Looking Glass Copies comparison

Okay, so in my earlier post I explained about my self given challenge to copy all of the Tenniel illustrations of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. I said that from now on I plan to concentrate on finishing all of the illustrations from Wonderland first, but I have already produced fifteen from Looking Glass. So here they are alongside the originals – they’re on the left and mine are on the right, as if you couldn’t tell.

Now, I personally generally prefer Tenniel’s illustrations from Looking Glass to those from Wonderland. They are generally a bit darker and I don’t just mean physically but also figuratively as well. With reference to the tone, as with the Wonderland copies you can see that mine are notably lighter than the originals. I am glad that the Jabberwocky illustration does at least stand up to comparison with the original. The original is a strong candidate for my favourite Tenniel illustration of all.

The sepia toned copy at the top of these next four is not a copy of mine that I’ve ever rated, so it’s quite pleasing to see that it does at least bear some comparison with the original. I’m pretty pleased with the accuracy of the bottom two as well.

The wool and water copy at the top of these next four is one copy that I really don’t rate at all. The proportions aren’t right, but a lot of it is due to the fact that areas of it just aren’t dark enough. Looking at the bottom one as well, the shape of Humpty’s head in my copy isn’t right, it’s too, well, not exactly pointed but the curve isn’t right, it’s too steep. Humpty on the wall in the picture above it though is not badly done at all.

Not a bad little set here. In fact I’d say the only one where there are serious issues with proportion is the bottom one, Queen Alice. Alice is just too tall. It’s ironic really since this is possibly the most decent job I’ve done with Alice’s profile.

Again, it’s just really a question of the darkness of the original compared with my copy here.