Each of these "Gallery" pages is different because each year I "do" my art and my art journals a little bit differently.
In January, I was still very active with the Topeka Art Guild. I was also trying to learn to use Procreate on my iPad. AND I joined the Art Sherpa Fledgling group again. (I did all 52 paintings in 2019!)
Ever since I started making ATCs, I have kept a box of "bases." Whenever I have leftover acrylic paint, I paint a piece of canvas pad and cut it to 2.5" x 3.5."
I had a HUGE box of these in January 2024.
On October 30, 2024, when I decided to stop trading on Facebook, I decided it was time to clean up some of this stuff. I THREW AWAY a bunch of these "starter" pieces. It was hard.
I joined ANOTHER Facebook group: one for Procreate beginners.
I also did a few of the Art Sherpa challenges in Procreate.
This is from a photo of Mike and Julia.
It looks like I made seventeen ATCs in January. For this journal, I put the images on the final two pages.
In February, I was finished with the Topeka Art Guild.
I started a NEW venture: free ATC workshops at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.
I also started playing with altered AI images. I posted a tutorial on the Instructables website.
AND I was still doing the weekly Art Sherpa Fledgling mini paintings.
I designed a logo for the Topeka ATC group, and put it on a Facebook page.
When I posted a description of my AI project on the "Dragon Eye" Facebook group, I got attacked!
When people attack you, turn it into art.
Now that I was focussing on trading again, I devised a new way to display my available cards. I put them into Pages, wrote a description, took a screenshot, and stored the screenshots in a folder called "Available." This made it SO much easier to offer cards. I wish I had thought of THIS years ago!
Another new feature in the monthly journals: I put a record of each trade at the end of the journal. I included photos of the envelope I sent, the envelope I received, and the text from Messenger. Again, I wish I had thought of this MUCH earlier!
I spent some time comparing acrylic painting and oil painting. Oil paint will always be my favorite as far as the painting process (smooth, gorgeous colors!) and product. But when it comes to cleanup, acrylic is so far ahead that it is ridiculous!
This month had a pretty good journal! I like the summary sidebar. A few of the ATCs were just Grade C, but most of them I am proud of. A nice assortment of media and techniques!
I made a LOT of these cards. They were designed as sample ATCs for the ATC workshops I was holding at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library.
In March I was still hopeful that this workshop would gain followers. I kep trying until October.
And here is a peek at the spreadsheet I've been keeping since February 2020.
Card number, status (A = Available, T = Traded, K = Keeping)
Date createed.
Title or description
Date Traded
Not displayed here on the internet:
Person with whom I traded
Description of their card
State or Country
Circus cards
TATCA poster
Abstract Landscapes
I made a few "Doodle Cards" prior to 2024, but from April 2024 onward, they sort of became my thing!
A SUCCESSFUL WORKSHOP AT THE LIBRARY!!!!!
Still doing Procreate tutorials.
A sketch, similar in style to my "Doodle Cards," but I would not call this one a doodle.
Sample card for alcohol marker on primed canvas.
Copied from a painting by my good friend Linda G, who I've known "online" since 2019. The alcohol marker on Yupo was done as a challenge, then lost for about eight months. It showed up again in April so I put it in the April journal.
These are definitely NOT my best cards. But I had an upcoming workshop and few cards for the "Pool Swap." So most of these got rescued from the "Slush Pile."
I've done this "dot" elephant several times. Very fun to make! Custom (copy) of a painting by request. (Steele)
Parrot, Balloon, Cheeseburger was the weekly challenge for the third week of May.
ANOTHER trade with Adam!
I made a LOT of ATCs for the PRIDE event on Emily's ATC Artist Trading Card Group.
June 16, 2024.
It's not my best ATC ever... but it is a meaningful card because I carefully tallied each stroke so that the card has exactly 2000 strokes.
It looks as if I photographed it before trimming it!
I was pretty excited about posting this.
The weekly word prompts "Robot" plus "Sunflower" prompted me to try designing characters.
I had a lot of fun with this theme, and I made (and traded) many cards.
Another "event" with Emily's group was the "Inspired by American Gothic" event. I made two versions of my card: one hand-drawn and one drawn on the iPad.
I traded for many wonderful cards, and took a little movie of the album, since there were SO MANY wonderful cards posted.
Rubber Duck
Graffiti
Bubbles
Those were the word prompts for Monday, June 24.
As I fill in this web page on November 2, 2024, I must say that I never did get a PERFECT journal. It looks as if I sorted the spreadsheet by TRADE DATE (the fifth column). A good spreadsheet is a very important part of ATC trading... but how to display the "data" in a journal can be a bit of a problem.
July was a very short journal, since we were traveling for about ten days of the month, and my grandchildren were visiting for the remainder of the month.
I had a new system for tracking cards: A table with the numbers of the cards left over from previous months, followed by the new cards, in bold text. So the July table shows 26 cards to start with, and four cards added. Of these thirty cards, I only traded three.
Doodle cats
Needlework
First week of July challenge:
red, white, blue
Second challenge for July:
Llama, roller skates
More doodles.
Third week of July challenge:
Shark, Chopsticks, Sushi
Needlework
Fourth week of July Challenge:
Alien, hot dog, cigarette, grill
Still trying to get the workshops going at the library.
Still doing the weekly challenges.
Doing some needlework.
I posted this card to "Emily's Group" and got such a warm response.
I posted this online and traded it, but neglected to give it a number!
I really should NOT have joined an ATART. I do not usually draw licensed characteres and this was a PIXAR event....
I thought I would do some practice with faces. I doubt that this will EVER be my thing....
Using up a tube of pthalo blue. Trading with Adam.
Doodle cats... again. I got two doodle cat requests in a row....
.... and after drawing the second one (with a smaller pen and more cats) I decided to try to reproduce this ATC on my iPad.
The conversations in Emily's group were very exciting in August. It all started with a discussion about what is and isn't art. Emily's "... go find less" card appeared, with many comments.
Then Kyle had a long post in which he was told his ATCs were "not art."
I think it was Laura who invented the NATC slogan....
(Not Art) Trading Card...
I also posted a bit about using Google search to identify card sources. One small attack from Faith, which got removed.
There were only two of us at the Sunday, August 25 workshop, but we had fun with embossing powder. I certainly wouldn't feel comforable bringing this out with a BIG group.
Final ATCs of the month.
By October I had created a weird little color-coded grid system for tracking my cards. Pink for RAK cards, Green for trades. Yellow for digital cards and gray for cards that I was going to keep.
At the end of October, I decided to quit trading ATCs on Facebook.
Here is my final post.
I did not make art journals for the rest of 2024. I DID start up again in 2025.
