NEW PAINTING FOR CCAF

I'm working a piece for the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, for me it's a big one, it is about 30 x 42 or so. Here are steps so far. Using old paper can be difficult because it has a tendency to lift under the tape no matter how carefully you peel. I try and cover parts of it with gel medium but I do like some paper not coated because the resulting paint effects is an aged look. Also keeping the glazes thin enough to see the collage under yet convey form is also a challenge for me because I get all caught up in painting and forget to keep it transparent. I am trying Frog Tape, well, because, I just love the logo and I want to compare with the blue painters tape. So far I've noticed that the Frog Tape doesn't seem to lift the paper as much as the blue tape does.

when I first start I glue down my collage as you can see there are two old maps and what you can't see is a piece of accounting paper the rows of numbers have ended up in the clouds

here I've laid in a bit of color to indicate water but without really making it a focus most everything in the center of the painting will eventually have a bear sitting over the top of it and I want to be really careful with my glazes

this one is out of order this is the top of the wall going in

top is done except for detail work getting ready to do the front