Cave Paintings and Loteria

"The Deer" Loteria Card

"The Deer"
The deer for this image is most likely taken from reports of cave paintings which would have been available to the two monks as well as Pope Pius IV himself.  This would have been at odds with most orthodoxy at the time.  It isn't clear whether the monks or the Pope were aware of the age of the paintings, but it would have been likely they were aware of speculation that they predated biblical history.  In either event, the images for fertility and sexuality would have been popular in other areas of rural spiritual beliefs.  This card would have found no home in Western practices, but would point to the potent New World forces which missionaries were encountering abroad.

The Sun Never Sets on the Loteria Empire

"The Sun" Loteria Card

"The Sun"
This loteria card shows an arctic sun shining on an ice cliff.  Encased in the walls of the ice a shadowy figure can be seen.  The colors of the sky indicate that while the sun is shining, it is bitterly cold and the figure is in no danger of being freed from the icy prison.
One of the things I noticed while studying icebergs for this image was how stark the shadows were.  Inky shadows cling to every rock and crevasse giving even the most mundane vista an otherworldly view.

For Whom the Bell Tolls Loteria

"The Bell" Loteria Card

"The Bell"
This painting really pushed the boundaries of what I can do with acrylics.  I'm sure there are plenty of painters out there who can make the colors whirl and dance to their brushes like a conductor before a colorful symphony orchestra.  But that's a bit beyond my abilities for now.
The description of this card made it clear that a bronze bell (with verdigris) is shown before rolling storm clouds which are pierced by shafts of sunlight.  Not an easy feat to be sure.  Storm clouds are pretty straight forward to make and actually are one of my favorite things to paint.  But these needed to be almost purple in color.  The shafts of sunlight needed to glow before a dark background which needed some preparation before I was able to come up with an effect which I'm satisified with.
But all in all, the devil was needed to be painted to look like the 'red pajama wearing" imp from countless Sunday school lectures.  It works... but if I were going to come up with my own design (and not a design based on Franciscan monks of a few hundred years ago), I'd concentrate more on bandy muscled demons.

Hop, Skip and Jump to Loteria

"The Frog" Loteria Card

"The Frog"

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!