ArtTRADER

PUTTING THE ART IN TRADE

MAIL ART DISPLAYS

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I s s u e 2 0 - Fa l l 2 0 1 2

Show it off!

ACR Y LIC

PORTRAITS
Halloween
Door Art!
Musings of a SelfTrained Artist: A Laywomans Laycolumn

REACTIVE
Metal Paint
CROCHET A POE

RAVEN
Artist Interviews:

Andrea Melione

Brian Rubenacker
Cover art by Andrea Melione

ATCs, Altered Art, Art Journals, Chunky Books & Creative Inspiration

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Table of Contents
3 4 5 10 12 15 18 21 24 27 29 30 31 33 ArtTrader Zine Team Letter from the ArtTrader Team The Art of Andrea Melione Mail Art Displays: Show it off! Doing Up the Door: A Halloween Tutorial Short Attention Span Theater: Reactive Metal Paint Vintage Acrylic Portraits: ATC Size! An Interview with Brian Rubenacker Musings of a Self-Trained Artist: A Laywomans Laycolumn Art Rooms! Pattern for a Cute Crocheted Raven Printable Pumpkin Art Doll Advertisements Submissions: Call for Art & Articles

FALL 2012
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EDITOR ART DIRECTOR GRAPHIC DESIGN WRITING & ART TEAM

Meran ni Cuill Sal Scheibe Sal Scheibe Andrea Melione Ann DAngelo Andrea Melione Sal Scheibe Sarah Trumpp Deb Schneider

CONTRIBUTOR

ArtTRADER Magazine www.arttradermag.com

General Inquiries: sal@arttradermag.com Submissions: submissions@arttradermag.com Product Reviews: sal@arttradermag.com Critique Corner: andrea@arttradermag.com OPEN Call for Entries: www.arttradermag.com

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ArtTrader People
Sarah Trumpp (aka themuppet) has never seen the inside of an art school and is making it up as she goes along. She lives in a teeny town in the wilds of New York with her husband, kids, and fish, and dreams of being an evil overlord. She has been an active participant in the Mailart world for the past four years, and she works primarily in acrylics, watercolors, colored pencil, marker, ink, clay, papier mache, yarn, felt, bone, wire, and glass. She obviously needs to reign it in a bit. wonderstrange.com | littlebitsofweird.blogspot.com

Sal Scheibe works as a freelance illustrator. Her graphic designs and artwork have appeared in books, CDs and DVDs and posters. Sal is currently working on a number of large canvas paintings for art shows. She also enjoys trading ATCs and is an administrator at IllustratedATCs.com. Sals favorite artists and illustrators include Joe Sorren, J.C. Leyendecker, William Bougereau and John Singer Sargent. Her favored mediums are acrylic paint, colored pencils and markers. www.slscheibe.com | redzombies.blogspot.ca

Ann DAngelo is a former English professor who once imagined that she would spend her entire life as an academic. As it happens, a lot of other people had the same idea, and between the flooding of the job market and the lure of writing novels, she left the university - and promptly stumbled into an unplanned career in corporate training. For the next six years, Ann designed a wide range of training programs and ran all over the country teaching everyone from execs to customer service reps. Encouraged by her husband, she ultimately left her role as VP of Training to move her family to Indiana and get back to her writing, but in Indiana, life took another unexpected turn when Ann discovered Mailart. After beginning with collage, she branched into drawing, and now she loves to create mixed media pieces that combine both loves. In 2011, Ann co-founded WonderStrange Arts with two other artists, whom you can visit at www.wonderstrange.com.

Andrea Melione (akaEraserQueen) has a B.S. in Arts Management and is doggedly pursuing a Masters in Public Administration. She has been involved in Mailart for ten years and is the co-founder of IllustratedATCs.com. She is a contributor to ArtTrader Magazine where she is a graphic designer and author. She mainly works in watercolor, colored pencil, acrylics, markers and gel pens. Her work has been in four exhibits, though two were academic and she isnt sure if that counts enough to sound cool. eraserqueenstudios.blogspot.com

Meran ni Cuill Fascinated by nature and science, Meran ni Cuill attempts daily to translate her passions into art. Sometimes she feels she even succeeds! And then something else will catch her attention and off shell go! Chasing another ideal. Meran enjoys gardening, sunsets, dogs, birds, and just about anything as long as its not endless crowds of people. When those present, shell retreat to a quiet place and read a book, or cut some glass, both of which she finds therapeutic. www.meran.etsy.com

