The Queen

This one started with a nifty little idea I found on Pinterest: Take a deck of playing cards, and cover them individually with gesso. Each then serves as an experimental painting. It's a great way to work out a composition or play with a technique (key word being play, which I do not do enough of).

Here's the playing card.

I then started these pieces in acrylics.

I did the background and queen separately because I wasn't sure where I was going with it. (I had visions of adding things like strings of beads, or rhinestones!) It's not a large piece, just a bit larger than an 

8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper so I felt free to try something new. However, there has been rain in my area and my basement studio is no fun to work in with small puddles of water on the floor. So, I placed both photos  in Procreate where I took it to the digital version you see in the top photo.

When I started this post a couple of days ago, I went down to the studio to take a couple photos for you, and as I placed the queen over the background, she was tipped a little.

I like the dynamic of this! It looks like she's pulling the checkerboard pattern with her movement! Once the puddles clear, I might just get back to this one and see where it can take me. You know . . . play.