Artist Trading Card Themes, Pick a Subject, Match a Back Ground...

If you are in a trade, there is usually a theme for every month. Examples: "Vintage Halloween", "Thanksgiving", "Beach Fun", even "Artist Choice" etc. You will then make at least 6 cards to hand in to the trade. At Mystic Paper's trade the store keeps one and you will get 5 different cards back. I always make 9 cards the same. One for myself, 6 for the trade, one for my bff Debbie, and an extra for my mom. When I make copies of the subject for cutting out, my printer will put 9 on one sheet of paper.
I made these three cards at Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. Since they go together they are considered a set, or a series. If you are in a private trade you will likely only make the exact number of cards as there are people. You can make every card a little different or exactly the same. Remember each one has to be made by hand, not just copied from printer of the first hand made card. The cards also can be made vertical as the first example or sideways like these next two. Most people keep their cards in baseball card holders. I have mine in albums. And I have a portfolio album of just my cards.

The theme for these cards was Thanksgiving. My first thought was turkeys but I decided on subjects portraying a woodsy feel and family and giving. When I got the other peoples cards back every one of them had a turkey on it! I was grateful I chose something not so typical.

Subject Picking

Some times it is as easy as finding a picture in a book.(dog) Then I had some stickers with the bird with his berry. The dog had a lady next to him so I cut her out of the picture. Made copies of the dog head and stuck the bird on paper and made copies, I don't like actual stickers on the cards so by making paper copies the image doesn't have that shiny sticker quality.

The next cards I am going to make is under the theme "Babes in the Woods." I have some ideas of what babes I may be picking but in this case the woods will be what I look for first. I will find my woods in some books or postcards first and match the babes after. Examples coming in a later post. Remember these cards are for fun and trading. As long as we aren't selling them the pictures for our subjects can be borrowed any where and altered and collage together to make a new piece of art. If you want you can paint or color your own subject. I often find black and white pictures that I love so I color them. The card on the last post "Age of Aquarius" was colored in by me. I love picking what colors to use therefore matching the back ground I picked.

I hope I am covering the basics. Later I will show actual process of cutting out and picking faces to put on your cards. #1 tip: Always have a face! Animal, person, big or small. You want to tell a story, you will need a subject. I have some cards with flowers on them that are beautiful but usually a face is more interesting than just a number. I will have more examples later.