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News from the ArtTrader Team

Hello everyone! Welcome to the FALL issue of ArtTrader Mag. Readers Gallery: YOUR Art Wanted! We enjoy receiving your notes and requests and looking at your wonderful art. Please send us your Mailart so we can show it off in these pages. We want a READERS GALLERY in our next issue coming out on Jan 15 2013. We love to feature reader galleries, especially when you create something in a way weve shown you here in the zine. Its always nice to know that our articles are helping you with your art learning and skill building. Please visit our website for details on submissions and release forms.

Facebook Art Card Fans: New game for you! CARDIBLES

A new free, online collectible card game called Cardibles will be launched this month on Facebook, with advanced user generated content functionality allowing players to design and upload their own card sets. The aim of the game is to collect virtual cards to complete sets, much as past generations collected baseball stickers or cigarette cards. Its not a collectible card game, like Magic or Pokemon - players dont do anything with their cards once they have them. The fun lies entirely in the collecting and trading of cards, and the satisfaction of completing a set. Users can play this game without spending a penny and sets can be custom-made or user-created yes, thats right! Players can make sets from their Facebook pictures, or design new sets for uploading to the game. These user-created sets can either be shared only with players friends, or shared globally for worldwide fame! Well also be running competitions on the coolest sets designed by players, so collaboration is a must. People can connect with other players who share the same interests (impressionist paintings, famous battles, superheroes, wild flowers whatever they like!) and discuss those interests in our forums while endeavouring to find someone willing to trade them. Check out the Cardibles websites to get started! http://www.cardibles.com/ http://www.facebook.com/Cardibles

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The Art of

Andrea Melione
aka Eraserqueen

Can you tell us a little about yourself? I live just outside of cow country in New York State. I was born in NY, but have lived in Virginia and Connecticut. Ive also traveled extensively along the east coast extending into Nova Scotia, Canada. I currently work as Public Services Coordinator at my local University Science Library, which is a treasure trove of wonderful books. I have a fur-baby (cat), and a great family that is supportive of my art hobby! Both my mother and my grandmother enjoy arts and crafts and encouraged me from an early age to develop creative pursuits. What are your inspirations? I have two forms of inspiration. The first is inspiration that energizes my creative process, but doesnt necessarily have a direct visual influence. This is usually music and surroundings. For music, I enjoy smooth jazz, John Denver, Musicals, Mozart and Symphonic Goth Metal. Surroundings can be either the city or the country; Im lucky that I live near both, though the city is a little farther away! This time of year (autumn) is particularly inspiring with the drastic changes in weather and the beautiful fall foliage. Orange and Blue is a favorite color combination of mine and you see a lot of it this time of year!

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The second form of inspiration has a more direct visual influence on my art, and that is other art. I enjoy folk art a great deal because most folk artists have broken an object down to its most basic components. Once you do that, a really broad variety of styles can emerge and its fascinating to see how differently other people will perceive a lizard, or a tree, or a sailboat.

What are some of your favorite materials? Just about anything! My illustrations might include acrylics, watercolor, ink, markers, or colored pencils. My mixed media work could be comprised of digitally manipulated vintage clip art, old photos, torn paper, found objects; all jumbled with the media I listed previously. I like materials I can control with precision, like a technical pen, combined with more intuitive methods like ripping paper.

How did you become involved in mailart? Its my moms fault! She told me about Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) when I was in college. At this point in my life I mostly made cartoons, paper dolls and fan art, though I was interested in designing greeting cards as a possible career. After I posted an ATC online someone told me about mailart and where I could trade with others and its been almost ten years now!

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How has mailart affected you as an artist? I know mailart has not only affected me as an artist, it has affected all areas of my life. Because of mailart I have met wonderful people with whom I have helped administer a web forum, planned an international art convention, developed an online magazine, and even published a book! Sal Scheibe is the person, who has built those boats, but its great being a part of her crew, and I have learned a lot from her. Mailart has also helped me to grow as an artist; I now feel competent in graphic design, a skill I am using in my current job. I have grown as a teacher creating the many workshops Ive taught through ArtTrader. Also, I have reached the point where I am happy with my art 70% of the time, as opposed to maybe 30% of the time!

