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| "The Frog" Loteria Card |
When I was looking through the original descriptions of the "La Rana" cards based on the transcripts from the two monks I've been studying, a passage caught my eye. The monks made it clear that the frog is swimming in water. They added as a way of clarification that the frog is not actually submerged in water, but is instead skimming along the surface at a leisurely pace. This description gives me much to go on when putting the layout of the card into place. "Along the surface" tells me right away that highlights and reflected colors are going to be figuring into the work in a great amount before I'm done.
But in this case, the paint was working against me. When acrylics are properly applied in semi-transparent layers, they give the light a scattering effect which makes figures more lifelike and details the appearance of glowing. Water should be a natural for this effect. But the canvas that I was working with was much rougher than most and had more "tooth" than I expected. Long story short, there is about 100 layers of paint on this painting. But that is some water that you can dive right into!
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