This article is about how to make an ATC or ACEO (art card) for Halloween (including some hints on drawing spooky bats). You might like to add it to your collection of artist cards or give it to someone else for theirs. I’m going to scan mine into my computer and print off color copies of it to stick to greeting card blanks. Then I shall put a small amount of fabric paint onto them to give them a little 3D effect, and send them to all my friends.

I used a 2.5 x 3.5 inch piece of watercolor paper as the base, a few of my already-marbled papers (see previous articles – link below), some black sugar paper, white glue, white ink pen, gold fabric paint and black ink pen for the bats. You could substitute other materials for any of these.

The marbled papers form the entire background. Cut pieces that suggest a night sky. I wobbled the scissors about to get the wavy line.


Play with them until you’ve decided how best to place them before gluing them down.



The moon is another piece of marbled paper – there are a lot of different types of gold paint and they all produce different effects when used for marbling. I thought this one was quite effective at suggesting craters on the moon.



Cut some of the black paper to form a foreground with a wavy edge and a hilly bit for the haunted house to sit on, and some rectangles and triangles for the house itself.



Stick them on:



The final stage involves fiddling about with a white pen, a black pen and gold fabric paint to get the details you want.

Here are some hints on drawing bats:



Draw in as many bats as you want with the black pen, some gravestones etc with the white pen (practice on a piece of scrap if you’re at all uncertain) and put in the ‘lit’ windows with the fabric pen. I’ve also dotted in some stars with the white pen.

And there you have it – a Halloween ACEO that you can use for greeting cards or simply for an art card collection.

Happy Halloween!!!

Creatively yours

Susan

This is my shop on Etsy where I’ve put this card

This is my main shop on Etsy where I put my dog and cat artwork

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