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Any plans for the future? My job takes up a lot of my time, but I still plan to trade and host swaps. I will also be selling my art and workshops through ETSY. The video and workbooks will be burned onto a CD. I am also doing more with landscape painting. A few pieces were included in a local show and I plan to make more. I love hearing from people, so if you want to say hi or keep updated on what Im doing, I am Annie Eraserqueen on Facebook!

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Do you have any tips or advice? Art is all about what you want from it. Art can embody different goals for different people. Do you use the act of creating art as a way to relax? Is art something you create to share with others? Do you create art in order to develop your skills or to find beauty? Once you know what you want art to be for you personally it is very freeing, because you are no longer making art to fit someone elses expectations. As far as technical tips go, dont be afraid of frustration. I often will try a new way of creating something and it doesnt always turn out as I envisioned. I usually alternate between experimentation and my usual methods so that I am always experiencing success in some way. Combining old and new techniques is often how I create new methods of creation. Most important, have fun with your art!

Find Andrea online at:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annie.eraserqueen?ref=profile Blog: http://eraserqueenstudios.blogspot.com

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Mail Art Displays: Show it off!

by Sal Scheibe

<---- Has

this ever happened to you?

All of these beautiful ATCs created lovingly by so many artists worldwide and you have them sitting in binders, in ugly plastic sleeves? It happened to me too but there is a cure. Here are some super easy display ideas to get your beautiful mail art out from the binders!

A fantastic way to show off your ATC sized mail art is to buy a bunch of mismatched frames, or matched if you prefer, to create a wall display. Heres how I did it. My frames below are two 5 x 7 (inside image size) and one 8 x 10 frame. I cut out scrapbooking paper to use as the background. There are two options for attaching cards. You can use double sided tape to attach plastic penny sleeves directly to the paper and insert your cards into the penny sleeves. Or, you can directly tape the back of the ATC to the scrapbooking paper. I used the very light (almost frosty) clear tape that peels away without damaging surfaces but still sticks. Hang the frames on your wall in a nice arrangement. In my samples below, my frames are visible as soon as you open my front door. I use these frames for showing off holiday and themed cards. At left, I have some regular any-theme cards, in the middle is my Halloween version with Day of the Dead and pumpkins and at right is my Christmas themed display with Snow Queens and various snow covered trees.

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The above photos show additional samples with single artist features and other themes. Below is another display option for even more ATCs. I painted an 18 x 24 canvas in black and stuck plastic penny sleeves in 5 rows across the canvas. Inside those penny sleeves go your ATCs. As you can see below, I change my display often and try to go in themes (shown below are funky portraits, trees and whimsical dreamscapes). A great bonus to using a canvas display is that you can paint it any color and even frame it if you prefer a sleeker look. I also have a massive 30 x 40 canvas displaying my landscape and flower ATCs in my kitchen.

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Doing Up the Door:

By Ann DAngelo

A Halloween Tutorial
In last years fall issue, I turned a few people to the Dark Side. Okay, technically I turned the photographic likenesses of a few people into dark mixed media art dolls, which is about as close as I get to evil intergalactic conversions. This Halloween, Ive taken my vintage photos in a different direction to create a cute, whimsical decoration for the front door. This project is simple, endlessly customizable, and best of all, inexpensive.

Materials
Wooden letters Copies of vintage photos Craft paint Crackle medium (optional) Stamps and StazOn ink (optional) Plastic spider rings Two small hinges Two cup hooks A 14-16 length of jewelry chain with large links Drill To get started, sand the letters. I know: On a scale of One to Oh Goody, sanding anything ranks just above plucking a velociraptors eyebrows. It really does make a difference, though, so cue up some tunes and sand away!

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Once the letters are sanded and brushed clean, paint them in whatever colors seem most awesome. I chose black, pumpkin orange, apple green, and a deep, royal purple. While the paint dries, track down vintage pictures that will fit inside the letters. Scan them, print them, and have fun putting the people into costumes.

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After another coat or two of paint, its time to embellish the letters and finish them off. I applied a crackle medium to my letters, and once that dried, I stamped Latin text and added some orange plastic spiders that started out as spider rings before I gave them stripes and snipped at them with my scissors. (I nailed my spiders to the letters with wire brads, by the way, but glue is also a possibility.)

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Now for the final steps! To get this lovely new decoration ready to hang, grab the drill, the hinges, and the cup hooks. Join the letters using the hinges, as pictured. Drill small holes in the tops of the B and the second O, screw in the cup hooks, and attach the chain. To preserve all of your hard work for next year, seal the whole thing with a UV-resistant spray, then hang it up for the neighbors to covet and adore!

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Short Attention Span Theater: Reactive Metal Paint

by Sarah Trumpp
Hello and welcome to another edition of Short Attention Span Theater, the column that enables me and my obsessively curious nature. This time its all about reactive paints, crackles, and glazes.

One afternoon I was perusing the Internet, trying to find recipes for interestingly-colored acrylic washes, especially those used for aging. On a whim, I bought Dusty Diablos: Folklore, Iconography, Assemblage, Ole! by Micheal deMeng and spent the rest of the day frantically paging through the slightly spooky piles of awesome. Not only did I find acrylic wash recipes by the truckload, but I also found a reference to something called metallic reactive paint with pictures of the paint actually rusting. If I were a fainter, I would have dropped right there into a swoon worthy of the dowdiest of Victorian dowagers. Paint that rusts?!! NO WAY. Oh yes, my pretties. It does rust. It also takes patinas in either blue or green, so it is sort of the best thing ever. At least until I discover the next best thing ever!

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The brand I chose, mostly because it was available on Amazon with free two-day Prime shipping, was Metal Effects by Modern Masters. I bought both iron and copper paint (it also comes in bronze), rust activator, and both blue and green patinas. Im nothing if not thorough in my obsessions! You should use it all in a well-ventilated area, and the company recommends that you use their primer before painting to protect the surface from the acids in the patinas. I chose some cheesy-looking plastic Halloween bones and got started! The iron paint is shockingly heavy, by the way, in the jar. Its not like lifting an anvil or anything, but its a lot heavier than the copper in the same amount. The paint has microscopic bits of metal within it which react to the acids in the patinas/rust activators, and iron is obviously heavier than copper. I painted the skull and bones with iron paint and let it dry and then painted another coat. Once it was completely dry, I applied the rust activator with a cotton swab in random dabs and patterns. You can brush it on or even spritz it on with a spray bottle. Once youve got the rust rusting, set it aside and walk away. It takes about three hours to fully activate. When you come back, you will have an amazingly grodylooking piece of whatever. SO AWESOME. Once my piece had rusted, I brushed it with onestep crackle medium, just to see if it would do anything. As you can see in the picture above, it cracked and peeled and made it look even more battered and disregarded. I used some acrylic paints to add highlights and designs to my bones before attaching them to a canvas.

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For the key, I used copper paint. I painted one coat and let that dry before painting a second coat. Unlike the rusting medium, the patinas need to be applied while the paint is still wet, so I dabbed on some green patina before the second coat dried. This one works way faster than the rust and will start to change colors right away. By the time it was done, I had a key that looked like I found it in a secret desk drawer instead of one I had bought it in a lot of 50 on eBay. Once it had dried, I attached it to my canvas, added some final details and then sent it off to a swap partner in Canada. Bye bye, rusty guy! The effects you get from these little bottles are pretty magical. I find myself wanting to do a whole rusty wall in my bedroom while decorating my Halloween porch with aged copper jack olanterns. Theyre great for adding interest to your next assemblage or steampunk project!

Do you have something you have wanted to try but dont want to spend the effort obsessively and tirelessly learning? Email me at sarah@wonderstrange.com, and Ill learn it for you!

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Vintage Acrylic Portraits: ATC Size!

by Sal Scheibe
I love painting portraits and people and I love acrylic paints. And I especially love vintage photos. They are wonderful for use in collage and mixed media but also can be used as a source of fun painting reference--everything I love together in mini mail art! For these cards, I used a thick Bristol type paper and also some illustration board. My paints are Golden and Liquitex (heavy body) brands and I used only two colors: white and black. Its up to you which white you prefer, titanium (more opaque) or zinc (more transparent). Titanium white mixes more easily while Zinc white is better for glazing (in my opinion). Go with whatever works best for you. I used Mars Black with Titanium White and Goldens Acrylic Glazing Liquid to thin the paints down a little and give me some extra working time.

