Well, I’d Sooner Forget, But I Remember Those Nights

Today’s painting is inspired by the graphic novels of Chris Ware. Chris’s books are like well directed films. He can say so much with establishing shots or quick cuts to the snow outside the window or a page of panels that are similar but different with slight changes in colour or with a bird looking in a different direction or just disappearing.

I went for six panels of giraffes, as identical as possible except for their varying heights and the directions they face in. There’s a story in there but I don’t know what it is. The viewer is challenged to;

• decide the genders of both giraffes
• come up with a reason for the giraffe on the left arriving
• and a reason for it leaving
• come up with a reason for the way the giraffes’ heights keep changing
• decide which giraffe’s viewpoint to tell the story from
• decide whether each giraffe’s happiness goes up or down or stays static during the story

Then they’ll have an interpretation of this painting. And there are countless ways to interpret it.

Colour-wise, there’s only French ultramarine, quinacrinone magenta and transparent yellow. I measured up, then masked out the gaps between the six panels with tape. I painted in six skies, sunrise in the first, sunset in the last and daytime French ultramarine in the other four. I made a couple of giraffe stencils so that the giraffes could be as identical as possible from panel to panel, then used these to paint in the giraffes with a dark colour mixed from the three primaries. Once everything was dry, I peeled off all the tape and drew in the panel borders with a fineliner. And that was me done.

It’s not bad, this one. I have managed to come up with something that tells everyone a different story, which was the main objective. The variety of skies is also good and gives a sense of time passing. The giraffes are a bit messier than I’d have liked and not as identical as I’d hoped they’d be, but that’s stencils for you. And I think, if I was doing this again, I’d make the differences wider between the three heights I’ve used, just to make things clearer. This one’s up for sale, with the price to be found here.