ARC September

Welcome to the September meeting of ARC, the Artful Readers Club.

I am still reading my august book that I didn't get finished last month, it's very slow to get into. part of me wants to give up on it, but i am loathe to let it beat me.

So time marched on and I found myself with only a few days left, book not read and artwork not done.

So I went for a rummage in our bookcase, looking for a super thin book. Recently my son sorted out lots of his book, taking most of them to where he lives, getting rid of some, and the rest went into our main bookcase. This included some of his childhood ones that he didn't want to take, but didn't want to get rid of. Most I haven't read, a lot I hadn't heard of, and don't remember buying them for him lol

When it came to the Roald Dahl section I almost didn't look at them, as I had read a lot of Roald Dahl when I was young, and presumed that I would have already read all of them. As I scanned the shelf, I noticed this one...I hadn't read it...given that it has a giraffe in the title, and my love of giraffes, I was quite surprised to learn we had a giraffe book in the house that I hadn't read... So that decided it.

The Giraffe,and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl.

First off, I read this book in 20minutes. now that is what I call a quick read. There are only 79 pages, big type, lots of illustrations.

The book is illustrated by Quentin Blake. he illustrated many of Roald Dahl books. I am wholly undecided as to whether I like his style of illustration, it is very loose...I love that, but in some scenes it appears to be a scribble and that annoys me.

If you would like to see Quentin at work in his studio follow  THIS LINK... (Thanks Carmen)


So back to the book. I was truly shocked to find out this book was published in 1985. if I had been asked, I would have said it was from the 50's. The book has a very outdated feel to it. I could not imagine a child enjoying this book now. Having said that, this book is aimed at a very early age range, for kids that have only just developed fluent reading. I think as a book to share, with an adult reading perhaps this could still be a good book. it is so hard to give a definite impression of the book. part of me thinks I would never buy this for a kid now...on the other hand, it feels like a a good old fashioned kids book, that is easy and happy and safe! Quite unlike more modern books that are aimed at kids.

Did I enjoy the book..hmm, well not really, but then I wasn't expecting to. It took 20minutes, there was no real depth to the story...but..it was well structured, a beginning, middle and happy ending. I guess you can't really ask for much more. The illustrations, while very loose, do convey a lot of movement and emotion. Thinking about it now, I suppose these very informal pictures are great for kids as they allow your own imagination to fill in the blanks.

So to my page. Now you would think from such a short book, that I would have had trouble finding inspiration for my page. Quite the opposite, I had lots of ideas and decided to simply use them all!!!

I wanted it to have an old fashioned,easy feel to it.

So i started with a stencil of time..

To this I added a wash with Fresco paint, and some clouds to which I added Pearl glaze...

next I added cherry trees, again with Fresco paint..

in the book the giraffe likes to eat the flowers of the tinkle,tinkle tree....I kid you not....So i added pink and purple flowers using coloured grunge paste..

Then I loosely painted in the rooftop of a large house..

and this is the background finished..I love this, it feels like a quaint old English village. I added dots of paint and Treasure Gold to the flowers. 

Now to add some details..

cops n robbers...

an airplane dropping sweeties..

Then I drew the focal images onto smooth card and coloured them with promarkers...

a 'for sail/soled' sign, a bath, a boy, a pelican, some fish, a birdcage(stamped) and a sewing machine(stamped)

and more..

a staircase, a red door, a bag of sweeties, a monkey, a four poster bed, a giraffe

then I needed to have it all joined, so I added in some linked chain around everything..

and the other half..

The way I have laid out my images does not reflect the story at all lol but all the items are mentioned in the book. 

Here is the finished page.. 

Here is where you link up, if you are playing along with ARC, add your link.