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Brady-Handy Photo Collection at the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=brhc

Many of the public domain photos or those on collage sheets are unknowns, simply people like us who lived their lives many years ago. If youre like me, youve probably used plenty of vintage photos in your art; whether youre cutting them up for collage or coloring them or using them as reference for your own painting. Ive always wondered who they were, what h t t p : / / w w w. l o c . g o v / http://www.loc.gov/pictures/ h t t p : / / w w w. l o c . g o v / they did for fun or for work. Luckily, pictures/collection/brhc/ collection/brhc/item/ pictures/collection/brhc/ item/brh2003003324/PP/ brh2003003759/PP/ item/brh2003000390/PP/ in the set of photos I used here, we know (for the most part) who they were. I grabbed these photos from the Brady-Handy Collection at the Library of Congress (http://www. loc.gov/pictures/search/?st=grid&co=brhc). There are pages and pages of public domain photos. Most were politicians or generals but there are also plenty of great portraits of singers and actors. I chose Madame La Grange (occupation unknown, Nellie Grant (daughter of Ulysses) and Edwin Booth, actor (and yes, that brother). Whats especially great about this collection is the very high quality digital images available. - 18 -

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Using my photos as a reference, I paint on my undertone colors (shades) and block out shapes. I dont draw the faces with a pencil first since I find it easier just to work our features from shapes and shadow. However, I know some people prefer to have a drawing first so do whatever is most comfortable for you. As you can see, at this point, my faces are blanks with only a bare shape. Its all about getting color (shade) blocks in the right places.

My next step is to work on tightening up face shapes, clothing lines and hair shapes too. Once Im happy with the facial outlines, I work on lightly blocking in the features through shading and lines where appropriate. The good thing about working with wet paint is that if you make a mistake, just paint over it. If you feel like your initial shading for the eye area is wrong, you can cover it up and try again. At this stage, your painting is still loosey-goosey and easy to change. - 19 -

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My next stage is tightening up shades, shadows and lines to make the feature and clothing sharper and more defined. Again, you can still overpaint things if you need to but most of that should have been done at the previous stage. This is your time to work on refining shape and form into nice features.

My final stage is really just more of the above step: refining, defining features and then adding in highlights where appropriate such as hair, eyes, clothing, etc. I hope that with the three different portraits you can see that my technique is always the same: 1. 2. 3. 4. Block in shape and shade (or color) Define shapes and shadows Refine and define features and clothing Highlights and fine details

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An Interview with Brian Rubenacker

by Deb Schneider
Brian Rubenacker is a painter and digital artist who specializes in whimsical paintings featuring dogs, especially his adorable Boston Terriers. He took a few minutes away from painting and catering to his dogs Zoe and Sophie to share a bit about himself and his work. Tell us a little about yourself. Simple. I love to paint. Art has been a huge part of my life as far back as I can remember. Okay, why Boston Terriers? Boston Terriers are one of the best little dogs! They are cute, comical, sweet, loving and entertaining. The description fits perfectly into my dog art. My grandfather had a Boston Terrier. I never met Penny, but always felt like I knew her because they would talk about her and I would see pictures when I was growing up. Something about her and the stories I would hear made me love this breed. I always knew I would be owned by one. In 2000, Lacey came into our lives. She was such a character! She made us love the breed even more. She was and still is my muse and the driving force behind all my paintings. We now have Zoe and Sophie. Two very funny, sweet and loving Bostons. They are the studio mascots. CEO and President, if you will. I will always have a BT in my life. Besides Bostons, what other dog breeds do you particularly like? Its hard to pick a particular breed because they are all awesome in their own right, however, I have painted other breeds such as pugs, dachshunds, French Bulldogs and Chihuahuas. Labs, Greyhounds and more. - 21 -

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How would you describe your art? What inspires you? I would describe my art as fun, whimsical with an element of surprise. Dogs inspire me. They live in the present moment with no conditions. The best way to describe them would be loving, beautiful souls. How do you work? I mainly work with oil paints and digitally. What are your favorite art supplies? My favorite supplies are Winsor & Newton and Old Holland oil paints. I use Silver Black Pearl brushes. I also use a Cintiq for my digital work. Do you have any techniques or tips you can share? Practice makes perfect. Who are your favorite artists? There are probably too many to mention, but off the cuff, I would say Allen Anderson, H.J. Ward, Glenn Barr, Ryan Heshka, and NC Wyeth. What memorable responses have you had to your work? I mainly hear from people that my work makes them smile and happy. Many of my clients tell me they love how I capture the spirit of their dog. It feels good to know my work has a positive affect on people.

