The Giraffe's Mistake

And now, for a slightly more adequate upload, but of an older painting... so again, my apologies!

I did this back in... October of 07, I think... but I could be wrong, of course. Either way, I did this in gouache, the much misunderstood and wrongfully despised medium that has eluded more than a handful of artists during its existence...
Also referred to at times as "opaque watercolor," gouache is unique in its properties: It creates opaque, matte finishes as well as delicate washes, it can be easily blended due to its ability to reconstitute: Thus, if water is added (a faintly damp brush will do just fine) it will become wet and workable again. This same aspect is its greatest flaw: if is exposed to water in any way accidental, it WILL speckle and spot, and that is just unpleasant. A very fragile medium....

Gouache enables artists to work in a variety of interesting ways, you can do bold, flat shapes of color and create something very graphic, or you can render and layer, as I did here. Be careful if you are rendering, as you can sometimes disturb the bottom layers and muddy the colors. It helps if you are light handed.

So that is just a little bit about gouache. I love it!

This piece was an illustration for my children's book class on the topic "dancing giraffes"... I tried to make it unique by taking on the idea of a young boy teaching his "pet" how to breakdance! The result, as you can see, was rather tragic! The boy can't seem to understand why such an amazing plan went awry, and also he seems slightly worried at what may happen once the giraffe untangles himself! The giraffe, on the other hand, looks nothing short of annoyed and undignified, and probably won't be speaking with the boy for a while until he regains his pride!

What do you all think? Comments and critiques are more than welcome!

Gouache on hot press Illustration board
Art (C) April Schumacher