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Giraffes

17" x 11", watercolour, 1997, private collection

I think this dates back to early 1997 and is based on a magazine photo; I did –and still– have my own photos of giraffes from the Melbourne (or is it Sydney?) Zoo in Australia, but decided to use this because of the cuteness.

The negative areas between the brown "cells" of the giraffes' patterns were just carefully painted around and left alone rather than made with frisket or any other masking medium. I have tried it a few times and, who knows, maybe I'll use it again in the future, but I prefer to practice precision, fixing any accidents later with white ink or scraping it with blades.


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