Art Trading Cards, Or ATCs

Art Trading Cards are miniature works of art (2.5" x 3.5") that fit inside standard plastic card sleeves. This type of art was started in Switzerland in 1996 and grew out of an interest in mail art. ATCs are now produced all over the world in various media, including pencils, pens, markers, watercolor, acrylic paints, collage, papercuts, found objects, and more.
1. Draw sea life shapes in pencil on the cards, keeping them as large and simple as possible.
2. When complete, trace them with a black permanent marker.
3. I used my favorite Prismacolor® watercolor pencils to color and paint the cards. The pencils allowed me to easily fill small shapes like the seaweed.
4. After the cards were dry, I used ultra fine point permanent markers in matching colors to add waves to the background, and details to the fish.