ACEO (basically artist trading cards :3)

[totel]

omg okay so i found out about ACEOs like two days ago and i got so fucking obsessed w them i immediately made a TON of them bc i absolutely love anything physical (i love zines, stickers, cards!!!) so i thought it'd be cool to see if anyone on forum also wants to trade or smth? or if you make ACEOs? or sell them? show them off here! 

What are ACEOs:

ACEOs are small drawings/paintings/prints that are size 64x89mm (or 2.5x3.5inch), the size of a standard playing card!!! and lots of people collect or trade them. :D

anyway here's the insanity i went on yesterday

[John]

I love that idea! <3 I'm going to create my own!

[edea]

That's really fun! I love the concept. I don't really have many artist friends irl (at least... not visual artists?) so it would be hard for me to really get much out of it physically, but it's super dope.

[totel]

i'd really love if yall made cards and we could trade! it'd be so cool to have a collection from all over the world~ 

also i made more of them, these are for trade solely :3c

[arcus]

Do they need to be made out of a specific type of paper? What about the backs of the cards?

[totel]

Do they need to be made out of a specific type of paper? What about the backs of the cards?

you can use any paper you want, as long as the size is that of a trading card! i personally like 300g watercolor paper :3c ive tried using mixed media one but it didnt stick. you also dont have to just draw, you can make collages etc!

and as for the backs, i just write my nickname, year, website url, signature. but for a friend i wrote a little message. :]

[TheFrugalGamer]

These are so cute! I love your drawing style, and especially how colorful it is. Most of mine are mixed media, so I always admire artists who can pull off the drawing-only style of ATCs.

I've got quite a collection of ATCs myself from all over the world. They're super fun to trade. If anyone wanted to start a trade group here, I'd love to join!

[totel]

These are so cute! I love your drawing style, and especially how colorful it is. Most of mine are mixed media, so I always admire artists who can pull off the drawing-only style of ATCs.

I've got quite a collection of ATCs myself from all over the world. They're super fun to trade. If anyone wanted to start a trade group here, I'd love to join!

id absolutely love to trade! idk how to organize the group though! maybe as a guild...? itd be really fun to have all of us together somehow so we can trade the ACEOs! and omg when its christmas, we can do a secret santa... ah i got carried away!!! :0c

[larvapuppy]

These are super nice! I love your art style and all the funky backgrounds you did.

I used to make these when I was a teenager, what a throwback! Back then I didn't have anyone to trade with and was not allowed to send mail to internet strangers, so I only slowly accumulated my own.

I'd love to start making them again, and actually trade them this time. If someone makes a guild for it I'd definitely join 

[arcus]

Yeah the ones you posted are great, and I would be down to trading if I can get into the swing of things. Haven't given traditional a proper go in years. Having a whole binder full of them sounds fun.

[edea]

Hmm, I could definitely try! I havent done much traditional art in a long time aside from doodles in my journal. But I’ll give it a go! :D

[kringle]

oh this is so cool!!!!! i've never heard of these before but i'd deffo be down to trade some!! trinket trading is something i already enjoy and being able to do an art-specific kind to make more art friends would be super fun!!! ive made art cards before but not for my ocs, it would deff b nice to have a reason to draw them more. + i need more motivation to do trad anyway but id probably get too attached to the original to trade them off... but i could scan them in and print them!!!   

though idk if i could do it as a secret santa, i try to make christmas cards for my friends around then so my watercolor pallet is unfort BUZY. but i'd be down to do something similar in a diff season!

[sphinx]

Your art is really cool!! I knew about artist trading cards in the early 00's but I never thought I was good enough to make any myself. Maybe I will try and we can trade some!

[ValyceNegative]

These are so very nice, @totel ! I especially like your use of grid and checkered patterns to fill up space or to give volume to clothing. It's so precise and at the same time flowy and dynamic! You mentioned using watercolor paper as support, are you using watercolor on these or another media? Are the ones depicted your characters? I'd love to know more about them :)

I never thought about adding artist information on the back, that's clever! Do you do the cutting before or after painting?

I remember ACEOs being much more common waaaay back, and now it's rarer to see them mentioned either online on in real life (at least in the furry circle. Dunno about other fandoms). My guess is because a lot of artists are now moving onto digital only and leaving traditional media behind. My only example of artist that does ACEO in the current years is a friend of mine that never stopped making them. I have one of my characters on an ACEO made by her!

She has them available as commissions at cons but everytime we're next to eachother with the booth I hear her having to explain what an ACEO is to customers. X.x

I used to make a set way back, I think now it's 20 years old. XD It was in full watercolor depicting the entire Kanto Pokedex, so it's a collection of around 150 cards. Granted I made it when I was 14-15 so their technique is... primitive comared to what I can do now, but I keep them for the memories. They're at my parents' house though, so I'll have to photograph them next time I visit!

[MediocreMetastasis]

This seems really cool. I'll give it a go. It'll be neat to post it to people if we ever get a chance (however, I don't know about you guys but for me it cost 5AUD to cost a singular letter to the USA (I also never posted a letter in my life))