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What is your dream project? To paint dogs on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. On a more serious note, my dream project would be to collaborate with my wife on a mix-media project of a giant mural in paints and mosaics of Lacey. Whats your favorite thing youve ever created? My favorite painting I have created hangs in my studio: The Line Up. I love this painting because it represents the dogs I tend to paint the most. I just really like the way it turned out. What superpower would you have and why? Oh this one is easy, invincibility, because I could do anything I wanted and not worry about the consequences. For example, I could jump off Niagara Falls, just for the fun of it, and come out unscathed.

Brian Rubenacker sells and stays in touch with his fans on the web. Check out the links below to see whats new in his studio. http://brianrubenacker.com/ http://www.etsy.com/shop/rubenacker https://twitter.com/BrianRStudios http://mojodogs.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Brian-Rubenacker/72573601954 - 23 -

Find Brian on Facebook:

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Musings of a Self-Trained Artist:

A Laywomans Laycolumn by Ann DAngelo

Putting text onto ATCs may not be a new thing to do, but it remains a popular one. If applied without consideration for composition or coherence, however, text can seriously detract from an otherwise successful composition, kind of like a big, slimy piece of spinach stuck in a supermodels teeth. No matter how sexy the supermodels dress is, everyone is just going to stare at the spinach. In horror. To help avoid that sort of disaster, heres a brief, spinachfree guide to sending text down the mixed media runway. Lets start with a concrete example of a mixed media ATC that is doing a lot of things right: It has multiple layers, well-integrated details, and an engaging (if mildly baffling) focal image. Because of that focal image, the card practically demands some text to help flesh out the story. After putting time into all of those layers and details, an artist might be tempted to cram text into the empty spots, no matter where those spots fall - but that would be a big, slimy spinach kind of mistake. Heres why. In addition to being sense units, words on a card are aesthetic objects, little white rectangles that need to play well with the other shapes, colors, and images in the artistic sandbox. In this new version of the card, we cant even read the text, yet it competes for our attention, disrupting the previously harmonious composition and distracting us from the very details the artist wanted to remain visible, like the closed fist of the brunette near the top of the card and the priestly hand at the bottom (which is overshadowed anyway by the badly placed oo ertzwn). From this bad example, we can learn several good and fundamental precepts:

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Keep words thoughtfully grouped and relatively close together, not tossed haphazardly around the card like bits of confetti Place the words in such a way that reading feels natural and effortless, without any uncertainty about where to start, where to stop, or where to look next Make clear with the placement of every word that it is the artist, not the art, dictating the words position One more point about these nonsense words: Notice how stark and sharp the words appear in relation to the rest of the card? These words almost appear to be floating on the surface of the composition. This is a problem that can easily be fixed using one or more of these techniques: softening the edges of the white rectangles with ink, chalk, or paint; outlining specific words for emphasis; and/or bringing color into the words. Heres a new and improved version of the card that follows all four of these guidelines:

In this version, all of the details in the collage remain visible and in fact, the placement of the word party essentially forces the eye to notice the priestly hand. (Color helps, too.) Now that the text supports the card, instead of competing with it, harmony is restored. Ahhh!

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In addition to the positioning of text, of course, there is also the matter of what the text should say. No matter the specific words or phrases, text should say what cant be seen, and it should encourage us to re-examine the visuals in a new light. To illustrate these two points, heres a card with a background cut from scrapbooking paper, a focal point, and text. Since we can already tell from Philips hair dye that Philip likes to be different, we dont learn anything meaningful by reading the text, which makes it feel flat and pointless. Text works much better when we feel weve gained a new context in which to view the piece. In this second version of the card, we can see that the woman is craning her neck, transfixed by the man, but we dont know why. The text says what cant be seen, explaining the womans hopes and dreams for her relationship with this man. After reading the text, we reexamine the images, looking back and forth between the man and the woman, smiling at the oddness of their relationship. We also realize that those little heads along the bottom belong to the future cult members. Text doesnt have to be comic to be successful; in fact, it can be sober and profound, as is often the case with found poetry. Regardless of the tone, the guidelines for text placement, integration, and substance remain the same, keeping canvases everywhere safely spinach-free.

