussian Blue

The only thing I needed to do to finish this card was add a backing. SmSsS stands for "Six Minute, Six Step Scene." Any time I have leftover paint, I use it up by painting one of these. Six minutes is the quickest I ever paint a scene. Some cards take a bit longer, but I will stick with the alliterative title!

Heart, Purple

Usually I paint circles, but for some strange reason I did a heart a few months ago. It needed another layer. I added that today.

It also needed a backing.

Abstract Scene: Blue-green, with Paintbrush and Palette Knife

The semi-finished mini painting was very plain. No focal point. I tried adding some details in white, then decided to just have some fun with a palette knife.

Not my best work ever. Not a SmSsS, but okay for today.

SmSsS: Dioxazine Purple,
Cobalt Blue, White

Once I had the paints out, I had a hard time stopping. I decided to paint with acrylic on Legion's "Stonehenge Oil" paper. It's pretty nice to work with!

I love the purple-blue colors in this one.

SmSsS: Purple, Chunky

For this one, I laid the paint onto the "Stonehenge Oil" paper very thickly. I am curious to see how it will look when dry.

Unfortunately, acrylic paintings are hard to photograph. Whenever I trade them, people tell me how much better the ATCs look "in person." That is one reason it will be more fun to trade in person next year.

December 30, 2025

SmSsS with Pines

Also on paper, this one was done on paper, too.

I really like the smoothness of this surface.

Unfortunately, achieving a neat and tidy ATC back is going to be difficult.

Once I figure things out, I will add information to the technique page.

We have arrived at the end of another month in The Year in the Life of an ATC Artist. The first four months were a bit awkward, because I didn't create this web site until late December. But I think it was important to start the story at a turning point in my life as an artist.

September was important because I returned to the online world of ATCs.

October was important because I made the commitment to draw a card each day, following the Inktober word prompts.

November was important because I left the online trading community but continued to follow daily word prompts.

December was important because I decided to make a website, placed 107 days of September-December content on four different webpages, and made a plan for the next eight months.

I hope to have 365 cards posted by the end of this project. One for each day in The Year in the Life of an ATC Artist. But I am not going to be rigid about it. Some days I will make a single card, post that card, and add a few words that may be helpful to other ATC artists. Other days, I will be busy with other things besides art. Finally, there will be days like today when I make more than one card, write a lot of text, then plan to take the next day off!*