Lots going on I finally found a couple of hand drawn, hand painted only ATC groups. I wont be leaving any of the traditional ATC groups I belong to but I now have more options. Also a couple of them are getting a clue and even the traditional collage style ATC groups are dropping the number of ATCs in group trades. I am now seeing more 3/3 and 3/4 trades instead of the 6/7 or higher ones.  I am enjoying having Mortain live with us more and more as time goes on. She does a lot of the house work that used to take up my creative time and also make my chronic pain so I couldn't be creative even if I had the time.  Here are my latest water color ATCs they will also be posted to FineArtATCsOnetoOne 

Gosh lots going on , I joined a bunch new ATC groups in an attempt to find one that is more into hand drawn and hand painted . I wish group owners would be more informative on their front page. I also dropped a few right after joining. After the dust has settled I still haven't found a group that is mostly for hand drawn and or hand painted. I do  know a lot of ATC artist do this. Its not hard to find examples of it on line. Maybe in a couple of months I will start hosting hand drawn , hand painted swaps in my favorite group which does have a lot of diversity in its artist styles. Here are a couple of my latest in the not for everyone categories.

I recently started doing Swap-bot trades. Its fun its direct swapping for the most part. One on one swaps. Lots of variety in swapping. I've done ATCs of course, theme Inchies, fabric squares and  bags of tea. Lots of international trading. Here are a couple of the ATCs I have traded with Swap-bot.

Art Doll

I tried my hand at an art doll today. For those that don't know what one is, it's a jointed paper doll. A paper doll for a woman not a girl. They take a while and cutting small pieces of card stock is painful for me. Also making 5 of something is beyond my attention span. 3 and I get board. I managed to do it and I like them. This ones theme was  hero or heroine, a super hero type. Mine is Heloise the heroine of house wives . She wears chocolate brown leather and is armed with a feather duster and dark chocolate to save the day. 

I've been busy with swaps from the various ATC groups I belong to. I haven't had time to just make any spontaneous ones.  I have a long list of subjects I want to do. The fruit trees are blooming and they look like they are covered in popcorn. I want to draw and paint them but not until I  get the group trades done. I have started drying flowers for use on ATC's. I received one recently in a trade that had pressed flowers on it. It inspired me to try my hand at it.  I have one left of the first 4 I made. I will be doing more. 

More New Art...

Its been raining a lot. Puget Sound , Western Washington State is wet  most of the time. The winds been making our "liquid sunshine" less appealing than usual. This was created in response to it. 

Fire flies in a Jar. I did this for a swap titled "A bugs life." Fire Flys are an incredibly ugly bug. What makes them interesting is that they glow. Its a chemical reaction in their bodies. I painted Illustration board with paynes grey acrylic paint for the "at night" back ground. I did the rest in metalic and India Ink. I made this extra one for a one on one trade. its still available.