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ART

ROOMs!

Where do you create?

This is the funky art room of Sarah Trumpp, art experimenter extraordinaire! With lots of space on top and below, Sarah has tons of room for her mounds of art supplies and lots of wall space to hang inspiring creations from art friends.

Send us your art room photos! Wed love to see some art rooms and creation places, even
if its your dining room table! Please dont forget to fill out the release form if you send a photo. Its on our website.

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ART

ROOMs!

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Pattern for a Cute Crocheted Raven

By Ann DAngelo
A few weeks back, in the course of my work, I crocheted an Edgar Allan Poe stuffie, and he turned out to be a pretty darn cute little fellow. After a few days of sitting all alone on my mantle, however, he started to look at me with pleading eyes. He wanted a pal, and he wanted it now. Naturally, I made him a raven. You dont need a Poe (or for that matter, a mantle) to make one of these ravens for yourself. You can vary the size by changing your yarn. Use Caron Soft, for example, and youll get a small raven; use Lion Jiffy, and youll get a big one. All you need, other than the black yarn of your choice, are some beady little black safety eyes, black thread, and a scrap of black felt. Oh yeah. And this free pattern! Download Anns pattern here: http://www.arttradermag.com/issues/issue20/ATM_raven_pattern.pdf This pattern is also available on the ArtTrader website.

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l l o D t r A e l Printab
painted by

m a g a z i n e

Andrea Melione
aka Eraserq ueen

2012 Copyright. All rights reserved. Andrea Melione. For personal use only

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m a g a z i n e

Visit EraserQueens blog for a chance to win an Original ATC by Andrea Melione The Winner will be drawn October 15th!
Click here to visit or go to: http://eraserqueenstudios.blogspot.com

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m a g a z i n e

Cabs, Beads & Pendants 4 Eyes Glass Studio

www.4eyesglass.com

4 Eyes Glass Studio

503.558.0304 303.420.0348 meran@ghostman.com

*** Catalog available online *** meran@ghostman.com ***Photos upon request***

Creative Design and Illustration

www.slscheibe.com
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m a g a z i n e

Article Submissions - write for us!

Thank you for your interest in contributing to ArtTrader Magazine. ArtTrader Magazine is a web-based publication (in PDF format) focused on Mailart for trade such as ATCs (Artist Trading Cards), ACEOs, art journals, chunky books, altered art and altered books. We are always accepting the following types of materials: How to or Step-by-Step articles on artistic techniques. Articles on artistic journeys or experiences. Artist Spotlight/Profile. Do you have a body of work you would like share? Showcasing Art. We are interested in showcasing assemblages, mixed media work, creative journaling, chunky books, fat books, inchies, ATCs (Artist Trading Cards), post cards and more. Product and Book Reviews.

www.arttradermag.com
Advertising, Product Reviews & Partnership Inquiries sal@arttradermag.com Artwork & Article Submissions Sal Scheibe sal@arttrader.com Critique Corner & Artist Interviews Andrea Melione andrea@arttradermag.com
For additional details on our submission and artwork guidelines, please visit our website:

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OPEN Call for Artwork: Readers Gallery

We want to have a Readers Gallery in every magazine issue to showcase the beautiful art made by the Mailart community. Please send us your Mailart pics! Theme doesnt matter, as long as its Mailart. Were looking for ATCs, ACEOs, Chunky Pages, Inchies, Twinchies, Skinny Pages, Art Journals, altered art and altered books. Submissions should be sent to: submissions@arttradermag.com Send images in JPG, BMP or TIF format. PDFs are also fine. High quality scans please so at least 100 DPI though 300 DPI is preferred. Make sure you fill out an Artwork Release Form so that we can show off your art! Its on our website in the Magazine section. Very important! Thanks for reading! The ArtTrader Zine Team

www.arttradermag.com

Red Dragon Sal Scheibe

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