The ACEO experiment

It is day 7 of the ACEO experiment. For those of you who haven't read my previous post, I decided to make one ACEO a day for 365 days starting January 1st, 2010. ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals. They are collectible little pieces of art that are always two and one-half inches by three and one-half inches, which is the size of a standard sports trading card. I decided on the size because this seemed less intimidating than a larger format. I figured making a piece of art the size of a trading card was definitely doable and would achieve my goal of making art every day for the year 2010.

So far I have made 6 graphite drawings (today's, day 7, has yet to be made) that were then covered in wax at a later date (I don't have my wax materials and tools at home so I had to wait until I was in my studio). The actual drawings are done on the day that my art piece is "due" which is by midnight at the end of each day so that I could still fill my daily requirement. I usually make these drawing after dinner while I am sitting with my sweetie watching TV. I find that, for me, this time is relaxing and conducive to drawing. Plus, I like the background noise of the television while I work. It also makes me feel less guilty about rotting my brain for three hours a day on senseless, yet entertaining, programming. After 6 days, I have to say that I am really enjoying this! I am practicing my drawing skills and can already see that I am getting better at it. These pieces don't take very long and when I'm done I often find myself wanting to make another. I haven't decided if I'm going to allow myself to make more than one a day. I don't want this to take over my regular art making and I can see myself using these extra ones as an excuse to miss a day of making one later on.

Do I forsee any problems? Uh, Yeah. I'm wondering how this will work on days that I am traveling and away from home. I'm thinking it will be easy enough to bring supplies, like a pencil and the ACEO paper, but will I be motivated to draw when I want to be out having fun? I am going to Southern California for the upcoming three day weekend (which also happens to be my birthday and 1 year anniversary weekend) so I guess I will soon know how that turns out.

I also haven't listed these on ebay or Etsy yet. Although I have sold two already just by showing them to some friends who wanted to see what I was working on, I read in Jack White's article "Making it on eBay" (Dec/ Jan issue of Art Calendar) that colorful artwork attracts attention. Oils sell the best, while black and white pencil drawings sell the worse. So far I have been doing nothing but graphite drawings and covering them in wax. I'm not sure how much attention these will attract from people who don't know my work. I may go with color later and do some encaustic pattern pieces that I've been wanting to experiment with...which is another good thing about ACEOs. You can experiment freely with these without feeling like you are wasting a lot of materials. But for the work I have done so far, I'm not sure how the public will respond to them. I guess I should just post them and find out.

The other problem I see with these is trying to keep up with posting them on eBay and Etsy. Taking photos, writing descriptions, keeping track of inventory, sales, shipping, etc...It's a lot of work! I may have to quit my day job sooner if this takes off or get an assistant. Hehehe, wouldn't that be nice!