By Sal Scheibe
This article originally appeared in ArtTrader Magazine, Winter 2010 Issue 10
10 Minutes! For real!
Disclaimer: This isn’t a serious art lesson! It’s just a bit of 10 minute fun.
Materials Needed:
- Acrylic paints in lots of colors
- Paint brushes
- ATC blanks
Start with a blank ATC; any paper type should be fine as long as the paint will stick to the surface. Have your theme in mind before you start your background. This type of art lends itself well to outdoor scenes such as flowers or trees or landscapes. Still life also works quite well…and if you’re really good, try your hand at a portrait.
Cover the ATC in background paint. In my sample, I’m creating some flowers in a field so I’ve gone with a blue sky, wheat field / yellow grass background. There is no need to spend more than 1-2 minutes painting your background. Remember this is 10 minute art, not portfolio art! My next step was to draw some grass and flower stems with some beige and green paint. This took about 30 seconds. And as you can see, we now have a clear background and the beginnings of a little impressionist ATC on the go. Add some leaves a touch of highlights and we’re just about ready for some flowers.
Flower time! My technique for the flowers is just to blot on little splotches of paint and little dabs with a full paintbrush to form flower shapes. I add darker and lighter values to provide some depth and contrast to the flowers as well as some darker greens for stems and leaves. I just continued dabbing away until I had a result I was satisfied with, each time filling more of the open spaces.
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Be creative, bold, and don’t be afraid to just dive in with your paintbrush and blot away! If you make a mistake, let the paint dry and cover it up.
If you want to start an ATC swap with this theme, please go right ahead. Feel free to reference this article for additional information.
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Additional 10 minute samples on colored paper (saves time!) |  |
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