New Work - Knight's Advantage

This one has been in the works for a long time!  Originally, it was done intended to be part of a mural project, which is why the original was painted as it was.  A year or two later, I decided the painting had enough going for it to try and turn it into a better painting...which meant it would have to be completely repainted.  The original composition was very cramped with all the figures touching or running off the edges of the panel, a fault that could not be fixed without starting all over from scratch with a larger board...but, I didn't want to start all over with it...just wanted to make it better with what I had.  My solution, was to glue a linen liner to the panel that would add 2" all around, and, then paint the liner as if it was part of the original painting, thus adding a little more breathing space around the composition.  See how it was done in this work-in-progress thread from Wet Canvas.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=925512

and here is the final painting;

...and some detail pics