Los Reyes Gets 'What Fer': Part I

The first strokes of paint were applied to Los Reyes over 15 years ago back when I lived in Texas.  I added a carved frame to the piece somewhere around 2005.  Both the canvas and the carved frame were interesting pieces, but they didn't interact with each other as well as they could have.

The time has come to remedy that.

First thing to do is to address the canvas by adding some relief figures to the composition.

Once those are in place and primed, it's time to add the first layer of color.

I'm also going to need a lot of arrows.

Now it's time to add some line work.

EENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNTTTTT!!!!  Scratch that.  As I am working on this, it has become obvious that Los Reyes needs something more thorough/drastic to make it 'work'.  Time to get out the saw.......

No, really, it's time to get out the saw......

After a little cutting and a quick canvas-endectomy, Los Reyes is ready to begin a new journey.

Get down a proper base color.......

.....and lay down some lines......

.....and some colors.......

Haze and repeat the process for the second layer.

Time to add color to the second layer of imagery.

I had to go back and add some lines around the Xs.

Los Reyes will have at least three layers of imagery before it's done (at the moment, it only has two).  But for now, on to the frame.....

I want the carved frame to have some ties to the second layer of imagery/colors, so I utilize some of those colors to paint the frame.  A larger percentage of the colors on the frame will come from the top layer of the canvas, with some colors only appearing on the frame.  That's the plan for today anyway.  The plan is always subject to change.

Time to haze over the painting and make some sketches for the third layer.

The Big Swap

A while back I mentioned something about a cool collaboration with an artist named Jen Evans.  You can check out that previous post by clicking HERE.

Here are a few images of my 'starts' (for Jen to complete as she deems appropriate) in progress.

The last little bit I contribute to this one is some text/line work incised into the some thick paint.

So anyway, this past weekend finally saw the big swap of pieces.  For a narrow window of time, all four pieces were in the same room just hangin' out.  They won't be reunited until show time in August.

Jen was really intrigued by the interaction between the red band and the blue line work, so I through in a couple of images of that business.

The two pieces I started are on there way back to Jen's studio.  I am left to 'finish' these two pieces.....

So now what?

Let's enjoy a panoramic studio shot whilst contemplating how nice it will be to see the progress on an older piece Los Reyes in an upcoming post.