The Swiss artist Paul Klee often incorporated letters and numbers into his paintings in an interesting marriage of abstraction and realism. This project was inspired by his piece Once Emerged From the Gray of Night.
Using watercolor or heavy illustration paper, draw a rectangle measuring four by six inches. Divide the rectangle into twenty-four one-inch squares. Draw the squares lightly in pencil so the lines will not be clearly evident when your project is complete.
Look at your partner's profile for a few words you can use to make a statement about that person. For example, the card pictured above is an illustration of the words, "I AM HOPELESSLY ROMANTIC." This was taken from the profile of @gooseberry who says, "I am a hopelessly romantic gentle soul." You must use no more than twenty-four letters to do this.
Write the statement in the rectangle you've drawn by placing one letter in each square. Each letter should touch all four sides of the square surrounding it. You may leave spaces between words if you don't have enough letters to fill each square. These spaces can be used to draw shapes or designs to further illustrate the statement or they may be left blank.
Trace the letters with a waterproof marker.
Treating each square as an individual piece, color in the shapes made by the letters and sides of the squares. You can use any medium you'd like to do this, but those that produce brighter colors are most effective. If you've chosen to leave any squares blank, you must color these in, as well.
If you like the look of bolder lines, you can trace over the letters with paint or thicker markers once the shapes are colored in. Do not trace around the edges of the squares unless these edges are also lines in the letters.
Cut out the rectangle and adhere it to a 4" X 6" piece of cereal-box (or heavier) weight cardboard.
Write your name, the name of the swap, and your partner's name and address on the reverse side. Also write the statement you illustrated.
Mail the postcard without an envelope unless this is prohibited by your post office.
