A chevron knife painting in progress

This is a multi-step painting that includes: 1.) making a stencil from scratch and, because it is a pair of paintings, a second, inverted stencil, 2.) knife painting in ombré gradation, and finally 3.) brush painting.

Here is a look at the finished gray and yellow piece:



Here is a close-up view under warm lighting:
















Some close-up views under cool lighting:

Originally, I used a dark umber for the blue and brown painting (as shows in the first painting below.) The photos show two alternate ways of hanging the piece so the designs align (although they could also hang separately instead.):

I changed the brown to lighten it a medium value and glazed over the lighter blues to deepen them slightly and to match the variegated look in the yellow piece:

 

This is how the pictures look next to each other now.  This photo best captures the current brown and current blues.

The next steps will be:
1. Choose whether to keep the brown as is.
2. Find out whether any of the knife painted colors need to be altered (this is still possible with tape and a second layer of knife painting.
3. Choose edge colors. Currently, the brown has a dark brown edge and the gray has a gray edge, but both could be painted black.

Here is another piece I did recently in the same style, but with a slightly altered composition and lighter blues: