RANDOMPASSER-BY: "Hiya, I just wanted to let you know that you introduced the phrase "ACEO" to me and I absolutely love the concept. So your art has had an impact on someone and helped me discover a totally new, amazing world. Thank you!"
And so it was that my heart filled with blood ...I mean love ..or butter. Probably butter, but butter is soooooo good! :9
Anyway, *ACO/ACEO is, I suppose, a fairly obscure format (I consider it a format) that deserves some attention. I also feel I might be slightly misrepresenting ACO, as (ideally/traditionally) ACO cards are supposed to be paintings (usually watercolor) on canvas. Mine are just pencil sketches on acidic typing paper, ensuring their eventual destruction. :3
*ACO = Art Card Original. ACEO = Art Card Edition Original. I think the use of 'edition' is a redundancy.
Anyway,
I've mention how I was introduced to ACO, via the incidental discovery of a Pikachu ACO card from eBay. I liked the concept, as it was both easy to collect (I'm a hoarder) and was domestically useful (more on this later).
So, I bought that Pikachu ACO ...and it appears as the top (upper) card in this upload. The card is signed, 'Polanar' ...or something like that (I have difficulty reading cursive). :P The card is dated '1/29/2014'.
The bottom (lower) card is also signed ('Samantha Martin') and dated ('2015'). It stands as the last ACO card I've purchased (six years ago!); I included it here only because I could. :3
Well, that and by doing so I was able to upload both cards at once ...as well as tie a pencil in with them, in this case the pencil is a somewhat rare 'Efficiency' model from Reliance Pencil Co. ...and that's all I can say about it. ^^
So how was ACO 'domestically useful'?
I've told this story a thousand times already, so here's the Cliff's Notes version:
My S/O was aware of my cartoons and, consequently, made a habit of needling me to 'do something' with them. I assured her my art had no value (a fact that remains true to this day), but how to prove it?
By my discovery of the ACO format, of course!
I made some ACO-size pikachu scribbles to sell on eBay, at my S/O's expense (she would supply the stamps and the envelopes to mail them). Rather than start at a dollar or so, I decided to begin my auctions at one cent ...and just so shipping costs wouldn't get in the way of determining whether someone would buy or not, I made the shipping free (otherwise, the shipping charge would be a minimum of $4 or so, for tracking. For these cards, I'd just put a stamp on them and pray them good fortune).
My goal was to both get an idea what my cards were worth as well as to see if anyone would buy them in the first place. I chose *pikachu as my subject in order to be fair to my cards: I knew people would be searching for 'Pikachu' and 'Card' on eBay (as I was when I found my ACO), so those keywords would reveal my drawings (the art did get quite a few views).
*Yes, yes, I know it's wrong to sell copyrighted characters. The ends justified the means at the time (I wouldn't do this today, if I were still offering cards).
What was the result?
The damn cards sold enough to cover their shipping costs. Did that mean my art had value? No. :3
After I sold a few dozen cards (mostly to the same few persons over and over), a particular sale revealed all I needed it to. Immediately after purchase, the buyer left me positive feedback, and instructed me to leave them a positive, too (like, right then, right there). This told me that my cards were being purchased to up their buyer's feedback ratings. I stopped offering cards for sale shortly after this.
I Love ACO's. Got several different types of medium's you can create them on all the way to actual card sized stretched canvas that you can paint on and have framed. Some art product companies offer small packets of illustration board and sketch pads at that size with removable sheets so you can take them around and get sketches from artists then remove them and put them in the plastic sleeves she showed in the vid. It's a complete subset of the art world. :D
I Love ACO's. Got several different types of medium's you can create them on all the way to actual c
