EDITOR’S NOTE: Samuel Araya previously explored his process for illustrating The King in Yellow in “The Darkening of Materials,” “No Mask,” “But Stranger Still,” “The Tatters of the King,” and “Aldeberan and the Yellow Sign.”
My King in Yellow series was born in a twist of serendipity. I was fascinated by the work of Gary Kelley and @georgepratt with their monotypes, not to mention the incredible paintings of @vanessalemen and @rickberrystudio. But at the time, I didn’t have access to a press, and the studio space was not optimal for oil painting. So I decided to coat some very thick watercolor paper with titanium white oil and work with ink over it to emulate both techniques.
You stain the surface with ink. Because the surface is too slick, it takes a while for the ink to settle. Meanwhile, you can play around with shapes and what you see on the surface. Add water and alcohol, and drag materials to create abstract marks and see what they suggest. I painted the whole royal dynasty of Carcosa this way.
In another strike of serendipity, I interpreted the book mainly through the symbology of alchemy. The magnum opus of the alchemist contains nigredo (the blackening of materials) and, subsequently, albedo (the whitening of materials). They are a perfect metaphor for this process of painting from darkness to light, all done chasing the elusive gold of the tatters of the King….
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Samuel Araya
Ascencion, 2018
